BANGALORE, FEB 28: An unprecedented compensation package in excess of Rs 10 lakh per annum was what was on offer this year to the best brains on the IIM-Bangalore campus, as Infosys led the way for a dozen high-profile IT majors in the business of grabbing talent for a price. For the prized graduates of this new millennium batch - 181 in all - it was bonanza time this weekend with annual salaries averaging Rs 5.5 lakh.The highest offer of 100,000 pounds in foreign currency, was however made by the London-based consultancy firm, Mitchell Madison Group (MMG, to Sourabh Singh, who was picked up while on an exchange programme at the London Business School. On campus too, MMG made the highest offer of 130,000 US dollars per annum.Chetan Solanki had to be among the lucky few picked up by MMG along with Vikas Choudhury, Sameer Gupta and Raja Sengupta. Joseph Pradyut Kujur has found himself a job with CitiBank. An average pay packet in excess of Rs 10 lakh per annum was the deal that the best of them got.The four-day campus recruitment, wrapped up in just two, saw an unrivalled 40 per cent increase over last year's pay packages, even as the brightest of the young business graduates went predictably to the high-paying IT sector. And stock options (ESOPs) naturally had to be the topping on the cake offered by six of the dozen IT companies that went head-hunting last weekend.Bangalore's own IT major Infosys led the pack. While about 59 students were recruited by the 12 IT companies, Infosys alone took 15 of them. Nevertheless, the presence of financial institutions in the race also meant that the premier ICICI still managed to walk away with the largest number of management graduates - 30 in all. Munish Gupta, one of the 30, says he got as much as Rs 1 lakh as a sign-on bonus alone!! Gupta who was anyway keen to join ICICI adds naturally that he is indeed ``Very happy with the offer''.Close on the heels of the job offers from the IT sector (Infosys, Deloitte and Touche, Exeter Group, Mind Tree Consulting, Planet Asia, Wipro) were foreign companies offering compensation in foreign currency - again the highest in recent years - as bait. And then there were the marketing companies (Hindustan Lever, Proctor and Gamble), financial institutions (J P Morgan, DSP Merill Lynch), consulting companies (McKinsey, Arthur Anderson), banks and engineering industries in that order.As an indication of the demand for IIM-B graduates - the whole recruitment exercise, which was originally meant to be spread over four days starting February 26, did not last beyond two. ``The annual placement exercise typically concludes by the fourth day. But, this time around, it did not last beyond the second day. This not only indicates the demand for our students but also the boom in the economy'', IIMB Placement Chairperson Rishikesh Krishnan said.And what's more, nearly 70 of the 120 companies that came scouting for talent had to return empty handed. This year's entire batch was picked up by just 48 companies, whereas earlier batches used to be spread across at least 65 to 70 companies.So what do these young professionals look for in a job? Nikesh Shah, who has been placed with Anderson Consultants in Mumbai says: ``Students look at both the job description and the pay packet. The reputation of the company and the posting are also factors that weigh in favour of a company.''
