Placement Season hotting up on IIM-A

Over the last two days there have been articles in Business standard and on the net about the impending placement season for the PGPX Pioneers. Well, although we don't get many sound bites from IIM-A itself, media seems to have anticipated the stakes, potential and general public interest IIM-A's latest offering has.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu7&subLeft=8&autono=269342&tab=r

http://www.business-standard.com/opinionanalysis/storypage.php?leftnm=4&subLeft=2&chklogin=N&autono=269405&tab=r

http://datelinebombay.blogspot.com/

It seems after reading these articles, that some people perceive PGPX to be in direct competition to ISB's one year programme. More so, in the light of IIM-A launching PGPX after ISB's success in India.

In my opinion, both programmes target international applicants and seek global reputation thru' their respective programmes. However, the difference is that the inputs (applicant age, WE etc) and course content & design (PGPX is more rigorous than ISB's PGP, going by contact hours )are very different. Also, while ISB still has predominantly people with around 4-5 years WE, PGPX has students with around 10 years WE. Talent at both schools is bound to be good, as both schools draw from a wide pool of good applicants and have rigorous selection criteria. However the difference is that students are looking for lateral jobs and recruiters are happy to value and reward the pre-MBA WE. Here is where the kind of jobs PGPX students might get could be different from those the PGP students at ISB & IIMs might get. I am sure this hypothesis will get validated in next couple of weeks.

I have been chatting with my prospective class mates and most of us share similar thoughts on placements. The incoming average salary of PGPX pioneers is around Rs.17 lakhs and my guess for our batch is that it could be very similar. Most of us do get calls from head hunters once in a while and with some effort we can make a job change, leading to a growing rem trajectory. And all this WITHOUT an MBA. Further, most of us are star performers in our current organisations and are NOT seeking MBA as a recourse to anything else. The question then is, why are we doing an MBA?

1. Although there could be exceptions, many of us are NOT looking for career switches. As for myself, I definitely want to stick to ops and then may be get into general management, for a simple reason. I would like to leverage my core competencies / strengths to my advantage in a vibrant market. I know of IT consultants in my batch who share similar thoughts like mine.
2. Most of us realise a good B school will provide reasonable opportunities. How we use them and subsequently perform in our roles/ jobs is dependent on our mettle. Hence fretting too much on rem package at campus may not be great idea ! We know it can't get worse than what it is now !
3. More importantly the concepts learnt, the bonds forged, the networks developed etc would be far most value adding and help us in the long term.
4. We have not been in touch with academics for some years now. The one year grind is going to develop a strong conceptual orientation for sure. I know senior people in my organisation who are good because they have an ability to get comfortable with hard core stuff like statistical probability with a bright young employee and yet not loose sight of the macro picture. In fact the ability to skim through the detail using the concepts and link them with the big picture is what some of these people are good at. I am looking forward to develop some of these skills during the next one year.
5. Finally, in a growing economy like ours, which is where most of want to belong, if the focus is on building competencies and skills, appropriate valuations will automatically happen. That should set the agenda for us.

I wish the pioneering batch all the very best for placements and their future endeavours.