• 28
  Feb 2023

• Right Job, Right Company, Bright Future - Part II

  
  

  Prof. Vaibhav Kulkarni | PGDM

A lot of graduates in the field of science, arts or commerce are seeking a degree in business management. The main attraction is the hope of getting a fat paycheque and the status of being a suave manager with a plush lifestyle. With newer management institutes blooming in every part of the city and with the existing ones increasing their intake capacity the number of students graduating from the top institutes in Mumbai is rapidly increasing. On the other hand, the competition amongst companies is becoming fierce and vicious. Companies want to recruit the best management graduates. Those who fall in the category of average are eliminated even before the selection process begins. The question then is how to bridge the gap between management institutes, students and the corporate. It is therefore essential to identify the factors which influence the selection criteria of management students by the corporate. A majority of the companies who visit the institutes for on-campus placement conduct tests for the students in addition to personal interviews.

The academic achievements of the students are taken into consideration to the extent of ensuring that every student has a minimum of 60% aggregate. This is because the companies are aware of the internal scores given by B-schools which add up to form the aggregate score. A result of these internal scores is a bias on the part of the institute to impress upon everyone, good results with high grades.

Some companies prefer to recruit students from a few selected institutes. This is because many of these companies have an association with the Institutes and only trust the standard and quality of the output of these B-schools. The selection criterion also involves and depends upon the response given by the institutes and the students. In some cases, companies never revisit an institute when the students show very little interest. One of the other things that companies have started acknowledging is the participation of the students in co-curricular activities. It is through this aspect that students display their talent and leadership qualities by participating in such activities. Thus being the head of an academic or cultural event can now earn students a few brownies during the interview process. Then there are 2 types of students. Firstly those who listen well and then those who can speak well. Many companies are of the view that for a field like finance, a student who listens well is preferred over one who talks too much. For marketing, it is the other way around. For HR, both speaking and listening are essential.

Some companies feel the students have a good degree of knowledge about the field they have applied for. But it is not enough for them to start and handle major responsibilities. Invariably a lot of these companies end up training the students all over again. This happens mostly at entry-level jobs, where the only exposure students have is at their summer or winter internships. While half the companies recruit those who have completed their summer or winter internship with them, the other half feel that the internships are no more than getting the extra and petty work done from the interns. Some even consider an internship as a babysitting job. These are companies that do not recruit in-house interns. With all these factors playing an important role in the recruitment of students, there is a need to make an effort in understanding the current and existing needs of the corporate, their expectations and the area where they focus while recruiting these management graduates. All Management Institutes must look into this aspect of the student’s career before admitting them.