The placement cycle at India’s business schools has continued to remain sluggish for the third year on the trot despite some visible green shoots in the market in 2024. Since mid-2022, there has been a drop in hiring in key talent sectors, impacting fresher intake across all education streams.
According to Deloitte’s Campus Workforce Trends 2024, the pre-placement offer conversions were 26 percent lower in 2024. Also, compensation offered by enterprises in top MBA schools experienced a drop of 5 percent.
Co-founder at specialist staffing firm Xpheno, Anil Ethanur, pointed to factors like market uncertainties that prompt firms to scale back freshers hiring from B-School.
“Loading MBAs at the bottom of the organization pyramid is an effective internal talent pipeline for most enterprises. However, this pipeline comes at a cost and it is this cost that also turned the tide against campus intakes when headwinds hit the market. Enterprises in their quest to protect margins amidst revenue pressures got conservative on fresh talent spend and have stayed away from campus for over 2 years now,” Ethanur said.
Exclusive data shared by Xpheno with Storyboard18 showed a degrowth in the composition of fresh talent in the active MBA workforce since 2022. This is due to the slower loading of fresh talent by top sectors. The active MBA talent pool with 1-2 years of experience has fallen by 4 percent from 2.34 lakh in 2023 to 2.24 lakh in 2024, the specialist staffing firm said.
‘Fresh MBA hires in startups drop’
Indian startups have shown reluctance in investing in fresh MBA Grads from B-School in the recent years due to the high cost of recruiting and training business graduates, with returns being comparatively long-term. Additionally, continued margin pressure and macro uncertainties have prompted startups to adopt austerity measures.
According to Ethanur, “The fresh talent Build process with MBAs and Business Grads is an expensive affair and startups have not been in the best of shape to invest in the last two years”.
Just a little over 4,000 young MBA professionals, with sub-2 years of experience, are currently employed in Indian startups. And, less than 2,000 freshers have been hired by the startups cohort in the past one year, Ethanur told Storyboard18.
‘Companies seek skills from B-School grads’
Global and domestic enterprises who are scrounging for talent from B-School of India expect that freshers should be pre-equipped with exposure to enterprises and enterprise functions.
According to Xpheno co-founder, firms seek skills like technical, functional, and techno-functional fluency, the cognitive, operational, and tactical familiarity of industries and functions from the freshers.
“Talent that has a fair understanding and balance of using tools while having communication as a strong skill, are more sought after,” said Ankit Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Unstop, a talent attraction, assessment, and hiring platform.
‘Job roles for B-School grads’
Fresh MBA graduates have been in high demand from the IT, marketing, and BFSI sectors for the last three years. According to Xpheno’s data, Financial Services, Accounting, Management Consulting, Internet Enabled Services, HR Staffing, and Marketing and Advertising were among the top 10 employing industries for B-School grads in 2024.
Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO at TeamLease Edtech shared hiring data with Storyboard 18 that shows, in the 2024 placement cycle, consulting firms made offers at IIM-Bangalore with finance, banking, and investments accounting for 81 offers, and IT firms making 49 offers. At IIM-Ahmedabad, consulting, BFSI, and IT/ITES were prominent recruiters in 2024.
Neelesh Gupta, Partner, Deloitte India said the most sought-after sectors for B-school talent have been Information Technology (IT / ITeS) at 27 percent followed by Financial Services at 22 percent and Consumer (FMCG / FMCD) at 17 percent, respectively.
The other fastest-growing roles for MBAs where active demand remained visible this year are- Associate Consultant, Key Account Manager, Senior Executive, Talent Acquisition Executive, and Deputy Manager.
“The most in-demand roles for students in the current job market are data analytics, cyber security, Digital Marketing Specialists, Creative Directors, Social media managers, and more,” Aggarwal added.
‘Packages’
According to TeamLease Edtech data, the salary packages for B-school graduates vary significantly based on the institutions’ ranking and reputation. Info Edge’s educational portal Shiksha mentioned that at IIM Bangalore a total of 572 offers were made out this year of which 29 were international offers. The median package and average package offered during IIM Bangalore PGP and PGPBA placements in 2024 stood at Rs 32.5 LPA and Rs 35.92 LPA, respectively.
‘Initiatives by B-school’
Several B-schools in the country have started adopting measures to enhance employability and bridge the gap between academic learning and industry expectations. For instance, Gupta from Deloitte India said that organizations are working towards co-creating the curriculum in order to reduce the acclimatization period of the new campus hire. Additionally, an increased focus is on developing campus-to-corporate programmes for durations between 6 months to 12 months pivoting on specific skills such as Social Selling, Agile Project Management, Risk Management, Data Analytics, etc.