his year IIM Ahmedabad changed its placement process, keeping in mind the large batch size that is expanding with every passing year. Other IIMs, like IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore, are also weighing their options on improving the placement process. Placements for all IIMs have always been a logistical challenge with so many students interviewing with multitudes of organisations in a very short span of time. This year, IIM-A chose to take the initiative by doing away with the traditional �day-based placement process and switching to one that is �cohort-based�. Though the verdict on the success of the new process is awaited, it is a welcome initiative by the premier management school to try a new approach that would possibly make life easy for both recruiters and students.
Placement time at IIM-A is pretty hectic, and that�s an understatement. To an external observer, it might seem like one big chaotic affair. Senior executives from India and abroad swoop in at Vastrapur, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, to recruit the next generation of managers. It is a veritable talent hunt. They come looking for bright young management graduates who, two years earlier, got the better of over 1,75,000 other students in a process called the Common Aptitude Test (CAT). CAT is a selection process that is meant to assess students� analytical skills through a written exam and their personality through a discussion within a group and a personal interview. As the IIMs carry out quite an elaborate process to select their students, it is only fair that they provide the same opportunity to the recruiters to select their future managers.
