Then start the company Pre-Placement Talks (PPTs) and the company application forms, all at a gentle enough pace. As the D-Day draws near, the pace increases bit-by-bit, till I find myself, totally devoid of time, filling out forms through the night, pondering over answers to questions like “Which percentile of leaders do you place yourself in? 10th, 15th, 25th or 50th?”. You think that’s bad, then wait till you read the part after it ““”and WHY!?!?” Aaaaaaaaaargh!

You really know the placement fever is ON when, everyday before the 9 o’clock deadline for forms, you find people sprinting desperately from different parts of the campus, their paths converging towards the placement office. Surprisingly though, around placement time, the average weight of the IIMC student community still shoots up quite a bit, what with all the free pizzas and refreshments that the companies dish out after the PPTs! And its not only food, you find people taking class notes with Merrill Lynch Pens on Deutsche Bank notepads, wearing TAS T-shirts! Yes, it reminds one of baiting fish, except that here the fish simply adore all the attention!

Of course, for most of us, the placement period does leave a feeling of awe. You get to interact with companies whom you know solely from the newspaper headlines they occupy everyday. Be it Lehman Brothers, McKinsey, General Atlantic Partners or HLL, they are right there in front of you. And the best part is that the corporate honchos who come to recruit you, are the alumni themselves ““ people who had walked the same halls, studied in the same classrooms as you ““ people who have achieved success in their lives, something that we can look forward to. Quite a heady feeling really!