I read an article in HT today.
Students who opt out of placements can opt in for two years after they graduate. This may encourage more students to chase their dreams. There is also an option at IIM-A to get a lot of course credits by doing a course of independent study in the second year. A student who wants to be an entrepreneur thus has a lot of support.
The institute feels that the ability to opt in to placements will ease societal pressures on students from parents to get a dream job right away.
Kudos to IIM-A for taking the lead and I hope other engineering and management institutes follow.
A suggestion to students is to form your team carefully. Just because you are friends it does not mean you are the right team. Students should be open to forming teams with the right people wherever they may be and also considering joining startups. Not everyone can be a lead entrepreneur or cofounder. You can make it big by being an early employee as well.
- Community Platform For Ward 103 - November 22, 2012
- Municipal Elections New Delhi-16 days for rolls to close - October 15, 2011
- The next Facebook ? - September 17, 2011
Sanjay/Roshan,
Its great to see this discussion on IIMA’s decision on Venturewoods. While – as the head of Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIMA – I am proud to have initiated and pushed this idea to implementation at IIMA, I think there is a lot to be done to promote the entrepreneurship here [being a recent grad from IIMA I know that this is a great cushion for budding entrepreneurs…helps them atleast forget the concept of opportunity cost for a change..i just wish someone could suggest a way to make students not think about their educational loan for a couple of years !!!…we would have created an entrepreneurial ecosystem at IIMA]
Although, I would have supported the idea of extending this deferral to students joining start-ups as well apart from the ones starting-up, such decision was expected to meet some resistance from students here. In a system that is largely driven by desire to get into a good job, such a process can be misused – as it was realized. A student – who fails to make it to one of the i-banks – might want to join a start-up (rather than starting-up as it is more risky), gain some relevant experience and then sit in placement later. So we wanted to eliminate selfish use of this system. (I know this is too much of thinking but then it is probably true!!) Wanna take a plunge, just take it !!!!
While 11 students decided to quit their job plans following this announcement, its real impact is expected to be seen in the next batch. The announcement came a little late, else the number could definitely have been much higher.
I must compliment the Director and placement committee at IIM Ahmedabad, to have reacted so positively to this idea and implement it within 10 days of my floating the idea.
I hope more colleges would follow suit.