Fading glamour at campus placements??
Joining B-schools was one of the
top preference for all the talented young graduates in the country. Most of
them post their ‘IIT’ preferred an ‘IIM’ tag (they are just representations of
premier colleges) to attach with them which made them suitable for most job
providers and matrimonial proposals in the country. In last 3-4 years, rise of
start-up organizations created new kind of jobs which were much more
entrepreneurial in nature compared to structured FMCG or paint companies who
dominated the campus placements at management schools during the yesteryears.
The young companies not only met the work profile aspirations of new managers
but also took great care of them in terms of compensation package with each
trying to outnumber the other to get the cream of the talent. However, the math
has changed a bit now. The top domestic e-commerce companies are all set to
‘right-size’ their work force after big-bang hiring (often done for PR to show
their big plans) and get a better ROI from their human capital and to attain
profitability. Some other start up service aggregators also decide to fold
their operations in many areas due to their losses and their VCs tightening the
noose after the disastrous financial performance. With reduced number offers/
delayed joining and an uncertainty on future of business, the young managers
are now a worried and restless lot. In most cases, a huge study loan further
compounds their worry.
Based on the hike in average
salaries offered on campus- thanks to the start-ups, few management schools
using the data of last 3-4 years and raised their fees recently. However, the
algorithm followed in deriving the new fees structure does not appear to be
very true in changed business environment. The rising fees structure at B
School and start-up not being glamorous any more, are we going to see a lesser
ROI from being an MBA graduate and will that mean lower demand for MBA seats? I
don’t know the answer but surely it will not be a kumbh mela of start-ups on Day 0 of the placements and without the
attraction of maha kumbh, how many
devotees will still go to the meccas of management? Though the place still
remains holy and will hold significance for many but surely one major
attraction will go off. I would like to clarify that it is not end of
e-commerce industry but it is beginning of their consolidation phase. From
steel to IT, every industry has gone through consolidation after their rapid
growth phase and recently, we saw some acquisitions and consolidation in
e-commerce too- with objective of building greater synergies between two
competing forces. It might be the end of only their mushrooming phase and now
it is time to strengthen their core areas. This will still drive demand for
skilled people but not in terms of number as number of competitors might be
decreasing.
Another management program which
flourished was one year executive program for people with minimum certain
number of years of experience under their belt. Lot of people join such program
after good 8-10 years of experience and with their last drawn salary bracket
around INR 3-4 million. With one group of recruiters who were potentially high
pay masters for such experienced talents, out from the auction race (my
apologies for using the word-auction but the placement process and auction
process are very similar), how willing will be such people to leave a settled
job, at a mid-level position, shelling a huge fees from their pocket and
joining back almost without a salary hike from their last drawn package? At
least to me it doesn’t look like a lucrative deal unless it is partially
sponsored with a guaranteed raise in position and financial package and I would
like to reiterate the point of consolidation phase and demand for highly
skilled professional but may be in lesser number.
In short, high fees structure and
with not many glamorous salary providers, is the craze of joining B-school
going to come down? Only time will tell. May be a new set of rescuers will come
soon providing new dimensions to this demand and supply equation. We have
always seen that ending of one era gives way for new era to come in. Campuses
have seen dominance of FMCG, IT, Banking, Telecom sector for a brief period and
E-commerce as prime recruiters. Who knows, there could be a baby already out in
this world who in next couple of years will come up with his huge demand for
the talented professionals. The demand will surely create a new imbalance to
dictate the flow of raw talent to these polishing stations. Till then, we may
have to wait.
References
http://www.bigdecisions.com/article/is-an-overseas-education-worth-the-money?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=category_child&utm_term=ndtv
