MBA Placements 2025: Experts discuss how Consulting, Tech Skills and Longer Internships Redefine Hiring

Exclusive to Shiksha.com, XLRI Jamshedpur, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management and Tata Steel leaders explain how India’s B-schools and recruiters are navigating a shifting job market.

When students walk into orientation at XLRI Jamshedpur, their first question is rarely about curriculum or rankings. “They ask about placements,” says Fr Sebastian George S.J., Director, XLRI Jamshedpur. For him, this is proof that despite debates on research and rankings, job outcomes remain the most critical benchmark for business schools.

The last two years, he admits, have been tough. “All of us have struggled because the economy was not doing well. That was the biggest challenge. But we still placed 100% of our students, and with genuine data, not manipulated numbers,” he emphasises.

At XLRI, consulting continues to be the most attractive domain, followed by IT-related roles, banking and operations. Start-ups and e-commerce, once considered glamorous recruiters, are losing sheen. “Consulting is the number one attraction for students,” Fr Sebastian points out, adding that placement outcomes should carry greater weight in national rankings for B-schools.

Speaking during Indian Foundation for Quality Management (IFQM) Symposium 2025, he said that industry and academia needs to come together and solve each other’s problem.

This focus is reflected across top campuses too. For 2025, several leading management institutes have reported stronger placement outcomes compared to last year. Average packages at premier B-schools have crossed the ₹25 lakh mark, with top offers touching ₹50 lakh or more. After a flat 2024, salaries are showing an upward swing, offering relief to both institutes and graduates.

Union Minister for Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman urged the industry to partner with the government to bridge the HR insufficiency and prepare the youth for new digital opportunities.

Skill Gaps, Not Demand

In an exclusive interaction with Shiksha.com, Dr Vandana Sonwaney, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), stressed that the placement story is less about demand and more about skills. “Industry will always require people. The real issue is skill gaps,” she said.

Digitalisation, she explained, has reshaped employer expectations. “Earlier you could prepare students only in marketing, finance or operations. Now, even in supply chain, industry is asking for graduates who understand supply chain technologies and analytics,” she noted.

For SIOM, consulting remains a steady recruiter, but the surprise story is manufacturing. “Traditionally, people felt manufacturing did not pay well. But now, with digital manufacturing, smart factories and Industry 4.0, companies are coming to campuses with new roles. These are not shop floor jobs but technology-driven profiles,” Dr Sonwaney said.

Logistics and warehousing too are changing. “It is no longer about trucks and transport. Warehousing today is technology enabled. But because it looks de-glamourised, students don’t always see the opportunities,” she added.

Analytics, data science and AI-driven decision making are among the fastest-growing areas. “If we don’t give these skills to our students, naturally placements will take a hit,” Dr Sonwaney cautioned.

What Employers Want

From the recruiter’s side, expectations have shifted significantly. Zubin Palio, CHRO, India Manufacturing, Tata Steel, explained that companies are no longer satisfied with evaluating candidates in just two months of summer training. “Firms strongly believe they are better positioned to judge a person if that person is with them for six months. That way, they can check not only academic brilliance but also emotional intelligence, adaptability and how the student works in teams,” he said.

This is why several leading firms are extending internships or even starting engagements from the first year. “These students are future recruits. The longer they work on live projects, the better the alignment between theory and practice,” Palio explained.

Consulting firms like BCG have already scaled up their summer intake, while manufacturing giants are deepening their engagement with campuses, not only to assess students but also to benefit from fresh perspectives on live problems.

For Palio, the ability to translate classroom concepts into practical solutions is crucial. “It is never theory versus practice. Theory comes from proven practice, but unless students can apply it in real-world contexts, it doesn’t help industry. That’s why we push for deeper academia–industry collaboration,” he said.

Sectoral Outlook: Where the Jobs Are

MBA hiring in 2025 is clustering around five broad domains, though the roles within them are shifting rapidly:

Sector Hiring Trend Nature of Roles Emerging

Consulting Strong, steady demand Strategy, transformation, operations consulting

Technology & Analytics Fast-growing Data science, business analytics, AI strategy, prompt engineering

Banking & Finance Stable Risk, compliance, fintech, wealth management

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Resurging Digital manufacturing, Industry 4.0, supply chain analytics

Logistics & Warehousing Rising but overlooked Tech-enabled warehousing, operations analytics

Shaping the Future

Together, as per our conversation with the academia and industry, it point to three clear shifts in MBA placements:

Placements remain the decisive factor – Students still choose schools on job outcomes, and institutes know they must deliver.

Skills matter more – in the changing scenario, employers expect candidates to have digital, analytical and cross-functional flexibility, not just domain knowledge.

Internships– It has also emerged that longer and deeper stints with companies are setting the tone for final hiring.

For MBA students, this changing trend means that the traditional safe bets like finance or marketing or even consulting need to be complemented with digital and analytical skill expertise. For the Bschools it signals the urgency of redesigning curricula and forging stronger partnerships with industry.

As India’s B-schools prepare the next batch of graduates for placement season, the message from XLRI, Symbiosis and Tata Steel is clear. Placements are still happening, but the rules are changing. Consulting may continue to dominate, yet the future belongs to those who can merge business fundamentals with digital, analytical and practical skills.

Or, as Fr Sebastian sums it up: “For a B-school, placement is the most important thing. Students know it, companies know it, and we must build everything else around it.”

Read More: