Would you like to be handed over a job or would you rather work for it?

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It is no secret that if entrance scores permit, many MBA hopefuls would seek admission only to those b-schools that offer the most lucrative placements. That an MBA degree in India, comes packaged with a job is understood. But not so in b-schools abroad, where students have to hunt for their jobs where making multiple rounds of companies, sending a few hundred resumes, sitting for hours outside prospective HR departments and travelling cities on job hunts, is a given, to net a job.

Career Services or Career Management plays a more supporting or guiding role in helping a student to get ‘himself’ a job, compared to a Placement Cell which works primarily to ‘get’ the student a job. A Career Services department works all year around while a Placement Cell engages in heightened activity close to summer and final placements. Explains Arif Kachra, professor of Strategy at Richard Ivey School of Business, Canada: At Ivey we dont think about placement in the traditional sense. We prepare our students to have life-long career management skills; which they need to place themselves not only in their first job, but for future jobs as well. It is important to make students accountable for their own success. We help student finesse their skills in leadership, communication, presentation, personal branding and in dealing with ambiguity.

INSEAD’s (France and Singapore) Career Services department has a similar function. Vinika Rao, its Associate Director, says that her department begins working with students from the Orientation Week itself. We perform a coaching and counselling role, helping students self assess and analyse their past and future career choices, opening up new career opportunities to them and providing the knowledge necessary for them to convert job opportunities into offers. It is not about who gets a job first, it is about who gets the right job no matter how long it takes.

In other words, for students of global b-schools, the only support given by Career Services is from the outside. Joan Tay, Director of Career Service and Corporate Relations and Communication, NUS Business School, Singapore says that students are encouraged to be proactive and take charge of their research. We conduct workshops to teach students skills which will help them get a job. There are many avenues where students can source for career opportunities such as recruitment presentation, job board, networking events and they are kept informed about job opportunities in the job market through daily job alerts.

In Indian b-schools, the job of the Career Services is handled by a Placement Cell in which students play an active role. A Placement Cell’s main objective is to make sure that placements are successful and students get the right jobs. Shubhankar Rai, from IIM Ranchi Placement Committee admits that the successful conduct of the placements continues to remain the prime objective of a placement committee in any B school. However, he adds that for the ultimate goal to be successful, various activities are conducted throughout the year. Different corporate interactions are facilitated on campus by the committee in pre-placement talks, workshops or corporate talks. Additionally, the committee may also work towards discussions with various companies for live projects for students (assignments / consulting projects which B schools tend to pursue during the course of the normal academic session).

Bala Balachandran, founder and dean of Great Lakes says that while placements cannot be called spoon-feeding, placements should exist along with career services. Let’s face it, no one goes to a good b-school just for learning. The lure of money is a strong motivator. The questions a student asks himself before enrolling are to do with placements and salaries. Prof Bala adds that sadly, these days students gives more importance to the job part, rather than the learning process. While in the better b-schools, it may not matter much, especially to the brighter students, in other schools, such attitudes can affect the students’ growth ladder.

VK Menon, Admissions Director with Indian School of Business (ISB) says that ISB conducts a combination of placements as well as career services. One system cannot work individually. Since we have placements for so many months, we not only have companies on campus but we help students find their jobs.

Other b-schools like Indian Institute of Bangalore (IIM) Bangalore have made a shift from Placement Services to Career Services. Sapna Agarwal, Head – Career Development Services, IIMB says that keeping in view the changing requirements of students and the industry, the placement office was re-organised into Career Development Services (CDS). “It is not as if the students are guaranteed a job by CDS or IIMB. We facilitate the campus placement process. The students still have to try very hard to secure these jobs as they compete amongst themselves as well as with students from other equivalent B Schools. The campus placement process is highly competitive as students vie for their preferred jobs and companies.

The Career Services department at IIMB works as a placement cell as well as a career services cell. It encourages students to hunt for jobs as well gets companies over to the campus.

