Summer Placements 2005 at FMS, Delhi University saw corporate citizens vying with each other for inducting the crème de la crème of the management students in India into their summer internship programmes. Summer Internship, an integral part of any full-time MBA programme, is designed to provide MBA students an opportunity to put their learning into practice, thereby enabling companies to use quality future-managers for real-life short-term assignments. As the oldest B School in India, FMS Placements has always been an affirmation of the faith of the corporate world in the ability and quality of the FMS students. This glorious trend continued in summer placements this year too, which was yet another proof of the agility and 'on-the-move' attitude of FMS. The array of International offers, Investment Bankers, IT majors, marketing honchos etc. was a representation of the fact that FMS has indeed forayed into the next-level which catapults it into the league of Top Business schools in the world.

MBA (Full Time)

Though the FMCGs and Banks were in full attendance as usual on FMS campus, top notch tech companies and new financial services companies made a favorable impression on the FMS student community.

Microsoft (India) which visited campus for the first time made 5 offers ranging from ERP to Sales & Marketing reaffirming the status of FMS as the best marketing campus in India.

Lucent Technologies, the leading telecommunications and network integrator which short listed campuses to visit this year based on the performance in the national level competition INSIGNIA-2005 which was won by FMS, made 6 offers varying from operations to Sales & Marketing.

Goldman Sachs Services visited FMS for the first time for its financial services division FMCG (26%) and Financial Services (27%) were the most popular sectors and IT/ITES and Consulting companies lapped up another 20% of the students.

FMS is traditionally known as a strong recruiting ground for FMCG majors and the regular recruiters were in full attendance to enlist the young talent. The FMCGs were well represented by the doyens of the industry like Asian Paints, Cadbury's, Colgate-Palmolive, Dabur, Glaxo-SmithKline, HLL, ITC, Nestle, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and Reckitt - Benckiser.

The Financial services sector and Banks led the pack as the recruiter of choice and the highest number of offers was made from this sector. This is a clear indication of the bright future of this vertical with so many international companies making their presence felt in India both to recruit talent for their global operations and to start their operations in India. The major recruiters included Bank of America, Citibank, Edelweiss Capital, GE Money, HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank

The summer placements this year also saw TAS forging stronger bonds with the FMS Campus through an International Offer. The emerging sectors of the economy were represented by firms like American Express, Castrol, E-Serve, ICICI Prudential, Indian Hotels, Jones Lang LaSalle, Max New York Life and Positron Consulting.

Even though the students were only a few months into their MBA programme, quite a few of them had a particular functional area they were keen on interning in, like Marketing or Finance and were thoroughly delighted on getting the companies of their choice. Abhishek Desai, who accepted an offer from Procter & Gamble, says, "I am thrilled to get an opportunity as a marketing intern at a renowned firm like Procter & Gamble. It is like a dream coming true in FMS, which is known for the best marketing brains in India. I already have an inclination towards marketing; I am sure this is going to be a great learning experience."

Saibal Bhattacharjee, who was picked up by Microsoft (India) said, "Landing a Techno-Marketing Summer Project with Microsoft would be a dream-come true for any MBA student with substantial IT work-experience. I am really excited about a chance to work with Microsoft's all-new ERP-CRM product NAVISION 4.0 (targeted at the Indian SME Sector) and am eagerly looking forward to the summer stint."

Prof.Madhu Vij, The placement advisor of MBA(F.T.) commenting on the success of summer placement 2005 said, "Once again it has been proved that FMS students put forward a range of expertises suited for the industry and is backed by the committment and dedication of faculty who has been in constant touch with the changing needs in the economy ."

MBA (Management of Services)

The newly launched MBA (Management of Services) two year full-time programme at FMS received a very warm and positive response from the Industry. The placement season this year saw some of the best names in the service industry showing avid interest in the refreshingly new programme and its enthusiastic participants. The students chose sectors such as Consulting, IT, Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare & Hospitality for their summer internship projects. Some of the prominent recruiters from these sectors were GE, WIPRO, UTI Bank, Genpact, Max New York Life, ICICI Prudential, Aviva, Shoppers Stop, Escorts Healthcare, Apollo Lifestyle and Healthcare, Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (Taj Group of Hotels) and Positron Consulting.

Keeping with the Entrepreneurial spirit that that FMS students are known for, MBA (MS) - the one-of-its-kind programme offering of FMS- programme participants too were seen favouring some of the emerging MBA favourites from the service industry such as The Smartcube, Rocsearch and American Express Financial Services.

Sandeep Mishra a first year MBA (MS) student who made it to the Financial Management Programme of GE said "It is very exciting to be recruited by GE for their premier global leadership program in finance, FMP. The field of corporate finance has always interested me and I see FMP as a tremendous starting point for a challenging and rewarding career in finance".

Mr. Arun Dutta, Head (HR), Escorts Healthcare had the following comments on the MBA (Management of Services) programme by FMS - "How I wish somebody had started a course like this in services 2-3 decades back! It is going to fulfill a long standing need of trained managers who are required in the managed health care delivery business".

The Final Comments

FMS prides itself in giving students companies from varied fields to choose from, thereby leaving maximum options open for the students, and with a great potential for peer-to-peer learning after the summers. Prof..Jay K Mitra , Convener of FMS Placements, said, "The ever-growing satisfied customer of FMS products continue confiding in us and keep giving our bright enthusiastic participants challenging opportunities to put to test their knowledge in solving real problems. The beauty of our summer placement process lies in the delicate blend of variety of companies and the diversity of projects. The overall profile is so well-balanced that it always delights a discerning recruiter finding suitable talents, and the students too feel good to find companies and projects of their choice"

Recruiters were in full appreciation for the efforts put in by the second year students who managed the entirely revamped summer placement process and expressed satisfaction about the smooth conduct of the process.