AI training and more: How are top management colleges fighting rough tide in difficult placement years

The experts believe due to leadership abilities, strategic thinking, and specialised training, management graduates have a higher probability of finding jobs. They serve as valuable assets for companies since they can handle demanding business situations and adjust to changing circumstances. It is also believed that businesses look for people who can drive growth while participating in decision-making qualities that are usually reinforced during management programmes.

However, it is no surprise that while the highest and average salary saw a dip as compared to last year, the salaries have seen an upward tick from all the past year except the 2022-23 session. Usually termed as ‘correction’, this tough phase is not a surprise to industry experts anymore.

“2023 was a terrible phase when it comes to campus placement and a similar story is continuing this year as well. However, this dip has not come as a shock as we saw this last year and were already prepared accordingly this time, and we know how to drive it. Otherwise, the market is very similar to last year, and has not improved much. Hopefully, the market will improve after one or two quarters, once the new regime comes in US,” said Prof A Kanagaraj from XLRI.

Skill development — the need of the hour

What helps management colleges stay afloat, especially the private ones, is focus on skill development. Experts believe certain skills such as analytical thinking, including interpreting data, identifying trends, and solving complex problems through evidence-based decision-making have helped them sail through.

“Skills expected from recruiters’ side is Digital Literacy i.e. mastering tools like Python, R, Tableau, and grasp technologies such as AI and blockchain. Unique skills such as adaptability, staying flexible and being emotionally intelligent to handle change and stress are the key expectations from almost all the recruiters,” said Dr Kirti Sharma, associate professor chairperson – GP Placements & PGDM (IB), MDI Gurgaon.

Upskilling and career development activities are main saving grace for these B-schools. These days companies prefer candidates who can understand technology better, and thus the management schools have started training students for Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud, data mining and more. “We train them primarily through lot of workshops. We have separate vendors who provide industry-related workshops, and through these we upskill our students and create a USP for them, which is appreciated by companies. We have identified niche areas and roles which have more potential, and now we target those areas,” explained Prof A Kanagaraj.

Sailing through tough years

While layoffs by major firms such as Google signal economic shifts, to safeguard themselves this year from the “terrible” market conditions, private B-schools expanded their recruiter base. The institutes usually tie up with some of the top recruiters across consulting, FMCG, BFSI, and emerging sectors to ensure a steady pipeline of opportunities.

Industry experts believe that these layoffs can be scary, but new jobs will also always be available as it is difficult to achieve targets without reliable managers. This thought is supported by recruiting experts too. “Businesses rely on skilled managers to guide teams, to implement plans, and ensure smooth operations. In order to cope with uncertainty, drive growth, and maintain competitive advantage, managers play a crucial role. In times of chaos, their capacity for quick adjustment, well-informed decision-making processes, and innovation is key,” said Kalpesh Banker, managing partner at EduShine Search Partners.

In such a situation since companies wish to maintain their relationships with the institutes, they visit the campus for placements, but tend to reduce the number of offers to keep their budget intact. To bridge this gap, private institutes have “started to bring more number of companies — more than the usual — to ensure that the number of total offers does not decrease, even if number of offers from each company takes a dip,” XLRI professor explained, adding that their institute brought in 70 per cent more recruiters.

MDI Gurgaon also added that diversifying the recruiter base to include sectors such as healthcare, edtech, electric mobility, fintech and FMCG has ensured placement stability.

Private institutes are also trying to lengthen the placement cycle “to accommodate more recruiters,” XLRI added.

Changes in placement seasons such as longer placement cycles, more number of companies, more variety of roles, increased workshops etc are possible in private management colleges due to a more flexible budget, than the government ones. “It is no surprise that private institutes have a better budget and more freedom to use it. We can invest more in skill development, maintaining relationships with recruiters, employing more people in recruitment teams, more faculty members, longer placement cycles and more. That is the freedom that government colleges don’t get, and it plays to our advantage,” said Dr. Sanjeev Bansal from Amity Business School.