The lowest salary package offered by IIMs in 2024 was INR 9 LPA . The Indian Institutes of Management or IIMs, are known for their lucrative placement packages and excellent placement drives which offer MBA graduates some of the best career opportunities in India. However, the least mentioned and talked about as an integral part of discussions over such placements is usually what remains as the lowest salary quoted to the graduate. The lowest salary offered is also an important factor that must be considered when calculating the Return on Investment for any of the IIMs.
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Lowest Salary Packages Offered at IIMs
Placement reports up to date for 2024 reveal that the newly set-up institutes of Indian management, such as IIM Sirmaur and IIM Jammu, have reported the lowest salary offers compared with the other established institutes. Given that placement data in some detail is not publicly disclosed for some of these new institutes of Indian management, student response and audit-based reports reflect offers as low as INR 9 LPA in many of these newer institutes. Check the lowest salary package offered at IIMs over the years below:
Name of College | Year | Lowest Salary Package (INR) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| IIM Ahmedabad | 2021 | 11 LPA | CRISIL Audit |
| IIM Sirmaur | 2022 | 8.4 LPA | Student Accounts |
| IIM Udaipur | 2015 | 7 LPA | CRISIL Audit |
| IIM Rohtak | 2016 | 6 LPA | CRISIL Audit |
| IIM Bangalore | 2014 | 8-10 LPA | Student Accounts |
| IIM Calcutta | 2013 | 8-10 LPA | Student Accounts |
| IIM Kozhikode | 2013 | 6-8 LPA | Student Accounts |
| IIM Lucknow | 2013 | 6-8 LPA | Student Accounts |
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Reasons for Low IIM Salary
While IIMs are synonymous with global excellence in management education, some students graduate with considerably lower packages. Check the reasons behind low salary packages below:
Poor Academic Performance
Academic records mean a lot and play a severe and vital role in a more extensive placement process in the labor market. The recruiters often perceive students who show good academic profiles as more disciplined, highly competent, and better placed with various professional issues they may face in service delivery. Consequently, most students with less flattering academic results will have to end up at much more economical jobs or even never land better opportunities than recruitment top-flight companies offer.
Limited Extracurricular Achievements
Extracurricular activities can play an indispensable role in forming a fully rounded MBA profile that leaves an impression against the competitive landscape in business education. Those candidates with no such experience may find it simple to stand out during the interview- the most significant part of the hiring process. Recruiters often look for people who can balance academic obligations with other non-academic activities.
Lack of Relevant Skills
In today's fast-paced and developing job market, recruiters focus more on finding and choosing technically skilled and specialized individuals for direct relevance to the specialized demands of various industries. Thus, the case ends up where a skill gap can easily be a candidate's disqualification factor during the central placement process.
Saturation in Certain Roles
Some positions are highly competitive, such as sales, general management, or even entry-level consulting. It can be such that many applicants compete for the same few jobs that sometimes may cause a salary freeze or even lower offers to those not seen in the competition. In some industries, such as traditional manufacturing or retail, tiny budgets are allocated to hiring MBA graduates, making the salary figures for the various roles in those industries relatively low.
Market Conditions
Economic slowdowns that characteristically feature slowing economic activities, financial uncertainty in the global arena that leaves businesses in a very uncertain place, or industry-specific challenges catalyzed by various sources can negatively and strongly impact average salaries provided to workforces. Furthermore, in periods referred to as growth periods, companies still focus on cost efficiency as one of the significant strategies they use. Consequently, this will translate to lower salaries in positions that do not require skilled or experienced workforces.
Recruiter Expectations
Employers are aggressively looking for individuals who, apart from their technical skill set, possess an excellent cultural fit and all soft skills that can ensure a cordial workplace. Individuals who need to depict their ability to adapt, have excellent communication skills, or even solve problems in the interview process may be allowed to leave with an offer less than the best-suited candidate. The recruiters also look highly into personal qualities like confidence, resilience, and outstanding interpersonal skills. This will help them interact with clients or leadership roles in which the person would be expected to work with many individuals in his day-to-day work.
Rolling Placements and Opt-Outs
Candidates who do not progress through in the first round placements often go into a rolling placement. The subsequent rounds involve fewer firms, and this is often linked to a reduced level of competition for the roles that will be available and a smaller pay package. This automatically pushes them to lower immediate earnings which consequently affects the statistics relating to placements for the year group.
Lack of Transparency in Placement Reports
IIMs always include the highest, median, and average salaries in their placement reports, while often, they fail to report the lowest packages the students receive. This has created an opaque scenario that presents distorted or biased impressions of the actual placement statistics. In addition, it is worth mentioning that new IIMs or colleges with large batches tend to downplay or deny that failures to get placements have happened to all the students. This builds false hopes in the minds of those who might end up opting for those programs.
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FAQs
Economic slowdowns, financial uncertainties, and industry-specific challenges will cause companies to reduce their hiring budget and salary offers. In a growth period, companies have the tendency to be cost-conscious and, hence, give low salaries for jobs not highly skilled.
Large batch sizes, especially in newer IIMs, mean more competition among students for fewer high-paying roles. This could further skew the salary distribution, where some get the top packages while others are offered comparatively lesser ones.
Newer IIMs like IIM Sirmaur and IIM Jammu often command lower packages than the more established older IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad or IIM Bangalore. Freshers in such new institutes often face challenges like a smaller alumni network and relatively fewer connections in the industry that sometimes restrict their access to premium recruiters.
Poor academic performance, lack of extracurricular activities, poor technical skills, and certain preferences for locations may influence the package. Market conditions, recruiter expectations, and saturation in some job roles make some students receive lesser packages.
According to recent years, a relatively newly established IIM named IIM Sirmaur stated its reported salary package for INR 8.4 LPA during 2022. The high-reputed IIMs include IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta, whose salary package figures were in the lowest scale of INR 8–11 LPA as earlier years. These are also valid and authenticated by audits in CRISIL and accounts as students reported.
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