IIM-A student gets Rs1.1 crore offer

AHMEDABAD: If the Indian job market is at its hottest this year, students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, are the veritable sizzlers. They have, yet again, created compensation records, with one of them bagging a Rs50 lakh package in India and another, a $250,000 (about Rs1.1 crore) international offer. These are the highest salaries ever offered to an Indian B-school post-graduate.

The offers mark the spectacular advent of IIM-A’s first batch of students completing the Post-Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX).

The domestic package has been offered to a student with over a decade of work experience, for the position of second-in-command of one of India’s largest corporate houses. The international offer is believed to have been made by an investment bank based on the US west coast. While the identities of the academic stars have been withheld for security reasons, an IIM-A source said both are under 35.

Mayank Srivastav, a member of the PGPX placement committee, said, “The domestic salary includes the base component and bonus, not employee stock options which are a part of almost every offer.”

Srivastav said the details of the international offer are being worked out.

Though the campus is abuzz with excitement over the offers, other participants are hoping to secure better numbers.

Reputable international B-schools insist on young managers with substantial work experience. IIM-A's PGPX is India's first and only programme to adopt such norms The average work experience of the batch is nine years, and the age, 32.

"Although these are the highest domestic and international salaries offered to Indian B-schools, the more significant aspect is that the designation and profiles offered match those extended to Harvard and Stanford students," Srivastav said. "This puts the value of Indian education at a par with the best in the world."

Last year, the highest domestic salary offered was Rs34 lakh, by the RPG Group, to an IIM-A PGP student who had nearly 20 years of work experience. The highest international salaries were offered by UK investment banks.

Sources said the highest salary believed to have been offered at Harvard to students with an average relevant work experience of 10 years is $280,000 (Rs1.23 crore) and the average, $130,000 (Rs57 lakh). The average offer for IIM-A's PGPX is $120,000 (Rs52 lakh).