Daybreak - The secret behind IIMs' 100% placements? Opting out

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

IIMs are increasingly counting on students opting out of the placement process to maintain their 100 per cent placement facade.The playbook is simple, really. If too many students remain unplaced by the end of the cycle, send them an email suggesting they opt out. Or, like IIM Amritsar, just inform students that if they’re not placed, they will be considered as having “opted out”.Of course, it’s all just to keep up appearances. When 40 out of 45 students get placed, and 5 opt out, the 100% placement claim becomes a technical truth.Turns out, that’s the unfortunate byproduct of a tough and constant competition to get the best talent.Tune in. Listen to the latest episode of 90,000 Hours on Apple or The Ken app Want to join The Ken's team? Fill this form. 

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

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Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first studio. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Next year, the Ken is going to turn 10. Back in 2016, when we launched, we honestly were not sure if this would even work. A premium, no ads, no discounts, business news subscription? Well, turns out it did. And that is.

thanks to you, our subscribers, our listeners and our readers. And now it is time for the next decade. So we are rethinking how we work, how we build our products, and expand to what the Ken can be. And we need great people to do it. So here's the deal. We are hiring. But instead of tossing you a list of boring job descriptions,

we want to hear from you. Tell us about your skills, your ambitions and your big ideas. And let us build the future of the Ken together. And if this is not for you, but you know someone who would be interested, please do pass them to message. Head to the link in the show notes for more on this. And now, back to the episode. In spite of getting into four Indian institutes of management in Amritsar, Bodhya, Jamu and Shemore, Yashchen didn't join any of them.

Not because he didn't want to, but because students at these IIMs warned him against it. He was told that not only were job placements difficult, especially for, for those without work experience, but that these IIMs were quietly nudging their students into opting out of the placement cycle altogether. Now, his concerns were not unfounded. An RTI filed by a prospective student with IAM Amritsar revealed that of the 318 students in its 2025 MBA batch,

48 opted out of placements. Another 30 were unplaced. Then there was another RTI which revealed that of IIM Trichie's PGPM batch of 384, 59 were without a job until May. That is, one in every seven students. Turns out, IIMs are increasingly counting on students opting out of the placement process

to maintain their 100% placement facade. The playbook is pretty simple, really. If too many students remain unplaced by the end of the cycle, send them an email suggesting that they opt out. Or, like IAM Amritsar, just inform students that if they're not placed, they will automatically be considered as having opted out. Of course, it's all just to keep up appearances,

because when 40 out of 45 students get placed and 5 opt out, the 100% placement claim technically becomes the truth. So, Yash's concerns were valid. He eventually decided to get some work experience before applying again, but this time, he has his site set out on only the best. He's decided he won't settle for anything other than the top tier I am. You know, the ones in Ahmedabad, Bangalore or Calcutta.

After all, there is a pecking order when it comes to placement cycles and IIMs. And the compromised integrity of projected placement numbers? Well, that's the unfortunate byproduct of a tough and constant competition to get the best talent. Welcome to Daybreak,

a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host Rahal Philipos and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleagues, Nick Da Sharma and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Tuesday, the 19th of August. Here's the thing.

The opt-out option is a necessary part of the placement process. Plenty of students genuinely don't want or need to go through the whole process. They may be aiming for higher studies or heading into leading a family business. Now, universities shouldn't have to count these students as unclaced. The problem is that IIMs are now using the opt-out feature. to bolster their numbers and occasionally by convincing students who do want or need to go through the placement process to opt out. Some IIMs like Amritsar and Kashipur are more upfront about it.

They'll send students official emails asking them to opt out. Others are a little more discreet. For instance, at IIM Trichie, nothing is ever official or mandatory. But a student told us that if you're not placed by the end of the cycle, the placement cell persuades you to opt out. It's common. Now, when we reached out to IIM, Trichy, it clarified that it does not ask unplaced students to opt out. In fact, the Institute claims that it continues to extend placement assistance to unplaced students even after the conclusion of the placement season.

