Management graduates are likely to be the flavour of the season with an increasingly large number of new age and traditional sector employers looking to employ them. Companies across sectors are looking for management graduates in data management and technology oriented roles. There is likely to be 17 to 20 per cent growth in the absolute number of job offers and a corresponding rise in average pay package offered to B-school graduates over same period in 2019 (pre-pandemic period), industry experts said.
A majority of the B-schools comprising both premier as well as second rung institutes have seen a very good response for their summer placements this year. Summer placements, experts believe, typically sets the tone for final placements. Nearly 30 to 35 per cent of the pre-placement offers bagged by a management graduate during final placement process typically come through their internship stints at such summer projects.
According to RP Yadav, CMD, Genius Consultants, there has been a 20 to 40 per cent surge in hiring across most sectors including IT, ITeS, sales and marketing, finance, e-commerce and consulting among others. During the first wave most companies had reduced manpower by nearly 20 per cent to cut cost. Now that the market has opened up and demand is growing sentiment has improved. Most companies are hiring to meet the additional demand,” Yadav told BLonCampus .
The steady recovery of businesses in IT/ITeS, BFSI, edtech, e-commerce, logistics and BPOs have brought B-school hiring back to normal levels in many sectors, Sanjay Shetty, Director, Professional Search and Selection Strategic Accounts, Randstad India said.
Many additional factors such as flexible working models, availability of Covid-safe working environment and salary incentives have encouraged many graduates to enter the workforce as per Randstad Employer Brand Research Report 2021. Besides, the uptick in campus hiring has been backed by improved industry relations and introduction of seamless digital hiring processes.
“Boosted by the recent product linked incentive scheme extended by the government, industrial and service based companies are expected to recruit at least 15,000 to 30,000 freshers respectively to meet the seasonal demand and spike in sales. Many companies are preferring to hire highly-skilled new collar workers to add a diverse pool of fresh graduates to their existing workforce,” he said.
Tech roles flavour of the season
According to Kamal Karanth, CoFounder, Xpheno, a specialist staffing company, the current volume of MBA hiring is driven by the accumulated catchup and compensatory hiring that is in play.
There are over 14,000 active openings requiring an MBA as minimum qualification and at different experience levels including entry level openings. About one-third of these active openings are available for freshers, and this number is set to grow further over the coming months. The availability of MBAs from previous and current batches has changed the dynamics of MBA hiring this year. The spike in internships has been driven by sheer access to this talent pool for short to mid-term engagements.
“The supply driven comparative cost benefits is an added benefit to enterprises this year. While a mix of new age and traditional sector employers are scouting for MBA talent, the focus is largely on tech enabled talent. Digital savviness and aptitude for digital adoption are seen as major qualifiers for bagging kick-starter offers. Tech-driven sectors like BFSI, fintech, and consumer tech. are picking up tech-savvy MBA talent for roles across sales, marketing, business development and finance functions. The brick and mortar sectors are yet to fully warm up to the game, but are expected to be late but strong entrants,” he said.
Summer placements sets the tone
The summer placements, which offer internship opportunity to first year management students, have been exceptionally good this year with most B-schools wrapping up the process in record time and bagging good number of offers. Institutes have also witnessed a rise in the average stipends paid to students.
Some of the top B-schools witnessed 6 to 8 per cent rise in average stipends paid to students. It is to be noted that a number of second rung management institutes as well as some of the top B-schools had felt the brunt of the Covid-induced slowdown in the final placements which ended around March-April this year.
While the overall recruitment process at premier B-schools was not affected, however, the second rung institutes had a tough time ensuring 100 per cent placements. The average pay package was either muted or witnessed only a marginal rise this year as compared to previous year for majority of B-schools.
“Last year was a washout year and a number of freshers found it difficult to get a job. But a lot has changed over last two years particularly with reference to technology adoption. Tech companies are looking for management graduates to interface with customers given the huge increase in volume of customers and the volume of data. So skill set around data has increased and B-schools have started introducing these skill sets in their curriculum. Besides, new job roles have come up in the last 12 to 18 months,” said Neeti Sharma, Co-founder and President of TeamLease Edtech.