Transition From Campus to Corporate – Preparing Students to be Corporate Ready | Dr C V Ramanan| Director| IMM

Campus to corporate is a life-changing transformation. It is not a simple chore for students to initiate a smooth stride in the corporate world just after ending their campus life. From the carefree campus world to corporate routine, many changes mark all the responsibilities and duties that come with a job. The transition is an ongoing process in everyone’s life which happens at different stages. However, the transition from campus to career, where an individual begins to work in an organisation, is a distinctive and crucial phase of a student’s life. Their day-to-day schedule and social lives endure the changes once they enter the Corporate World. Indeed, this requires a unique institutional perspective and approach to be successful.

The gap between campus and corporate is enormous as both lives are profoundly different. IMM focuses on bridging this gap by giving a roadmap to employability. The institute exhibits a unique system of ensuring a smooth transition from academics to the professional world. It is a result of a well-structured interface with the corporate world. During the Pandemic too, IMM opened an arena of prospects for students in numerous sectors of the industrial world. Students go through rigorous corporate curriculum which run concurrent to their academic programs along with regular mentorship programs.

IMM nurtures industry-institute interaction regularly by organising frequent interactions with industry/corporate leaders through special corporate lectures, workshops, pertinent internship programs, national and international industry visits, field research projects of industrial relevance, interdisciplinary college events, conferences, skills training from corporate leaders, alumni meets and various comprehensive certificate courses other than usual subjects, with the solitary aim of zeroing down the gap between the industry and academic circles. IMM explores the approaches which an institute can take to provide quality education by emphasising on 360-degree students development.

Our efforts to extend potential employees to the corporate community, is our uniqueness and extends far beyond the limits of the walls of the institute. Besides cultivating excellent proficiency in functional domains and acquiring business knowledge, our institute gives equal emphasis on inculcating corporate values required for multifaceted decision-making. IMM’s strategies for preparing students for corporate ready are subsequent:

1.   Pedagogy to Andragogy: The most effective method of instruction to yield the optimum learning outcome for business is applied by our institute. Through tutoring, every faculty ensures students understand the syllabus and its application in the real corporate world through case studies, scenarios, role plays, articles, and industry-focused live projects assignments.

2.   Internship to Stewardship- College always believes in extending the intent of internship to the passion for stewardship, which inspires the student to go a long way in their after-college life.

3.   Connecting for Networking- Networking stands as a crucial element in students’ career paths, which helps them be industry-ready and be industry-known. IMM provides platforms to get involved on campus and encourages being open to new connections at corporates too, which assist them to become skilled networkers.

4.   Hard skills to Soft Skills- Today, hard, and soft skill striking the right balance for a professional success story. For students’ smooth stride, we give equal consideration to students’ knowledge, skills, and attitude, where IMM prepare students for their hard skills and polish their soft skills. Under the ASK Training program, institute provides customised therapy to every student as per their attitude, knowledge, and skills needs, which is assessed based on the 360-degree system.

5.   Competition to Collaboration – To grow in campus or corporate, students need to work in a team as a player and a learner. Beyond classroom andragogy, students also get opportunities to showcase their talent at inter and intra-college management events. While competing with others, these healthy sprints make them realise the value of competition with innovation and collaborating performance. Collaboration is not a substitute for competition; the former facilitates building the latter.

6.   Specific to Holistic Approach- Holistic learning is an inclusive approach to education where professors address students’ academic, emotional, social, and ethical needs through an integrated learning system. The curriculum is bifurcated in such way, that could give holistic approach to students instead of confined to limited subject knowledge.

7.   Assessment for Advancement- Students are acclimatised to have exams that adhere to a specific structure, curriculum, and schedule. Apart from that, IMM abides by the corporate culture, where students have been prepared and been assessed based on their performance contributions and value additions made to own and institution development.

8.   Mentoring to Mentees- We consistently guide every student on a one-to-one basis, ensuring college care about their progress.

9.   Common to Unique- Corporates are now working on competency-based hiring, looking for unique talents, skills, expertise, or perspective. IMM keeps on embracing students personally, what can make them unique and how it will drive them forward in corporate world.

10.  Assignment for Accountability- Our institute’s assignment philosophy is based on applied endeavours, providing them with a realistic and relatable approach to real corporate life. Keeping in mind the industry culture of tight schedules, our professors also create fast-paced tasks based on deadlines, to make them practice where, in future they could make the easy step from carefree life to caution-full life in their career.

11. Work/Life Balance to W/L Integration- Bringing personal and professional priorities together is the key. We instruct students to analyse the situation where they must decide in their career life when a driving career is paramount, and on other moments when personal play more critical role.

12. Best and Worst- We prepare our students not just for the life positive changes, but also for the challenges that could happen on their professional fronts. Many times, situations could arise where students fail to seize the opportunity and get dissuaded. IMM realises that the best and worst are steppingstones in the learning curve of success in one professional life.

13. Total Quality Management to Total Quality Person- We believe, a quality person can create, build, and sustain an ennobling environment both at work and at home. Our Institute, value-based management education facilitates creation of effective managers and qualitative people full of character, integrity & positive attitudes, with a desire to serve.

It has been consistently recognised that grooming is a continuous and vital effort for students to adapt to the corporate culture. Research indicates that the triumph of the transition phase has a crucial impact on various aspects like remuneration, development, job commitment, self-esteem, and corporate relations. Our institute, ideal vision of education is to blend business school with the “real” world. Therefore, life skills and professional skills are flawlessly knitted into the college curriculum that facilitates the smooth landing of our students into the challenging corporate world and makes every student competent and inspired.

IMM’s alumni’s career development journey has constantly proved how students have lived up to the corporate expectations that visit the campus for placement, looking for brilliant applicants to take up challenging responsibilities at their workplace. Furthermore, IMM’s exclusive training and placement committee ensures that students gain the best-fit opportunities through their right skills and domain knowledge. Well-timed assistance is provided to them to attain their professional aspirations in the corporate world.

We are proud of our golden legacy of 52 years. The fascinating journey continues…

Institute of marketing and Management, Delhi, India