Helping Hand For MBA Pass-Out

Hyderabad June 7:  Bulls may be loading up stocks and nudging up the Sensex in anticipation of fresh economic reforms by the UPA Government, but recessionary fears continue to cast a gloom in the job market, especially for the fresh MBA pass-outs this year.

Despite some recent positive signals in the recession-hit economies, fresh MBA graduates still have to deal with constricted campus placements and lower availability of jobs.

A survey by the Hyderabad chapter of the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) Alumni Association has shown that so far hardly 20 to 30 per cent of the pass-outs from the 90-odd MBA colleges in Hyderabad this year have been able to land jobs.

“It is a more or less similar story elsewhere in the country. Campus placements have dwindled beyond expectation,” the alumni association says.

Collecting data from the 90-odd MBA colleges in Hyderabad, the association points out that 20 to 30 per cent of the 10,000 graduates who passed out this year have been picked up by companies from sectors such as banking and financial services, healthcare, FMCG, retail and market research.

“Even in top IIMs across the country, campus placements are taking an average of seven days, when similar exercises would last hardly for a day earlier. The set of students who will be most affected are from graduation batches of 2008, 2009 and 2010. And out of these, it is the 2009 batch that will be affected the most.

“It is estimated that only 65 per cent of the 2009 batch from the best MBA colleges in the country could find jobs on the campus. The figure for others is between 15 and 35 per cent,” Mr S.V. Ramana Murthy, Additional DGP (Co-ordination) of Andhra Pradesh and President of the IIM Ahmedabad Alumni Association, said.

Helping hand

Against this background, the association has decided to lend a helping hand to the de-motivated graduates and, as the first step, is organising a one-day workshop on June 13 in Hyderabad, where a phalanx of CEOs, CFOs and senior professionals from the pharma, FMCG, consulting, banking and insurance sectors will guide the students.

Senior MBA professionals feel that the fresh graduates should have an open mind.

“The graduates should re-orient themselves and look at alternative sectors. Our survey has shown that a number of sectors are emerging and if old opportunities are dying, there are new opportunities that are emerging. Why, as a last option, graduates can even think of setting up their own ventures with limited investments,” Mr Siva Senani, Director of Pioneer Labs and a member of the IIM alumni association, points out.

- Business Line