Rocking start: XLRI in Jamshedpur

While bricks of Wall Street haven’t steadied as yet, summer placements for 2014 at XLRI-Jamshedpur, with a cent per cent score in three-and-a-half days, are giving B-school and industry watchers some hope.

Starting from October 22, the four-day summer placement ended before the fourth day, October 25, was fully over.

Of the first-year batch of 305 students, 184 in business management and 121 in human resource management, national and international recruiters snapped up 303. Two students had already opted out of the summer placement, as they wanted to start their own businesses.

Compared to last year, which had 282 offers from around 70 headhunters, this year, for summer placements of 2014, 336 proposals were made by 105 companies.

With 303 students in the running, it meant a happy situation of more jobs than candidates. Top five recruiters in terms of numbers were Vodafone, Microsoft, ITC, TAS and Standard Chartered Bank.

“We are overwhelmed with our summer placements and I congratulate all our first-year students. This is an affirmation of the high academic standards that we pursue that even during an economic slowdown, our students are sought after by firms across industry sectors,” said Father E. Abraham, director, XLRI.

“At XLRI, we keep individual summer placement stipends confidential,” said Sunil Verghese, XLRI’s chief of brand and sustainability. “But the kind of trust companies have placed in our first-year students reflects on our global benchmarks. This positive endorsement does wonders for the confidence of students.”

XLRI insiders added that highest stipends came from the consulting domain.

While demand for human resources and marketing recruits remained strong, the number of offers for finance undergraduates saw a steep 33 per cent rise.

Sreetam Subrankar, a second-year human resource management student, who’s a member in the placement committee, said the “first-year junta were jubilant”.

“Summer placements are always special. For the first time, you get a taste of what it feels like to be a manager. You get hands-on experience in the real sense, you see how an organisation works. It’s also a great opportunity to network and impress potential bosses. Many get pre-placement offers as well,” Sreetam said.

The best part, according to Sreetam, is “self-discovery”.

“You learn how to put the theories you have learnt in practice, juggle them with common sense and industry needs, see what you are good at and where you need to improve. Some people are good at dealing with people, some at number crunching, some at multi-tasking, some at pushing deadlines,” he said.

In fact, it’s a personal SWOT analysis before the biggie — second-year placements.

What was your summer internship takeaway? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com