IIM placements: Microsoft offers top package at $214,600; Accenture biggest recruiter

With the placement season under way at the Indian Institutes of Management, technology giant Microsoft is set to offer the highest pay package among all recruiters. Citing sources across top IIMs, The Economic Times said the company is likely offer close to Rs1.39 crore per year for jobs at its Redmond headquarters.

The total $214,600 package would comprise $108,000 as base salary, $21,600 as performance bonus, $15,000 as joining bonus, and $70,000 in restricted stock units. Compared to last year's total package ($136,000) offered by the tech giant for jobs at Redmond, this amounts to a significant increase, added the report.

As reported by Bloomberg, Microsoft is planning a multibillion-dollar overhaul of its main campus in Redmond, Washington, adding space for 8,000 more workers.

Other reports said for a second year in a row, Accenture Strategy has been the top recruiter at IIM Ahmedabad's summer placements for the students of the postgraduate programme (PGP) in management - 19 offers were made compared to 16 offers to the previous batch. The recently-concluded summer placement saw students placed across more than 15 sectors and functions of their choice, according to an IIMA press release.

Most IIMs are set to commence their final placement process today, 1 December, with several major recruiters offering crore-plus annual salaries and many offers.

While not matching Microsoft's offer, other global majors are also ready to offer hefty remuneration. According to the ET report, Uber Technologies is offering a total package close to $155,000 (Rs99.87 lakh), albeit at a higher base salary ($110,000) than Microsoft, while Samsung Korea is ready to offer close to $150,000 (Rs96.8 lakh) and American cloud data management company Rubrik about $115,000 (Rs74 lakh).

At IIM Ahmedabad, firms were grouped into cohorts based on the profile offered and invited to the campus in 3 clusters. As in the previous years, students were allowed to submit "dream" applications to firms of their choice in a cluster even with an offer in hand. More than 120 students applied this year.

Among the global banks, Citibank made five offers. FinIQ was the top recruiter in the banking, financial services and insurance recruiters (BFSI) cohort, having made 10 offers. AB InBev recruited nine students and took the lead in the Consumer Goods cohort while the RPG Group was the top recruiter in the General Management cohort with 14 offers.

Amazon, with 12 offers, was the highest recruiter in the Retail B2B space, followed by Flipkart, while Microsoft was the leading recruiter in the Consumer Tech cohort with five offers.

Uber was the next biggest recruiter in this space. The Telangana government, which hired for the Industry & Commerce and ITE&C departments, also made five offers.

The placements also saw an active participation in the PE and VC domain this year with the likes of Kedaara Capital, Multiples Equity, Temasek and True North visiting the campus.

"This healthy mix of old and new recruiters provided space to our students to dream, for the first time, on four companies and finally select the one that matched their aptitude, skill set and competency," said Asha Kaul, chairperson of the placement committee, in the IIT-A release.

Apart from the top recruiters mentioned above, the various cohorts featured many prominent names. The management consulting segment included AT Kearney, Bain & Co., Deloitte USI, McKinsey & Co., Monitor Deloitte, Strategy& and The Boston Consulting Group while the investment banking and markets space saw participation from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

Other prominent recruiters in the BFSI cohort included American Express, Axis Bank, DBS Bank and the Reserve Bank of India, while sales and marketing roles were offered by regular recruiters like Airtel, HUL, Mondelez, P&G, Reckitt Benckiser, Star TV and Wipro, among others. The general management cohort saw participation from the Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Tata Administrative Services, among others.

Significantly, this year, 7 students opted out of the placement process to work on their own ventures under the mentorship of Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), which is two more than last year's batch.

Information technology (IT) and e-commerce majors – including Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Yahoo, Amazon, and Flipkart, among others – are set to raise the bar in recruitment and compensation packages this year in final placements at the IITs. While Apple will be recruiting for the first time from Indian campuses, including IITs, the like of Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, Goldman Sachs, and Nasdaq will also be making their presence felt.

Last year, placements had seen Oracle and Microsoft make the highest offers of $136,000 (or Rs 93 lakh at then rates) and $135,000 (Rs 92 lakh).

Apart from key recruiters such as Microsoft and Uber in the consumer technology cohort, the BFSI cohort comprised the likes of Axis Bank, DBS Bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and RBL Bank.