BComs, BScs pip MBAs to jobs

Updated on: Friday, February 18, 2011

One of the most enduring family-room debates, “what should our child study?” is undergoing a transformation, probably led by the fact that the line between a once trite graduate course and an intense professional programme is blurring.

Indian IT majors will probably tell you they were the first to discover the graduates when they invaded science colleges in Mumbai after facing a drought of programme coders. What started as a hunt for BSc graduates about five years ago has not just picked pace, but also expanded.

Accounting and auditing firms are lapping up commerce students who have studied banking, and investment firms and marketing agencies are substituting their requirements for MBAs with those who have just tasted management education at the bachelor’s level in the BMS programme.

Last week, there was a frenzy at the Jai Hind College campus when Google shortlisted over 50 students. HR College, this year, was host to all the big four accounting firms. While Pricewaterhouse Coopers visited the undergraduate college for the first time, McKinsey is likely to storm in next year, said placement coordinator Bidia Batheja.

It pays to be a grad

• The average annual salary offered by firms to students at H R College and Jai Hind College is Rs 3 lakh

• At St Xavier’s College, the monthly compensation offered ranges from Rs 32,000 to Rs 92,000

• At N L Dalmia Institute of Management Studies, the average annual salary offer is Rs 3 lakh. Not all students have been placed yet

Graduates are affordable, learn fast, say companies

It’s not just engineers who are getting hands on experience before their MBAs. Even arts, science and commerce students are doing that before pursuing professional degrees.

“Global firms are hiring our students for exciting positions. They are not being called for front desk or BPO jobs anymore. The average salary is in the range of three lakh rupees,” said KC College Principal Manju Nichani. Interestingly, that is the average annual compensation students in Mumbai’s second- and third-tier management schools are also talking about.

Lala Lajpatrai, an institute with a commerce college and a management school, is seeing corporates getting equally enthused about hiring graduates and postgraduates. “Management students wonder how salary levels for them and for commerce students are similar. We tell them they can have an edge over commerce graduates by taking one more degree,’’ said Asha Aggrawal, placement officer at the college.

Shaily Gupta, group head for Human Resources at Edelweiss, said that they hire 200 per cent more undergrad commerce students than the candidates they select from B-schools now. “Apart from being more affordable, undergrads come with no baggage and have a high learning orientation,” she said. No matter the degree they hold, everyone starts as trainees and undergoes six months of training to understand the business and move up based on their performance.

K V Mangaonkar, principal of Mithibai College, said companies coming to his campus were hiring large numbers of undergrads specialising in niche courses like accountancy and finance, management studies and economics. “From broking houses wanting students to operate the bolts to selecting candidates for analytics, almost every student who wants to be placed has an offer letter.”

BComs, BScs pip MBAs to jobs

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