The Hindu : National : 10 IIM(A) graduates spurn overseas offers

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Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

National

National

10 IIM(A) graduates spurn overseas offers

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD, MARCH 22. Ten fresh graduates from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, this year rejected offers from foreign companies and foreign postings in preference to taking up jobs in India.

Kanishka Raja, who was offered a job in Singapore by a global major consulting firm, Bain and company, at a salary of 90,000 dollars, preferred a job in a Mumbai-based company that will give him only about Rs. 14 lakhs a year.

The reason? ``India, I feel, has a brighter future and is a better job destination,'' he said. Mr. Raja, who hails from Lucknow, said he had no family constraints to take up a foreign posting, ``but it is better, I thought, to take up a more challenging job in the country than going abroad. Money cannot be the only consideration, job profile is more important.''

Then there were pass-outs such as Sharad Chandra and Pravin Yela, both from Hyderabad, with chemical and aeronautics engineering background respectively, who did not accept any job, aiming to start their own partnership consultation firms to help out small-scale industries in the country having less than Rs. 10 crore turnover and cannot afford to hire management experts. ``A bit of both,'' was the reply when asked if they were guided by sentiments to serve society or feel consulting firms would fetch them better monetary returns than accepting a job in a company. ``We want to become employers rather than employees,'' they said.

The just-concluded campus interviews for job placements at the IIM, Ahmedabad, which this year turned out to be the largest batch among all the IIMs in the country with 250 students, an increase by 49 per cent, also saw an increase by 40 per cent in the number of companies whose offers were accepted, up from 54 last year to 76 this year. All the 247 students, barring three who opted out of jobs, were placed on jobs, including 71 securing jobs overseas that included 18 in the United Kingdom, 15 in the United States and 12 in Singapore, according to the IIMA director, Bakul Dholakia, here today. The number of companies offering overseas jobs also increased from 13 last year to 21 this year.

Salary up

The average domestic salary increased by 12 per cent from Rs. 7.08 lakhs to Rs. 7.90 lakhs this year while the maximum salary offered to one candidate was Rs. 14.5 lakhs.

Among the overseas jobs, the average salary offered was 80,000 dollars but the highest offered was by an investment banking at 1.52 lakh dollars, Mr. Dholakia said.

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