Management consultancy tops chart

NEW DELHI: Management consultancy is the most popular sector amongst IIM students in the 2008 batch. Investment banking (31%), foreign banks (24%) and software, IT consultancy and service (24%) follow as the next most popular employment destinations for students from the six IIMs across the country.

In terms of the sector showing greatest promise for the future, retailing tops the list with 39% students positively inclined towards it. This is followed by private equity firms (26%) and investment banks (24%), according to the latest Nielsen Campus Track-B School Survey 2007 released on Thursday.

MNC consultancy firms like BCG, McKinsey and Goldman and Sachs were some of the consultancies rated as the preferred prospective employers this year. The study attributes it to their ‘stamp value’ in the market, good job content in terms of contributing to strategic thinking and exciting salaries. McKinsey was rated as the ‘dream company’ by 40% of the students.

Good reputation, brand image and compensation were the next big consideration for the fresh graduates. The average salary expectation for the IIM students from their dream company stands at close to Rs 19 lakh, which is 30% higher than last year.

While the salary expectation from a local Indian firm is about Rs 14.2 lakh, it almost doubled to Rs 27.4 lakh when it comes to foreign companies. Handsome package aside, 47% of young and curious graduates expect to move out of their first job in less than three years in search of better career opportunities and higher compensation packages.

The Nielsen study also points out that IIM students depend a lot on their network of alumni when selecting their prospective employers. Feedback from seniors (84%) and summer training experience (80%) emerged as the main source of information about employers. Seventy two per cent of students also rely on pre-placement talks.