It's raining money at the IIMs!

Excerpts from What's Hot on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

Gaurav Dagaonkar passed out of IIM last year and instead of dancing to his employer's tune he decided to sing his own song. He opted out of placements to become a full time singer. A year later, he's giving the same advice to his juniors. Dagaonkar says, "It is essential for a person to start off as early as possible, So, that within two years you start networking with the right kind of people - you have people in place and you become confident."

But everyone doesn't seem to agree. Ram Ganesh Aiyer passed out of IIM-A in 2004 but instead of starting off on his own, he worked for a consultancy firm for two years before starting off on his own and he recommends the same for his juniors. He explains, "It is good idea for students to have corporate exposure before starting on their own. Some reasons being, it helps to get more experience in the real world as against case studies that we do in these schools."

JOB ACCEPTANCE IN IIM-A

Finance -     44% Consulting - 30% Marketing -  8% Operations - 5% IT -                 4% Strategy -     3% Others -        6%

A recent trend suggests that the number of IIM graduates daring to start their own ventures is on a rise. While eight students opted out of placements from IIM-A last year, it's still early in the process. Sources say more than two dozen students presented their business ideas to venture capitalists last month. With an entrepreurial fair, that was organized on campus for the first time, IIM-A is also encouraging students by allowing their former students (who have passed out over two years ago only) to participate in their placements. The trend is catching up in other IIMs as well.

So, does money make the world go round? Well, IIM graduates this year proved otherwise. In an unprecedented trend, IIM students are turning down offers worth crores of rupees. To talk about the IIM placement quirks, here's what Debashish Chakravarty from IIM-Ahmedabad has to say. Debashish turned down a jaw-dropping one crore offer and plans to start a lingerie business. Also, discussing this issue of why IIM graduates are not tempted by hefty offers are IIM-Bangalore Professor Saurav Mukherjee and Partner at an human resources firm, Redilion, Vikram Bhardwaj.

Excerpts from an interview given to CNBC-TV18

Q: What was your motivation to opt out of placements and become an entrepreneur?

Chakravarty: I have neither been an entrepreneur nor worked in the corporate world. I was a major in the Indian army before joining this institute and coming here and learning a lot about management. I thought the most challenging future I could ever have was entrepreneurship - ie. building something of my own and getting a job wasn't such an exciting idea but building a company, hiring people, doing something fruitful, I thought this was much more challenging and interesting, that is why I opted out of placements.

Q: Are we seeing a similar trend in Bangalore?

Mukherji: Last year, we had one student who decided to take the plunge but this year none of students as far as I know have walked out of placement, to have a start up of their own. So, I haven't seen it as a trend in IIM-Bangalore and if anyone asks for my advice on choice - whether to start up their own company versus going through the placement process, and especially if the student is a fresher or relatively low in experience - then I would advice them to go and join an industry first, build up their network and gain experience and then be an entrepreneur.

Q: You have been helping people to get into the corporate world, is it a pipe dream to become an entrepreneur immediately, or would you advice taking up a job?

Bhardwaj: The aspirants from MBA institutes are realizing that despite high salaries, they are the first ones to be laid off if the environment changes in high volatile businesses like i-banking, and so they don't mind setting this aside as a trade-off, against working independently.

Q: IIM -Ahmedabad has promised this year that entrepreneurs like you, who for some reason, if your business doesn't take off as expected in two years time, then you can once again opt for the placement process and join your juniors?

Chakravarty: Yes, it is a good offer that the institute has come up with and it does offer reassurance to a candidate, who is still on edge, deciding on entrepreneurship and taking up a job. Right now, in our batch, we have 11 students including freshers who are going into entrepreneurship and that is nearly 5% of the batch, and it is a strong rising trend.

NEW RECRUITERS AT IIM-C

ING Optiver CIC International Bain & Co Value Partner (IIM-C: Highest international salary offered in 2006: $1,52,000)

Q: How hard is it for people to get the cream of the talent from these campuses?

Bhardwaj: It is getting harder by the day and Indian companies cannot even match the deep pockets, which global firms have and increasingly these MBA hirings are driven at a global level. So, they don't mind paying a slight premium over what a Wharton MBA would get to an IIM graduate.

It's not only the paypackets grabbed by IIM graduates that's increasing but also their entrepreneurial spirit. The placement process is not yet over but experts say that the number of students who opted out of placements to start off on their own, will definitely be the highest this year than ever before.

FLOCKING TO IIM-B
- 90 firms participated
- Consultancies comprise 32%
- Non-bank finance firms comprise 32%
- Marketing firms comprise 14%
- Overseas offers made: 60
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- Arcelor Mittal offers 2 GM posts in Trinidad