IIM-A partners with LinkedIn to support its alumni

AHMEDABAD: In 2008, two Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad grads hit what seemed to be bull's eye - investment banking jobs with Lehman Brothers. But within months, the once-renowned investment bank had collapsed and the top-notchers found themselves without a job. Desperate calls to their alma mater for an alternative placement proved to be of little help. The institute could do little because there was no mechanism to support the alumni.

Four years later in an effort to make amends IIM-A has joined hands with professional networking site LinkedIn to keep placement channels open with recruiters even after students graduate. The arrangement is a first for LinkedIn.
"After the Lehman episode, we started thinking about creating an infrastructure to help our alumni find better career options," said Saral Mukherjee, former chairperson of IIM-A placement committee and member of alumni and external relations committee of IIM-A. With a formal agreement now in place between IIM-A and LinkedIn, recruiters can now go through alumni profiles for hiring at middle and senior levels. Headhunters, too, will get an invite to join the LinkedIn group. "We will remain selective. We believe the hiring process will change with technology as one can now track a person's career growth better," Mukherjee added.

Vijaya Sherry Chand, dean (alumni and external relations) at IIM-A says that globally, recruiters have never been part of any B-school alumni group. "We will verify members before allowing them to be part of the group, thus authenticating the profiles," says Sherry Chand. The institute will send email invitations to its alumni for joining the network.

The 50-year-old institute ranked 10th in the world (2012 ranking for Post-Graduate Programme compiled by the Financial Times, London) has a database of 2,000 recruiters and will invite some of its regular recruiters to be part of the group once a sizeable number of alumni joins. Hari V Krishnan, country manager of LinkedIn India, says: "Alumni network is an important reason why people join B-schools. Apart from networking infrastructure, this (the tie-up) will provide secondary placement platform to alumni. Not only recruiters, but IIM-A alumni, who have become industry captains in various sectors, look for hiring potential candidates and they will prefer graduates from their own institute."

LinkedIn officials said that they have 17 million users in India, while there are some 89 million white collar professionals in the country. "We want all of them to join LinkedIn and various companies as well as educational institutes are part of the ecosystem. Time is the most precious commodity and with such tie-up, we can ensure that these professional spend significant time on the site and we can drive value to our free consumers," says Krishnan.

IIM-A will form two groups for its page on LinkedIn named Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and the second called IIM-A Executive Education Alumni. One will cater to its long-term courses while the other will focus on alumni from short-term courses like Executive Education, Faculty Development Programme, and Armed Forces Programme.

IIM-A has 9,500 alumni from its flagship courses and 21,600 alumni from executive education. The tie-up with LinkedIn is expected to offer career guidance. "Students know their immediate seniors and juniors, but they are unaware of the majority who graduated much earlier or after them. Our initiative will help in realtime career counselling," says Mukherjee. 

Source:The Economic Times