'Cohort' Joins IIM-A Placement Jargon

There will no longer be a 'day zero' at IIM-Ahmedabad, when top firms come calling to recruit some of the brightest young management graduates. India's top B-School has decided to change its recruitment process from a day-based system to a 'cohort-based' system spread across one to two months. The system will go live from the coming final placement season, which begins from the second week of February 2010.

The new process essentially means placements would now be conducted over continuous weekends called cohorts. Each cohort would host firms offering similar roles and opportunities. The sequence in which the cohorts would be invited to the campus would be as per the batch preference. "The move aims at a better matchmaking process, ensuring a better fit between the students and the firms," says Professor Saral Mukherjee, Faculty Chairman, IIM-A placements.

IIM-A expects the new system to provide a better platform for interaction between recruiters and students. According to an IIM-A spokesperson, the day process led to unnecessary pressure on firms to make offers early and on students to accept the offers on the spot. The cohort-based system is expected to ease the pressure on both recruiters and students.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Process to take 1-2 months instead of 6-7 days
• Firms to forms groups (cohorts) based on role similarity
• Different clusters of cohorts to come for 2 days on campus
• Up to 5 days rest between cohorts for candidates to recuperate