To be fair, most IIMs continue to give placement support to students who've opted out for up to a year after they've graduated. According to a former student at IIM Ranchi, all 12 students who opted out in 2022 were eventually placed through the Institute's placement. placement cell, though it was at lower salaries or in internships. The thing is, some students don't even get this kind of support. In one case, a student part of the 2025 batch at one of the newer IIMs did not receive a job offer till March. That's usually when the final semester would have begun wrapping up if it hasn't ended already. He was forced to reach out to an FMCG company that he had worked for on a project, which gave him an internship that could turn into a job. It would pay him about 15 to 20 lakhs per annum.

But just as he was leaving IIM, the placement cell told him that he had been selected for an interview. He could take it or he could opt out. Forced into a corner, the student had no choice but to opt out. The older IIMs, on the other hand, aren't afraid of telling it like it is. Their websites show clearly the number of students graduated and the number of students placed without any elaboration or dress-up.

Newer ones on the other hand are stuck waxing on and on about CTCs and recruiters every single data point is shared except the one that's most important the number of students placed in a way they're just trying to compete for the best students

there are currently 21 IIMs in India of which six were formed only in 2015 the top IIMs easily get students no problem but others are forced to compete with each other and the most powerful weapon in their arsenal is inevitable placements. In such cases, making their numbers resemble 100% placements becomes their

way of attracting students like Jen, for whom this is the biggest incentive. This is obviously reduced placement numbers to become nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Now, institutes pushing students to opt out is one thing. But what about students who are choosing that option on their own? More in the next segment. What happens when the American dream loses its shine? For decades, studying in the US was seen as a golden ticket. But in the latest episode of 90,000 hours, the Ken's career's podcast, we follow the journey of Indian students who discovered that the reality was far more complicated. From visa lotteries to shrinking job markets to the tough decision of whether to stay or return home.

You can tune into the podcast by clicking in the link in the show notes. And now, back to the episode. No student will willingly opt out. of a good job with great pay. Instead, they opt out because of the lack of them. Like we mentioned earlier, your big recognisable companies, think Bain, McKinsey, KPMG, they typically give older IIMs first preference. And they're usually among the first to swoop in right at the beginning of the placement season in February. They get around to newer IIMs only after that, once placement at older IIMs have wrapped up. That's from March all the way to September. The recruiters who do

come for placements end up being startups who take few people and some even tend to ghost them. An I.M. Amritsar student told us that an ed tech company came this year and offered 14 LPA salaries. But after shortlisting 10 people and interviewing four, the company stopped responding. This, even after having students work on difficult assignments over the weekend. The thing is, there are also certain compulsions in the application process itself. For instance, in IAM Trichy, the placement cell starts deciding whose CVs to send to which company towards the end of the placement season. Most companies that come at the tail end offer lower CTCs. So students are forced to take up the job offer they get or else opt out.

The option to reject a job offer doesn't really exist. An IAM-Thrichie student tells us that if they don't appear for an interview set by the placement committee, they'll be barred from placements. So they have to make a calculation. Is there a chance of better companies coming for recruitment? Or would it be better to opt out? The opt-out option allows them to search for jobs on their own, while the institute is free to expunge them from its placement record entirely. The reality of the situation, however, is this.

Students have their own needs. Many have taken loans to pay for the 22 to 26 lakh-r-roupie MBA from an IIM. They can't afford to accept a job with low pay or even a temporary internship. their minimum threshold is usually 14 lakhs per annum. Opting out then becomes their way of holding out for something better. It's not difficult to see that everyone, both students and institutions, are navigating a rather flawed system, one where placements above all else have become the metric to live and die by.

But now that IIMs have made their bed, they have to lie in it. If they've decided to stake their claim to quality by touting placement numbers, They need to start by putting out accurate figures without manipulation, without hype and without forced opt-outs. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings.

A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippos and edited by Rajiv Sien.