FMS  just concluded its summer placement season. JBIMS, Narsee Monjee, the IIMs are next in line. Though recruiters are back, expect sanity to prevail all around. No sky high salaries, no mouth-watering profiles and no recruiters and campuses playing games with each other.

Last placement season (stretching from Dec 2008-June 2009) was the recruiter’s economy, the years before that belonged to candidates. But this time, it is equal honors.

Unlike last year, when companies went on campuses to ‘put face’ rather than hire,  recruiters will approach campuses with bread-and-butter jobs — sales, marketing, HR — with reasonable salaries. Campuses will not grovel, but they have already learnt the lesson of depending on just a select few and will welcome companies who have traditionally not found slots.

Students have learnt to keep expectations realistic, indeed, they have been low enough to actually affect CAT applications this year – with aspirants holding-on to jobs rather than giving them up to pursue an MBA.

Maybe, all this is not a bad thing. Just the job market correcting itself, like other markets, post meltdown!