Mumbai: Setting the trend for the final placement that will commence in the middle of this month, the ongoing lateral placement season at the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for the class of 2010 has showing signs of recovery. Nearly 50 percent of the students in the class of 2010 across the six IIMs have work experience, reports Dibyajyoti Chatterjee of Economic Times.

The process is currently taking place at IIM-Ahmedabad. IIM-A's class of 2010 has 290 students, with about half of them having work experience. Though, the institute declined to reveal details on the companies who are recruiting, students who have had experience in verticals such as financial service, consulting, marketing and IT/ITeS have been getting the offers.

The hiring activity across the IIM campuses for the class of 2010 is better than 2009. "The numbers seem better than 2009, but have not reached the 2007 and 2008 levels, which calls for guarded optimism," said Hariharan Sriram, External Relations Secretary at IIM-Calcutta. In this institute, the batch of 280 students has about 60 percent in the laterals. Cognizant Business Consulting, Deloitte and the Hinduja Group are among the key firms that are recruiting here.

At IIM-Bangalore, there are new recruiters from sectors like retail, infrastructure and hospitality. The scenario is improving even at IIM-Kozhikode where over 25 companies have participated in the lateral placement and have hired around 80 students. Some of the key recruiters are Goldman Sachs, Deloitte and Cognizant Business Consulting. About 15 companies are participating in the lateral placements at IIM-Indore. Some of the key recruiters have been Cognizant Business Consulting, Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Syntel, Genpact and Jindal Steel and Power.

At IIM-Lucknow, there is more hiring taking place in the IT sector. "Participation has improved sharply among IT companies and those from the financial services sector. We have also consciously targeted the IT space, given that two-thirds of the batch has IT experience," said RL Raina, Placements Coordinator at the institute.