Pre Placement Offer Demystified: What Is The Rush All About!

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As winter approaches, the winds at B-School change their direction. An air of sincerity hovers above the campus and instead of the cafeteria, students are found making visits to the library, in an attempt to gulp down the entire syllabus before they face the wrath of the recruitment process. Yes, you heard us right! We are talking about the placement season, more precisely the summer placement season. And surely, this feeling is all too relatable for management students. 

The days and months prior to the D-Day are crucial for all B-Schoolers where these boardroom novices get ready for the bloodless battleground and brace themselves for entering the work arena. Where a few have already faced the wrath of placements in their undergraduate college, it is only by the end of their first year of MBA that most B-Schoolers, all a nervous wreck, understand the relevance of Summer Placements aka internships. As recruiters rush on and within the campus, students are found dressed in formals, pacing the corridors restlessly, awaiting their turn with their dream companies for placement opportunities. 

But there is more to it than this. Summer Placements act as the key for B-Schoolers that grants them access to the parallel world and a real time exposure to the office environment. In simpler words, it gives students the opportunity to witness the glamour of the corporate world for the very first time in their lives. And the perks do not end here. Most internships, if not all, offer students a shortcut to the finals with a pre placement offer. But before we dive into the specifics of how you can grab this opportunity, let us better understand the nuances of a pre placement offer, thereby ending the grind of placements well in time. 

Pre Placement Offer: The definition

A pre placement offer (PPO), often rolled out to students on the completion of their internship, comprises an offer letter that gives them a chance to join their interning organization once they complete their professional course. It is a defining moment for their future career. If candidates choose to accept the job, appointment letters are given to them by the company in advance. PPOs largely take into account the performance of candidates and are only handed out to students who prove themselves worthy during their internship to become regular employees. 

An offbeat way to hire students, PPOs provide a chance to both the candidates and the recruiters to experience each other before the final offer is made. In addition, companies get a fair idea of how well a particular candidate delivers the results and whether or not s/he fits their organization. In short, this method of recruitment is one that tests candidates, to make an informed decision, before they finally call them on-board after a successful internship.

Why are PPOs important?

A question that arises after the above-mentioned details is what exactly the hype is all about. This might have been relevant as well if we weren’t standing in a pool of mud where jobs are scarce and opportunities, limited. In an unprecedented time like this where numerous firms have put recruitment on hold for as long as the pandemic lasts, PPOs from summer placements are the only ray of hope for B-School students, with the placement cycle coming to a halt. 

While laying hands on a pre placement offer does affect them psychologically, relieving the stress off their shoulders, it also helps them focus in the remaining days on their business school curriculum without having to worry about final placements. Also, it helps them set a high bar for for their overall development and career growth. 

The two alternatives

By now, you must have realised that landing a pre - placement offer from your interning organization is not a child’s play. It will need rigorous efforts, discipline, dedication, people skills and perseverance to make it to your mentor’s list of favourite interns. And even after that, you can never be absolutely sure. There might be chances where the company isn’t willing to hire anybody in the near future, as per their placement policy or their expectations from their prospective employee are largely different. In either of these cases, the recruiter will most likely not make an offer. 

But if this doesn’t guarantee a pre placement offer to you, what are you to do? Hold on, good news is just around the corner! 

Several corporate competitions organized at B-Schools around the year offer pre-placement offer interviews and offers to those who grab the trophy. So, yes, besides the path of sitting for summer placement interviews, getting placed for an internship at one of the many organizations and then working hard day in and day out to grab a PPO, you can actually make efforts to win one competition and ta-da, you’ll be blessed with a PPO, instead of taking the general route via campus placements. 

Expert advice

It is always a good idea to learn from the experiences of others. And what can be better than hearing words of wisdom from fellow B-Schoolers, who have been there, done that?

We talked to a few B-Schoolers to know more about the learnings they have garnered and we came across some astonishing responses.

Shivani Gite, an IIM Bangalore student who interned at ABG this year, shared a few tips for securing a PPO. She mentioned that an essential part of the journey of receiving a PPO is the preparation which quite naturally includes the art of building an appropriate resume. In addition to stressing on the fact that it is more than important to include activities from your B-School life (competitions, college activities, etc.) in your resume, she said that grades play an equally crucial role and so one must focus on academics too. 

For the D-Day preparation, Shivani asked students to participate in mock GDs and mock interviews. While mock GDs helps them analyze their strengths and weaknesses, giving them a fair idea of the topics, mock interviews help them assess their level of preparation. 

Soumyadip Sarkar, a student of IIM Calcutta, when asked about his learnings, said that post his internship, he worked hard to refine his resume in order to get more shortlists from Consulting organizations. He also went on to say that students must have faith in themselves and must find opportunities to learn and improve their skills. On a closing note, he advised them to not compare their achievements with that of their peers as that only leads to disappointment. 

With this, we have pretty much covered the ground of pre placement offers, laying bare the realities of the corporate world and the many opportunities that lie ahead of you. All you need to do is get ready to burn the midnight oil as the night is dark and full of terrors but sunshine awaits your arrival on the other side.

You might also be interested in reading:

1. IITs Record Highest Pre-Placement Offers: Upto 55% Increase In Offers For Class Of 2022
2. How this FMS student bagged a pre-placement offer from L’Oréal India
3. Internship-pre placement offer-B-School, a summary of my summer -By Harshita Jhawar from NMIMS Mumbai
4. The perfect strategy to turn your summer internship into a full-time job offer