Seeing IIM Indore through the eyes of an HR student

The PGP-HRM program is a full-time two-year postgraduate program in HRM. During the 1st year, the participants have courses in HR, some standard courses with the PGP batch, and a rural engagement program. As the program progresses towards terms 2 and 3, the courses standard with PGP decreases, and core HR courses increase. The second year focuses on specialized courses and industry projects. The batch has 39 students and 12 faculty in the OB-HRM area. The student-faculty ratio is very good because of the small strength of the batch. Most of the faculty are IIM Graduates and all of them are Ph.D. holders. The teaching methods used are case-based discussions, classroom activities, learning through videos, group, and individual assignments, writing research papers, and classroom ppts. Usually, terms 1 and 2 are difficult with two exams conducted on the same day but it is not that difficult to pass. From term 3 onwards, it becomes quite chill as the course credits decrease from 33 to 23.

As of now, I am not aware if IIM Indore offers an opportunity to intern with them. Although, the faculty at IIM Indore offers opportunities where students can work with them on case studies or research papers. A participant can take advantage of this offer by reaching out to professors under which they want to intern, and based on the availability of positions and their abilities, the professor may offer them a position. The projects will be based on their area of interest and these opportunities are usually availed informally through contacts or referrals. It may be paid or unpaid.

The placements here happen two times during the course, the first is a summer internship and the second is the final placement. For summer internships, the participants start preparing their CVs in the month of July as it goes through multiple rounds of iteration. The companies visit the campus during placement week at the end of September. The top companies included Aditya Birla, Tata Steel, and Pernod Ricard. For the final placements, the companies start recruiting in the month of January, during this time participants are asked to prepare their CVs again. The average salary for the batch 2022 was around 20L with the highest being 36L and the median 19.6L. The top companies are Capgemini, Tata mutual funds, ICICI and Kotak.

The total fee for PGP-HRM is around 18.3L for two years. It includes tuition fees, hostel fees, a mess deposit for 1st year, caution money, and medical insurance premiums. During 2nd-year participants get a chance to opt out of the mess. The average placement salary is around 20L, so a participant can easily return his loan back in 5-6 years with 30k-40k EMI. The course is not very expensive if compared to the PGP batch of IIM Indore. Top participants even get an average salary package of around 36lacks which is almost the same for PGP thus it becomes easy for them to pay back the loan amount because of the less fee structure compared to PGP. The college offers numerous financial assistance for participants both government and private based on need or their academic excellence. The PGP office sends an email regarding every scholarship with their eligibility to the entire batch, so that interested students can avail of them. The list of scholarships is available on their website also.

Life at IIM Indore is mostly fun. There are three annual fests that are conducted by students namely I5 Submit - an entrepreneurial fest in August, Utsaha - a marketing research fest in October, and IRIS Cultural fest in November. For Utsaha, participants get an opportunity to go to a rural area and organize fun games and activities for the people. IRIS is the most fun event as it consists of stand-ups, fashion shows, concerts, dance nights, and musicals. The college promotes all sorts of sports as there are multiple fields available for all kinds of sports including a swimming pool. The participants are given a chance to go to other B-schools for inter-college sports events. The library of IIM Indore usually has all the books required for academics and other books, a participant can search for a particular book in their database and can check their availability. There are 8 committees,11 Clubs, and 10 special interest groups that students can join according to their interests.

There are almost 18 student residents and a separate resident for FPM students in IIM Indore. The participants of the first there years of the IPM live in one hostel sharing rooms with each other. The participants of PGP, PGP-HRM, and 4th-5th year of IPM are given a separate room in different student residents. There are three floors in each hostel and 3 washrooms on each floor. The rooms are not very big but they have enough space, every room has a window also. There is a facility for hot water and electricity for 24 hours and room cleaning. The rooms are also provided with a large closet with a mirror attached. The menu of the mess varies across the week ranging from north Indian, south Indian, Chinese, etc. Although the quality of food is not very good, it is one of the reasons why most second-year student opts out of the mess. The mess provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner only. The participants have to pay for evening snacks.

A candidate has to give CAT which becomes available at https://iimcat.ac.in by the first week of August and the admission fee is around 2300. A candidate must have at least a bachelor's degree with at least 50% marks or have completed a professional degree with the required percentage or should be in the final year of a Bachelor's degree with the necessary percentage. Minimum required CAT percentile should be obtained. A composite score is calculated for candidates selected in stage 1 based on the 10th, and 12th, CAT overall score, gender and academic diversity, and work experience. This composite score is used to select candidates for personal interviews. After PI, A composite score is calculated for candidates selected in stage 2 based on the 10th, and 12th, CAT overall score, PI Score, gender, and academic diversity. This score is used for the final selection.

I had to sit for an interview after my CAT for the final selections. There was no group discussion because the process was conducted online. Before my actual interview, a team of technicians from IIM Indore tested by audio and video system. During my interview, I was given a topic on UP elections ( because I am from UP and elections were going on during that time) and was asked to give an extempore on that for 2 minutes. The rest of the interview revolved around my subjects from graduation, current affairs, and HR questions like why MBA in HR, career goals, strengths, and weaknesses, etc. In order to prepare for the interview, I watched youtube videos, joined telegram groups for transcripts of interviews of other candidates, and read articles and interview experiences on Quora of IIM alumni.