India’s prime B-schools, together with Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), are betting on external coaches and counsellors to help students ace the placements at a time when the job market has turned unsure amid a slowing economic system, set to be exacerbated by a commerce warfare unleashed by US president Donald Trump.
These counsellors work carefully with students to help them perceive the job profile that will go well with them, whether or not they have the appropriate aptitude and angle for sure corporations, and if the compensation they count on is cheap and in sync with the market development, recruitment consultants and administration faculty officers stated.
“We offer one-on-one coaching to help students navigate their career paths with clarity and confidence. This includes personalized guidance on career transitions, strategic positioning, and aligning career choices with long-term professional goals,” stated Hardeep Singh, president- Right Management India, ManpowerGroup India.
Right Management gives outplacement, profession administration and chief improvement options.
Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, and a 20% obligation on China, prompting the retaliatory tariffs. He has additionally introduced reciprocal tariffs on all its buying and selling companions, together with India, from 2 April, sparking issues a couple of full-blown commerce warfare hurting the worldwide economic system.
Given the turbulence within the international economic system that impacts placements, Singh stated that students from the batch of 2025 want help with exploring new profession paths, switching industries or purposeful roles, pursuing entrepreneurial alternatives, or buying new expertise to improve their careers.
Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad is likely one of the B-schools that use the providers of Right Management and external coaches who help mood excessive expectations when the job market performs truant.
“When people come with significant work experience, they are often unsure where they want to go. We work with a reputed executive coaching agency for our one-year executive MBA course and are contemplating to extend similar services for the two-year MBA program as well,” Viswanath Pingali, chairperson, placements, IIM-A, advised Mint. In the one-year MBA course, the students have extra years of labor expertise whereas the two-year program have a mixture of students with each work expertise and people with out. “We have noted that aspirations are often mismatched,” Pingali stated, explaining the rationale behind the necessity for external help.
For occasion, the coaches clarify that if a scholar has work expertise within the banking sector, it’s simpler to search for a placement within the finance or associated sector. However, an analogous shift from one other profile like advertising and marketing to funding banking is tough. The students are assigned each bodily and digital coaches second semester onwards.
There are 5 semesters in a one-year program.
Indian School of Business (ISB) stated that the external coaches help students perceive “the shifting needs of modern labour markets”. This 12 months, ISB examined Yoodli, an AI-powered communication platform, in serving to students “refine their ability to articulate ideas with clarity and confidence”.
“As part of the leadership development programme in the school, students work with external coaches to understand their motivations and biases to better influence actions and behaviour in group settings,” stated Sujatha Kumaraswamy, govt director – programmes, ISB.
Mint has learnt that IIM-Raipur additionally makes use of external consultants to prepare their students.
While a few of the B-schools are utilizing external consultants, IIM Kozhikode began a platform in 2024 known as CARE – Corporate Access, Readiness and Engagement to perceive the wants of the recruiters. The students, college members and employees visited 63 corporations up to now one 12 months. “This was also an opportunity to understand the current market scenario and the challenges faced by recruiters. Our aim was to invite more recruiters to visit and experience IIM Kozhikode in its entirety,” Roopak Kumar Gupta, CARE chairperson advised Mint.
The batch of 2025 has witnessed a greater placement season that the Batch of 2024 . Finance and consulting corporations that didn’t rent final 12 months with their typical gusto are again on the B-schools with a wholesome urge for food. The crore-plus salaries apart, a few of the administration faculties have seen the median salaries decide up whereas others noticed the variety of gives improve.
