Industry laps up XLRI GMP batch

Industry laps up XLRI GMP batch

STATE BUREAU

Posted online: Monday, March 26, 2007 at 0216 hours IST

JAMSHEDPUR, MAR 25 : On-campus placements for the recently concluded XLRI general management programme (GMP) 2007 were witness to plum packages like an international offer of $1,00,000 made by an IT sector company. The highest domestic offer being a whopping Rs 35 lakh made by an RPG Group company, while the average annual salary of the batch worked out to Rs 15 lakh.

Jobs on offer were senior-level roles like head strategy, DGM finance, projects, and advisor investment banking, etc. Around 26 companies made 106 job offers to the 49 GMP students.

It was the first formal placement for GMP, a one-year course for managerial candidates with more than 3 years' industry experience, since its inception in 1997.

The information technology (IT & ITeS) sector lapped up 35% of the students, financial sector 30%, manufacturing 15%, telecom 10%, with the balance 10% picked up by consulting firms.

Companies like the ADAG Group, Atos Origin, Cognizant, Feedback Ventures, Godrej Consumer, ICICI, ICRA Management Consulting, Jindal Steel & Power, L&T, Mindtree Consulting, RPG Group, SBI Caps, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, among others, were the recruiters.

According to Fr N Casamir Raj, director, XLRI: "People coming to the course are with a minimum of five years' experience and the industry response towards recent GMP batches has been very good even at IIM Ahmedabad and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad."

Encouraged by the response, the B-school has planned to raise the eligibility criteria for the programme from the minimum three years' experience at present to five years', from next year.

It would also, from 2008, accept GMAT candidates above a certain score, apart from selecting candidates through its own XAT. The number of seats too is going to go up marginally from 55 to 60.