XLRI Summer Placements defy Economic Downturn

Financial Express (Nov 20, 08): Despite the gloom, the financial sector was the one to pick up the largest number of students from XLRI for summer 2009 internships here on Wednesday.

74 companies came to recruit for 2009, compared with 58 for 2008. This goes to show that the corporate sector still has a lot to offer.

Again, the highest stipend for international internship was offered by a Wall Street investment bank for its trading desk in Hong Kong — a package in excess of Rs 5 lakh for the 8-10 weeks’ internship period.

The highest domestic stipend stood at Rs 3 lakh, which also came from an investment bank at the Mumbai desk.

The 74 companies offered 214 internships (202 for 2008) at an average stipend of Rs 85,000 (Rs 48,000 for 2008) to the batch of 180 students.

While the number of companies willing to pay stipends over Rs 1 lakh was at 45, compared with 14 for 2008, the number of first-time recruiters was also higher at 32, compared with 12.

“The spectacular growth on all counts, i.e. internships, locations, stipends, etc in a year marked with various crises signifies the strength enjoyed by XLRI as the most preferred recruitment destination for all recruiters,” said Prof Rajiv Misra, chairperson, placement committee.

From XLRI’s 115 business management students available for summer 2009 internships, the financial sector picked up 41 (35.7%) candidates, marketing sector 31 (27%), general management 25 (21.7%) and consulting firms 18 (15.7%).

The B-school’s 63-odd personnel management & industrial relations (PM&IR) students too have been placed well, with Novartis offering unique HR roles in their leadership programme based out of Basel (Switzerland).

The Al Ghanim group offered HR roles in Kuwait with HUL, Procter & Gamble offering similar roles in there global offices in Singapore and other global locations and the Aditya Birla group offering internship positions at Atlanta (US).

The private equity and investment banking space saw the participation of JP Morgan Chase, which recruited for international desks as well.

Lazard, a first-time participant, recruited exclusively from XLRI for its Mumbai operations, with the Carlyle group, now the largest private equity player in the world, once again choosing the B-school as its exclusive domestic recruitment destination.

Edelweiss Capital, Allegro Advisors and SBI Capital represented the Indian investment banking industry.