Bangalore, March 16. COGNIZANT Technologies has been the biggest recruiter in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore’s (IIM-B) campus recruitment programme this year, notching up 24 of 180 students.

“They made 30 offers, but were accepted by 24 people and this is the first time that an IT company has made so many offers,” said sources in the institute. This year’s batch was snapped up in record time, according to the institute. In just two days, all the offers were made and accepted.

At the IIMs, ’slot one’ companies (chosen by the students) are given the first two days to conduct their placement process. This year, there were 14 companies that made 100 plus offers on day zero. These include Dresdner KW, Capital One, McKinsey Consultants, AT Kearney and British Petroleum. The ’slot two’ companies were P&G, HLL, ICICI, ABN Amro and Cognizant Technologies.

Officials, however, refused to reveal the average salary, as the details “are yet to be computed.”

In 1992, Vikram Achanta was briefly before the end of his MBA at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. After months of meetings, presentations by companies and fill the forms and waiting periods for short lists, Achanta took on the scene to interview Cadburys.

But how was the degree of stress, a nervous wreck. “I watched quite psyched if I entered,” said the entrepreneur 30-something.

“So Rajeev Bakshi (currently, MD, Pepsico, then India for the recruitment of Cadbury) asked me to relax and take a cup of tea.” Achanta still remember that the gesture of what he describes as one of the periods of stress in his life.

Thirteen years after the line, if Achanta were again IIMC, he finds that not much changed. The PPTs (pre-mediation talks), lists, Line-Up by GDS and interviews - the intense pressure.

During talks Achanta free - perhaps because he is an entrepreneur - most of the former refuse IIM, go to the minutes of their experiences. After the conversation with a cross-section (under the condition of anonymity) is what we found.

The process is begun with a number of pre-placement discussions - a selling point by companies to students about four months before the placement week. Students, then send your applications and you can expect short lists.

Finally, the placement during the week of companies fighting companies and students are fighting students to realize their desires. It is increasingly stressful and here, as there is always worse.

The coveted status One Day in 1990, is over. IIMC Day had a less during the year 2004, while IIMA offered 48-hour pitches from the first day “Zero Two.

Position the week is now divided into slots, so that the high priority day may be all the greater number of companies as possible, because everyone wants at this site, any day it really is .

Instead of three or four companies in the 1990’s, there are now 10-12 in the first slot and 30-odd in each of the following locations.

If a student met three or four interviews in one day today, it is common that seven to eight GDS and interviews will succeed one day.

Any emphasis on the placement of a cargo of 100, sometimes more than 200 in less than a week is an hour, asks his tribute to the students in the form of stress, and as regards companies which are not enough time for a candidate to be evaluated.

This is best illustrated by the fact that a very high percentage of students leave the offer acquires, by investing campus in the first year.

While nobody has an official record of such information, most HR and students agree that this trend is on the ground. In the case of a consultancy firm in India, rented eight-B-School graduates in the year 1999 for their office in New Delhi, almost all left within 18 months.

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) has pipped all other IIMs this year by bagging the highest domestic offer across all IIMs during lateral placements.

The institute beat its more illustrious counterpart, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to grab the top spot in the highest domestic salary offered during laterals.

The highest offer at Rs 16.2 lakh, made by a software major to an IIM-C grad, betters the offer made by Genpact to an IIM-A student at Rs 15.5 lakh. It is also the best-ever domestic offer in laterals.

In addition, international firms such as Johnson Electric, Microsoft, Mittal Steel and SAP International Consulting Group made 21 overseas offers this year, compared with just 14 last year.

The highest overseas offer this year is $85,000. The total offers made to IIM-C grads this year stand at 65 so far, compared with 90 last year. The institute hopes to bag more offers during the next few days. IIM-A and IIM-C have clubbed the Day zero of laterals with the Day zero of finals for the first time.

“Most of the Day zero recruiters for laterals and finals are the same, and to reduce their travel time, it was decided to club the two days into one,” a source told ET. With lateral placements drawing to a close, all eyes are fixed on the final placements which begin at IIM-A, B, C from the second week of March.