Article: What employers seek in B-Schools? - Part I

Campus Recruitment

What employers seek in B-Schools? - Part I

Recruiters now-a-days have a long list of selection criteria when it comes to picking B-Schools for campus hiring
What employers seek in B-Schools? - Part I

Even though there are numerous recruitment channels available for recruiters, campus placements still turns out to be an effective medium to hire quality fresh talent. MBA graduates, still in their final years, are most sought-after by recruiters, provided they are part of a quality B-School. The rapid mushrooming of B-schools at every nook and corner of the country has made recruiters all the more quality-conscious. They make sure their quality standards are met by the B-Schools they plan to visit for campus hiring. So, what do these recruiters look for?

According to Aneeta Madhok, MD, Open Spaces Consulting, long-term relationship building by the B School is what recruiters generally look for, instead of focusing on the year's placement season alone. Often B Schools undermine the importance of this long-term relationship building exercise, in the face of short-term gains, which reflect numerically in placement numbers.

“An environment that facilitates a research based - practice centered learning is important for B-schools. Additionally, learning methods that utilize multiple intelligence and promote collaborative work are crucial. A healthy blend of these factors is crucial for any B-school’s success, stated, Nishchae Suri, Partner & Country Head-People & Change, KPMG.

Nirmala Mehendale, Co-founder and Director, Mind Movers Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd, believes that personal visits and face-to-face interactions with key stakeholders often provide information that is difficult in just a form filling exercise. Visits, as part of due diligence, makes a big difference in the assessment of a B-school.

Rajneesh Bawa, Director HR India & South East Asia, CNH, opines that recruiters would look at the intake process of students into that institute, industry consultation for designing course curriculum and a strong industry connect, type of summer internship provided to the students, business acumen training and development and innovative tools in the learning process. Arun Sehgal, EVP-HR, GSK also agrees that a strong industry connect and summer internship placement s are key essentials which attracts recruiters to B-Schools.

For a recruiter, B-school rankings are important; not just because it provides a list of top institutes in the country, but it also offers a homogenous cluster of B-schools that the recruiters are explore. “More than the rankings per se, it is the emergence of some fairly homogeneous clusters or bunching of B-schools, when we take the overall score into consideration. Most organizations do not visit just one or two B-schools, but have a list of at least 4-8 B-schools which they treat on par with each other. These clusters provide good guidance to the recruiters to arrive at their own short list of B-schools which they intend to visit for campus recruitment,” averred Dr. Rajiv Krishnan, Partner and Leader, People & Organisation Services, EY.

“The global perspective, which the B-Schools are offering today and how the students are being prepared for global assignments are some of the most important criteria for evaluating a B-School ,” stated Rajiv Arora, HR Leader, Mercer.

Riya Arora, Director - Operations, India, Inspirational Development Group, believes that some of the important factors in accessing B-Schools are checking on if the school has any innovative practices such as presence of an entrepreneur cell, student clubs, cultural events and activities, development programmes–giving students inputs around leadership & development, emotional intelligence, personal resilience and most importantly, interactions with the Industry and other B Schools.

11 key things that recruiters generally look for while selecting B-schools for campus hiring are:

  1. Intake process of students into that institute
  2. Industry connect; industry consultation in designing course curriculum
  3. Type of summer internship offered to the students
  4. Business acumen training and development and innovative tools in the learning process
  5. The quality of faculties
  6. Alumni network
  7. Personal visits and face-to-face interactions with key stakeholders
  8. Academic excellence
  9. Student profile
  10. Global exposure
  11. Innovative practices

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Topics: Campus Recruitment

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