On Campus Hiring at B-Schools – The Recruiters’ Perspective

By Prof. Dhananjay Singh

Starting mid-September, top ranked B-school campuses in India are buzzing with the most awaited event, ‘the onset of campus recruitment processes’. It refers to the period of the academic cycle when companies approach campuses looking to recruit new management talent into their ranks and students put their best foot forward to bag the most coveted job offer.  Grabbing a good campus placement offer is a milestone that every B-school student strives hard to achieve. Students need good skills to succeed in campus placement interviews.

While it's a well-known fact that this period is marked by considerable stress on the part of the students, what's not common knowledge are the very similar emotions exhibited on the part of the recruiters, who risk their company's time, money, and reputation in search for the ideal candidate. A management graduate is trained by an educational institute to acquire broad based knowledge of how businesses function with a specialization in one or more aspects of business like finance, marketing, HR, operations, business analytics, general management, etc. This creates a large number of individuals, possessing knowledge almost at par with each other and therein lays the recruiters’ challenge to choose a first among equals. What do the recruiters want in a B-school graduate?

Recruiters’ perspective from different Industry verticals

Based on my repeated interactions with recruiters during campus recruitment cycles at different B-school campuses over the last few years, I have collated recruiters’ perspective from different verticals and shared the same in this article. Fundamentally, companies consider long-term perspective and hire people who are committed and will make an impact in their organization. On campus recruiters consider academic accomplishments, and previous experiences while hiring but give greater importance to company “fit”.  Not finding candidates with perfect qualifications fit is fine as long as the candidate is amenable and willing to align with the organizational value system and culture.

Mr Jortin George, Head Super Speciality – Critical Care and Alternative Channel at Cipla Limited prefers hiring candidates whose culture and value system are in alignment with the organizational values and culture. Though, Mr George prefers hiring candidates with pharma background and good business management skills, he ascertains if the candidate is focussed, independent, ambitious, proactive, willing to learn and work in teams before hiring. The Founder & CEO of Priceeagle.in, Mr Debasis Chatterji interacts with candidates on different topics, questions them on their ability and skill sets, and checks on their ability to learn new things & their family background before trusting his gut feel in extending the on the campus job offer.

Mr Amit Chaturvedi, Senior Vice President High Tech Solutions & Fintech at DBS Bank expects a management graduate with experience to demonstrate how his/her perspective has changed after studying in a B-School. He interacts with candidates to test their ability to apply learning into roles played earlier. In case of freshers, Mr Chaturvedi tests their application of strategic, finance, marketing, and leadership concepts through case analysis. Mr Ramachandra Murthy, Area Business Manager at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited hires candidates with excellent communication skills and ability to sell. Mr Murthy prefers hiring B-school graduates who are self-motivated, positive, confident, goal-oriented, and capable to grow and flourish in a competitive environment and possess the resilience and the ability to cope with rejection.

Mr Hemant Lal, International Business Manager at Changemytyre.com attaches greater importance to candidates command over fundamentals and their ability to apply theoretical knowledge in real life situation. He values candidates with ability to debate and discuss as this would help them in real life business scenarios to present and push their point with logic and convince others when confronted with a negative response to their perspective. Most of the campus recruiters attach significant importance to candidates’ healthy demeanour, eye contact and smile as it is crucial in real life business situations in creating positive attitude - not withstanding an unfit physique. Both Mr. Chaturvedi and Mr Lal gauge a candidates’ ability to imbibe, comprehend and convey information by checking on their understanding of last book read. In situations where, all the candidates have the same educational qualification i.e. an MBA, Mr Lal and Mr Chatterji give importance to online certifications from institutes like Google or Udemy on topics which improve skill sets and help the candidate stand out.  It also demonstrates the candidates zest for learning.

The Senior Country Manager at Amgen Technology Pvt Ltd, Ms Mansi Malkan gives more importance to a candidates’ clarity of thoughts while hiring b-school graduates. Lack of clarity and goal orientation makes the young energetic management graduates wanting to achieve everything in one go leaving them a little cluttered juggling between multiple things. Therefore, it becomes difficult for management graduates to give their 100%. Ms Malkan prefers candidates who are grounded with reasonable expectations and willing to assume additional roles and responsibilities.  Like Mr Hemant Lal, the Sales Head – South at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited, Mr J Rajasekhar also prefers hiring candidates with strong fundamentals and theoretical understanding of their course. Mr Rajasekhar prefers candidates who have cross functional expertise, are flexible and open to learning, and are looking forward to long term association with the company. Amazon, one of the top recruiter at the management schools in India, does not differentiate between talent from top B-schools and the rest. The Chief Talent Officer at Amazon says that the effort is on finding the right talent that would fit the Amazon culture irrespective of the institute. While hiring talent, Amazon’s philosophy is focused on the potential they see in students.

Top ranked B-schools prepare students for the hard grind of the corporate world by teaching them information crunching (live projects, case assignments, role plays), competition and cooperation in divergent group (relative grading), adaptability and flexibility, right attitude, emotional intelligence, and constant urge to learn, unlearn and relearn. On campus recruiters want the candidates to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired with the right attitude. On campus recruiters hire candidates who are quick learners, possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills, take initiatives, eager to take responsibility, find creative solutions to complex issues, demonstrate personal credibility and integrity, team player and multitask.

About the Author:

Prof Dhananjay Singh is an academician with 17+ years of post-graduate level teaching experience who loves teaching, training, research, and consulting in that order. He is the Chairperson – Admissions at IMT Hyderabad. He was earlier part of the consulting team at Family Business Academy (FBA), Jeddah Saudi Arabia. Prof Singh has an MBA in Marketing Management from Osmania University, a diploma in training and development from ISTD New Delhi and shall soon be submitting his PhD thesis. He has imparted management education to MBA students, PGDM Executives, and MDPs. His intellectual contribution includes research articles, book reviews, and case studies in peer reviewed journals. He has conducted 50 + executive development programs across India.