Banking, consulting firms sharpen appetite for B-school talent

Finance and consulting firms that did not hire with their usual gusto last year are back at Indian business schools with a healthy appetite. Median salaries have risen, along with the number of offers.

“There have been a few offers above one crore (rupees). These are mostly foreign firms, specifically in the finance domain,” said Viswanath Pingali, chairperson for placements at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). “This year, we saw a greater number of firms and more diverse roles.”

The college has already completed its placements for the batch of 2025, with Boston Consulting Group making the highest 35 offers, followed by Accenture Strategy at 30. Among the investment banks, Goldman Sachs was the largest recruiter with nine offers, followed by Avendus Capital at seven.

Consulting, banking, and advisory firms have always been the coveted recruiters at B-schools. But the global slump hurt hiring for the 2024 batch. This placement season, however, is proving to be better, suggesting that demand for talent in finance and consulting roles is rising again.

“We saw increasing offers from consulting and investment banking firms as markets are settling down, and there has been an increase in projects compared to last year,” IIM Indore said in an emailed response to Mint.

At IIM Lucknow (IIM L), a finance company offered the highest compensation of ₹75 lakh this year. While that’s still below the maximum of ₹1.23 crore last year, the average compensation for this batch rose to ₹32.3 lakh versus ₹30 lakh in 2024.

Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, EY Parthenon, Goldman Sachs, JPMC, Kearney, McKinsey & Company were some of the consulting and banking firms that have recruited from IIM Lucknow.

Offers from marquee companies

IIM Bangalore has so far received a record 640-plus offers from marquee companies for its 580 students in the current batch, according to data on its website.

Unlike the top engineering colleges like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), IIMs often hold their placements in cohorts or groups. This is especially true for the older of the 21 IIMs, including Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Calcutta. For instance, the first cluster of hiring could be by investment banks, the second by consumer goods firms, and so on.

Placements at the older IIMs typically begin in end-January and February, while the newer ones start the process the previous December.

Flush with cash after bumper exits in 2024, global private equity funds have also been looking to amp up their franchises in India. Firms such as General Atlantic have offered top salaries of more than ₹1 crore at the premier institutes. Even global banks have been looking to tap this talent for their international operations, with firms such as Bank of America offering close to a crore in compensation to IIM freshers, people aware of the development said.

Spokespersons for General Atlantic and Bank of America declined to comment.

“Hiring is visibly on the rise, with organizations expressing optimism about future market demands across major sectors with a significant increase of recruiters from new-age sectors,” said Roopak Kumar Gupta, chairperson for placements at IIM -Kozhikode. “The number of recruiters is anticipated to grow compared to the previous year.”