Foreigner in IIM-A wants desi job

AHMEDABAD: The world has sat up and watched jobs come to India. It has watched students from India's premier B-school turn down offers from foreign companies. Now, for the first time in the history of IIM-Ahmedabad, a foreign student would go through the placement process here to look for a job in India.
Diane Gabriel, 23, a French student on the IIM-A campus will join the placement process with the batch of 2008 next month.She came to IIM-A in June last year as part of the dual degree programme that IIM-A and ESSEC Business School in Paris offer jointly. "I have travelled a lot since childhood with my parents in various parts of Asia. I always wanted to study abroad and I took this opportunity of dual degree programme to be in India. Now, I want to work here as there is a lot of scope in India for working in areas of my interest like urban and infrastructure development and urban planning," Diane told TOI.
"I am looking for a six-month internship with a consulting firm which can give me a project of my interest," she said.
Gabriel, who is visiting the country for the first time, has been using the weekends to good use and has travelled to various cities on academic and non-academic tours. Often she can be found on campus in a salwar kameez. "It was extremely hot when I arrived. I have spent uncomfortable days and then realised these type of cloths and fabrics actually help in the summer," said Diane.
Soon after she arrived on campus, Gabriel also took an independent project to study the urban development in western parts of Ahmedabad. And, she has something to say about apnu Amdavad: "I had taken up this project to get familiarised with the city I was living in. During the course of the project, I realised that the western and the eastern Ahmedabad are divided and they seem like two different worlds".