Where there is a skill, there is a way
B-school grads prefer foreign firms for higher packages

Indian companies may be the talk of deal street, but on job street they hardly get a second look from the students of top business schools like the IIMs as they are going all out to embrace job offers from foreign firms.

With salaries nearly double than that of domestic firms, foreign companies such as McKinsey, Accenture, Nokia, Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank and Google have taken over the list of leading recruiters of management students graduating from institutes like the IIMs, XLRI and FMS-Delhi.

However, the talent management acquisition arm of India's leading corporate house Tata Group TAS has managed to break into the dominance of foreign firms by notching up the third position in the list of the top 10-most preferred recruiters this year, according to a new survey.

TAS has been ranked even ahead of global investment banking giant Goldman Sachs and FMCG major Procter and Gamble (P&G), according to AC Nielsen Campustrack Survey 2007. TAS is the central talent pool for the Tata group that deputes personnel across various group companies, industries, functions and geographies.

It ranked after the McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which have been named as the top two recruiters.

According to the group, TAS, formerly known as the Tata Administrative Services, is perhaps the only Indian employment brand recruiting for long-term mobility across sectors, functions and countries. It is seen on the campus as the "toughest" process to "crack" as the brand attracts the high achievers, the group said in a statement.

The list of top recruiters was prepared on the basis of student responses from eight top business schools — IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, FMS Delhi, SP Jain Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. TAS recruits students from the first seven. The other companies on the top-ten list include Goldman Sachs on fourth, followed by P&G, IT services giant Accenture, world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia, British banking giant Barclays Bank, Germany's Deutsche Bank and internet search major Google.

Higher salaries are seen as the key driver behind the students' preference for foreign companies. According to a separate AC Nielsen study released earlier this month, the IIM students' average salary expectation is close to Rs 19 lakh, up 30 per from last year.

While they expect an average package of Rs 14.2 lakh from domestic companies, the figures double to about Rs 27.4 lakh when it comes to foreign firms.

According to the study, management consultancy and investment banking have emerged as the most preferred sectors amongst the IIM-2008 batch, with a large number of students expressing their preference to join firms like McKinsey, BCG, Goldman Sachs. — PTI

. . . But some choose PSUs for greater job stability

Job stability is attracting an increasing number of B-school graduates belonging to smaller towns to leave aside lucrative salaries in private sector and opt for a career in public sector enterprises (PSE), industry body Assocham has said.

Assocham said that emerging trends suggest that students with superior intellect are getting into the private sector at the cost of PSUs and also indicated that government-owned companies need to get out of their regulated administrative and working systems.

The chamber surveyed 500 students of which 300 were from Tier II cities and 200 from metros for the survey.

As many as 85 per cent of the students in Tier II cities such as Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Dehra Dun, Jaipur, Indore, Kochi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune said that their first choice would be to join ‘Schedule A’ PSUs.

The remaining 15 per cent, however, evinced an interest in joining the government through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). They were of the view that their business school background would give them an edge for preparing competitive examinations at the all-India level.

In metros, however, B-school graduates were more interested in working for the corporate sector.

Students from metros are choosing the corporate sector over PSUs because of skyrocketing salaries and lack of patience to rise to the top management positions, Assocham said.

As many as 90 per cent of the students in metros such as Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai had this to argue, adding that leading corporates not only give them a culture which is so challenging and full of excitement for monetary considerations, besides the exposure part which is not available with PSUs. — PTI