Campus Placements. Pay packages go up, so does quality bar

An upsurge in pay package, more offers from new-age companies, demand for new roles such as data scientists and business analytics are among the trends seen in B-School campus placements this season. Most institutes are currently in the midst of final placements.

Indian School of Business (ISB), which has campuses in Hyderabad and Mohali, has seen a 6 per cent increase in salaries from last year. The average salary offered to students this time is ₹25 lakh (including CTC) as compared to ₹23.5 lakh last year. At Institute of Management Technology (IMT)-Ghaziabad too, there has been a hike in average package, from ₹11.59 lakh last year, including CTC, to ₹13.4 lakh.

Several start-ups, especially the unicorns, have shown marked preference for pedigree B-school talent when hiring at entry level and, with demand spiking, companies have had to loosen their purse strings. “The reason for increase in the salary could be because students have shown value for money and companies are also offering more so as to remain competitive,” says a faculty member.

For their part, the institutes too are investing in making students more industry-ready. “ISB has designed a series of alumni-led learning interventions to make Post Graduate Programme (PGP) students industry-ready,” says Chandan Chowdhury, Associate Dean, ISB.

Consulting is top draw

Indian Institute of Management (IIM)- Kozhikode is currently conducting lateral placements — meant for candidates with some work experience.

“In lateral placements this time, consulting roles — which are seeing a rise of 20-25 per cent — are being offered by companies. Also, a large number of companies this year have rolled out job offers in Data Analytics and Business Analytics,” points out Shovan Chowdhary, Associate Professor, IIM-K.

In ISB, the highest number of offers was from the consulting firms at 24 per cent, followed by IT and ITES, and e-commerce.

Most B-Schools reported that the highest number of offers were for general management, product management, marketing, and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).

IIM-Ahmedabad is all set to start its lateral placement from January 1. The final placement will be on February 6.

“The lateral placement will see a lot of demand for tech roles. Other than this, there is going to be a shift in overall type, now more focus will be on a tech-oriented profile,” says Amit Karna, Chairperson, Placement Committee of IIM-Ahmedabad.

He feels that new-age companies like Amazon, Flipkart and Uber will see more action, as there are more jobs. Last year, around 10 per cent of the total batch of IIM-(A) picked this segment.

The final placement of IIM-B will start in the last week of February.

Despite many initiatives by B-schools, HR heads and consultants still find it a challenge to get candidates who meet requirement needs 100 per cent. “Most settle for 80 per cent,” says Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm.

Summer internship a plus

By and large, he says, academics is still number one preference when it comes to entry-level hiring.

Recruiters are also increasingly beginning to look at candidates with internship references. A summer internship at a good company is becoming a differentiator while sifting through the candidate pool.

Hirers are also seeking out students who display learning agility — given the rapid transformation in job roles within companies, more team players, and candidates who understand the digital impact on businesses. For marketing jobs, recruiters are also looking for savvy networkers comfortable with social media.

On the wishlist of recruiters is also the candidate who is likely to stick around with the company for more than a year. As Karanth points out, the maximum churn happens among entry-level candidates who rarely stay on for more than a year. Recruiters are still trying to figure out the stability factor in their assessments.

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