IIMs get their reality check: those six-figure Wall Street salaries will have to wait

“We interned at Lehman’s London office only this summer. Work was as usual, no one had any idea that trade was declining,” one of them told The Indian Express.

The student could have been speaking for hundreds of fresh graduates at Indian Institutes of Management from Kolkata to Ahmedabad, Lucknow to Bangalore. Firms like Merrill and Lehman have been among the biggest recruiters on campus, and the investment banking and financial services sector has been setting the aspirational benchmark with offers of salaries that have ranged from $120,000 to $360,000 annually. In the 24 hours after what the global media is describing as the blackest day in decades on Wall Street, many aspirations are appearing unreasonable.

The two IIM-C students have received no official word yet from Lehman, but the silence holds only a slim hope. “We put in 12-13 hours a day at the London office and worked on hot sectors like commodities and equity sales. Everyone there was very interested in India,” recalled the student.

At IIM, Lucknow, the mood was gloomy. Lehman has been making four or five offers every year, and last November, Merrill had shown an interest for the first time. “We were expecting a reduction in the number of offers, but the collapse of Lehman Brothers has come as a shock. Though Lehman made just one summer placement offer this time, we were hoping that would change,” said placement cell co-ordinator Rishabh Papardia.

At IIM, Ahmedabad, the Wall Street shock has translated into a gag order on students. “We have been asked not to speak to the media on the Lehman Brothers issue right now as the institute is yet to study the situation completely,” said...