Once again, it seems the MBA, is going to be a top choice for students wishing to pursue higher education with B-schools witnessing a robust round of placements this year.
With salaries at many B-schools having increased by more than 20 per cent this year, and placements (many of them high-paying) wrapping up in 3-5 days despite a large batch size, the long dry spell at B-schools might be coming to an end.
For instance, the average domestic salary at Delhi-based Indian Institute of Foreign Trade has increased by 24 per cent to ₹18 lakh. The highest salary offered to the batch of 254 students at the B-school was more than ₹1 crore ($1,50,000) for an international role, while the equivalent for a domestic offer was ₹29 lakh.
IMT Ghaziabad too witnessed a 20 per cent jump in the average compensation, pegged at ₹10.8 lakh this year, for a batch of 681 students.
“The economic indicators and the GDP growth rate paint a very optimistic view about opportunities in India. Opportunities within the country have seen a spurt in the sentiments of corporates, who are hiring in large numbers from B-schools,” said AF Mathew, Chairperson Placements, IIM Kozhikode. At ₹17.1 lakh, the average domestic salary offered to outgoing students of the IIM grew by 12 per cent in 2016. The highest domestic package was ₹37 lakh.
E-commerce on hiring spree
Though most start-ups refrained from hiring in large numbers, many established e-commerce players like Amazon, Snapdeal, Shopclues, and Uber hired in large numbers from IMT Ghaziabad.
“E-commerce hiring grew by nearly 28 per cent, one of the largest growth figures in any sector this placement cycle,” said Vishal Goyal, Group Head - Corporate Relations, IMT Ghaziabad and Dubai. “The number of offers grew nearly five times since last year and the requirement of e-commerce companies to recruit was enormous.” The salary range offered by e-commerce giants is between ₹8 lakh and ₹13.5 lakh. Some of the top recruiters at the B-school include Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Accenture, SAP, JP Morgan, L'Oreal, Britannia, Deloitte, PWC, Credit Suisse, and Novartis.
Almost 5 per cent of the batch at MDI Gurgaon received offers from e-commerce giants such as eBay, Snapdeal, and Shopclues, which offered students sales and marketing, operations and analytics roles.
Hiring up in manufacturing
Another trend in the making is a boost in hiring from the manufacturing sector. Offers from the sector at Delhi-based IMI increased by 33 per cent this year. Some of the companies that recruited for manufacturing roles this year include General Motors, Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp, Ceat Tyres, BMW, Piramal Group, DCM Shriram, and Asian Paints, according to Manaswini Acharya, Professor of Marketing & Dean (Placements & Corporate Relations) at IMI, New Delhi.
The average salary at the IMI campus stood at ₹14.9 lakh this year, with the highest domestic offer made by Google at ₹29 lakh.
Multiple offers back
The good times have also extended to many tier-2 and tier-3 B-schools, which have been struggling with student placements for the past few years. Delhi-based FORE School of Management has had a strong opening to the placement season. With more than 90 per cent of the batch placed already, the institute is likely to complete the placements by the second week of February. The highest offer at the FORE campus is for ₹14 lakh, so far, with the average being ₹8.3 lakh.
With placements cheer all around, the days of multiple offers might be back at the B-school campuses. “Considering the trend, students have been asked not to accept offers of less than ₹7 lakh and wait for better opportunity,” a statement by FORE said.
“The first offer is not necessarily the best offer,” said Jitendra Kumar Das, Director of FORE School of Management. “Students are counselled constantly to carefully evaluate the opportunities so that the offers that they accept are closest to where their interests lie. Select students are given the choice of multiple offers since the first offer may not be the best offer.”
At the same time, start-ups, which mostly shied away from top business schools for hiring, might be turning to the talent in tier-2 B-schools. Final placements at SIBM Bengaluru are currently under way and the B-school has received around 14 offers so far from start-ups. “More start-ups have visited our campus this year. The number of companies on the whole has increased, and students at SIBM-B are open to roles offered by both, start-ups as well as big firms. The roles at both these set-ups are unique and dynamic in their own way. They also know that the start-ups hiring from campus are the big firms of tomorrow,” said Ravi Kumar, Placements Head of SIBM Bengaluru.
Top recruiters who hired 10 or more students each at SIBM Bengaluru include Infosys, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, Capgemini, Genpact, and Credit Suisse.
Additionally, newer IIMs that were struggling with placements for the past few years have also bounced back with better pay packages and offers. Average salary at IIM Rohtak, for instance, grew by 12.5 per cent this year at ₹11.78 lakh. The highest salary stood at ₹18.30 lakh. A total of 45 recruiters offered roles to a batch of 145 students at IIM Rohtak. Some of the top recruiters at the campus were JP Morgan Chase, Arcesium, ICICI Bank, BPCL, Yes Bank, Idea, Cognizant, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, Actuate Business Consulting, Amazon, and Indus Valley Partners.
Cluster cohort process
India's top business school IIM Ahmedabad is gearing up for its cluster cohort placement process, wherein companies offering similar profiles are grouped into cohorts, and several cohorts are invited to the campus in a particular cluster.
Cluster 1 at the institute will start from February 13. And cluster 2, 3, and 4 are scheduled on February 16, 19, and 21 respectively.