InsideIIM Recruitment Survey Results - Part II - Costs of MBA, Minimum Salary Expectations and Best Pre-Placement Talks

(You can read other results of this survey here : InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2012)

 

So who are the companies that delivered the best pre-placement talk across campuses in 2011-12?

(The diagram above is a Word Cloud. The words that were replied as a response by the survey takers are represented above. More the number of responses, bigger the size of the font of that word.)

 

A picture says a thousands words. Well, quite literally the above picture makes it all very clear. Hindustan Unilever or HUL  is a clear favorite and that too by a huge margin against any of the other companies. When we added the response total of Unilever, Hindustan Unilever and HUL it was a clear winner ahead of the next best TAS by a margin of over 65%. Do bear in mind though that companies that do not visit a lot of campuses are unlikely to win this contest as number of respondents from those few campuses would easily be outnumbered. Despite that, HUL and TAS have a consistently good reputation across all the 8-10 campuses they visit. McKinsey is a clear winner on the consulting side while Deutsche Bank has had a terrific impact with its sessions across campuses beating Goldman Sachs by a decent margin. Coca-Cola is another name known for very impressive presentations. Procter & Gamble is at No.5 because it does not visit all the top campuses. Mahindra seems to be doing quite okay too. One common theme we observe here is that companies conducting competitions seem to have a better brand recall and invariably also seem to give better presentations.

Top 5 across all domains are:

1) Hindustan Unilever (HUL) - Score 480

2) TATA Administrative Services (TAS) - Score 290

3) Deutsche Bank (DB) -  Score 150

4) Coca-Cola (Coke) - Score 130

5) Procter & Gamble (P&G) - Score 100

Joint 6th - Goldman Sachs, McKinsey,Mahindra - Score 80

 

Minimum Salary Expectation after graduation

We use two of the same three groups that we used to present the results of the most preferred work cities. Except the MBA aspirants+1st Year MBA students group the question was asked to 2nd Year MBA students (Class of 2013) and Alumni (Post-MBA Industry Professionals)

They were asked : What is your minimum in-hand/take home salary expectation on graduation in March 2013? (In-hand/take home salary is after deduction of Income Tax and after provision for Employee Provident Fund. House Rent Allowance structuring depends on the organizational policy)

Percentage Respondents for each Salary Expectation Range

 

Quite clearly, graduates of the Class of 2013  would be dissatisfied if their in-hand takeaway were to drift below Rs.80,000 a month. Given the Student Loan and the Rent payments, life would be very difficult below this threshold. The results are in-line with what most people would expect and no real surprises here. Our analysis says that in-hand take home in excess of Rs.120,000 per month would be for the cream (or the most fortunate - whichever way you like to see it) on top campuses.  In-hand Salaries exceeding Rs.200,000 a month are for the very best and in India it would be the investment bankers, top-tier private equity guys and a few consultants who would land those jobs. The last big upward propulsion in salaries across domains took place in 2011 after 2 years of  a very tough recruitment scenario. No significant upward revision was seen this year in March and we do not expect a big change in either direction in 2013 as well. Given the current scheme of things, the class of 2013 should hope that status quo is maintained and no more bad news comes in.

Bonus payments were not considered part of the above analysis. They are over and above the in-hand monthly take home.

To get more perspective we had also asked the same question to post-MBA industry professionals. It was done to see if there was any discord with the mood on campuses.

Doesn't show any divergence from the mood on campuses. Another point to note here that majority of our respondents graduated in the 4 years from 2009 to 2012.

Over 70% of Current students have availed of a Student Loan.

 

The Cost of an MBA Programme

It was the Class entering business schools in 2008 that saw a sudden jump in course fees across most top campuses (especially the IIMs). Since then there has only been an upward trend (has trebled in some cases). Batch sizes have also almost doubled. Employment scenario has not been rosy.

In this context, it is interesting to know what young India thinks about the cost of an MBA programme - Aspirants, Current Students and Post-MBA industry professionals.

The question asked : What according to you is the reasonable all-inclusive cost of an PGP/MBA programme from a top business school in India? (1 lakh = Rs.100,000)

Percentage Respondents for each All-inclusive Cost Range

 

 

 

Alumni seem to score lower vis-a-vis price which is their perception of the value one gets from a MBA programme as compared to the perception of current students and MBA aspirants. It could also be influenced by the fact that they paid much lower than students pay today. What is amazing is how easily the 9 lakh ( 1 lakh = Rs.100,000 i.e. $1818 at Rs.55/$) mark has become the new normal.  Class of 2009 in most IIMs paid Rs.5 lakhs or less.  In at least 5 of the 6 old IIMs, the fees have trebled.

Today, all the Old 6 IIMs,XLRI,MDI,MICA, IMT Ghaziabad,SIBM,NMIMS etc. charge well in excess of Rs.10 lakhs (Rs. 1 Million) One needs to note that average take-home salaries have not gone up by equal measure. Nor can any institution claim any dramatic improvement in quality of education imparted. In fact, the doubling of batch sizes may have had a negative impact on the quality of education and the standard of learning.

Either the programme was largely undervalued earlier or the IIMs have successfully managed to change the value positioning of the MBA programme. Going by the responses above most of the MBA programmes are still expensive in the eyes of all the students and alumni. (You may want to read this article which attempted to point out why)

 

Methodology

Over 1200 respondents took the survey online. Incomplete surveys were filtered out.  Duplicate surveys were not accounted for. Adequate steps were taken to prevent ballot stuffing and rigging using technology.

The above findings are based on 700 legitimate respondents  with 70% of the respondents in 10 major cities in India . They answered between 25-30 questions based on their profile (Aspirant, Student or Alumni). The relevant questions have been mentioned above for each of the parameters addressed in this part.

If you are preparing for Summer Placements or Final Placements, please have a look at our Career Guide - The InsideIIM Career Guide

 

The InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2012 Results

Part I – Most Preferred Work Cities

Part II – Cost of an MBA Programme in India, Minimum Salary expectations (Class of 2013), Companies delivering the Best Pre-Placement Talk (Voted by Class of 2013) 

Part III – Career Choices – Most Preferred Career Domains, Most Preferred Sales & Marketing Companies

Part IV - Most Preferred Companies in Finance & Consulting

Part V -  Most Preferred Companies in General Management & Dream Companies - Overall

 

 

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(You can read other results of this survey here : InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2012)