When asked which system works better, Agarwal says that the CDS is doing well. We have received positive feedback from students on CDS activities. Of course, much more needs to be done to be able to reach out to all the students and truly add value to their career decision making process.

Sophie de Lorenzo, Director of the Office of Career Services & Corporate Relations at the International University of Monaco (IUM) says that placements cells should not exist at all. “I personally do not like the concept because students shoulder the responsibility of finding their first job. And this first job will define their career path. Getting the job you want is the first step in the business jungle. Finding a job and the process of finding it is in itself a learning curve,” she explains. IUM also has in place a Career Services cell which helps students with information on the job market, trends and also helps them meet up with HR/recruiters so that students can chart their own path.

Jobs are viewed differently in different schools. For instance, in global b-schools, there is no urgency to provide/get a job at the end of the MBA course, nor is the stress on salaries and designations, the way it is in India. In India, a student who does not secure a job through placements is often viewed as ‘inferior’ as compared to others, while abroad, the quest is to find the right job, even if it means waiting for it.

Recruiters too have not collected data on which graduates turn out to be better and they simply adapt to the rules of the b-school. Cognizant, for instance recruits from b-schools in India as well as in the Asia-Pacific region and has not noticed any performance-related differences in the students. Satish Jeyraman, Assistant Vice-President, Human Resources says that his company selects MBAs on the basis of their individual merit and experience and whether they are hired as part of campus placements or through career services does not matter. We continue to see a strong requirement for MBAs from premier B-schools and their contribution across lines of business continues to be very significant. Cognizant recruits for a varied spectrum of roles such as IT consulting, client relationship management, business development, business requirement analysis, opportunity assessment, M&A;, change management, business integration and analytics.

Like Cognizant, other companies too visit global b-schools as and when vacancies arise. It is not a planned-out system like it is in India but more need-based. On rare occasions, corporate fairs are also arranged on campus by the respective Career Services departments.

Salaries?

The salaries earned by students in b-schools abroad (by getting jobs on their own) are not shockingly different to those earned in by students in Indian b-schools. For instance, at NUS, while the salary earned varies according to the industries and functions, its MBAs draw an average annual salary of about SGD $ 80K (approx Rs 28 lakhs) and the highest above SGD $ 200k (approximately Rs 72 lakhs). At INSEAD, the salary range is very wide, For 2009, the range was from 10,000 Euros (approx Rs 6.4 lakhs) to 218,000 Euros (Rs 1.4 crores). While some of these numbers look impressive, the standard of living in countries like France or Singapore has to be kept in mind.

And the thrust abroad is to hunt a job that suits one’s profile, more than anything else. A 2008 Wharton graduate says that in his year, almost no one availed of Career Services. I saw students making umpteen rounds of companies, travelling all over the country, especially on weekends to meet HR people, sending CVs to numerous companies, networking, but I did not see anyone going to Career Services. Securing a job on one’s own was the big thing. Some did not even get jobs at the end of the year but they never stopped trying.

Students from b-schools abroad say that there is a huge difference in bagging a job through placements and career services. Mohit Belani from INSEAD says that his school teaches him to be independent. The fact that I know there is going to be no plum job for me at the end of the season makes me alert. I know that I have to try from day one to get myself a job throughout the year and cannot relax.

Chetan Jotwani studying at NUS says that his school has helped him come out of his comfort zone since there is no placement system. His colleague Komal Ahuja says that the absence of placements has made her networking skills get better. Since there is no job coming to me directly, I have learnt to know more about what kind of a job I want and learnt to try various sources.”

Students who have passed out from Indian b-schools say almost the same thing. Says Harshal Modi, who passed out from SIBM Pune: There is no doubt that some b-schools in India are nothing but glorified placement agencies but not all. Graduates from top Indian b-schools like the IIMs or XLRI can definitely find jobs for themselves if there were no placements but not many other schools. For students from those other schools, placements are needed.

Another student who spoke on the condition of anonymity says that in India, most MBA students take education loans. ROI is important. Education loans are hard to repay. A job at the end of the course makes it easier to repay the loan. In India one cannot have the luxury of staying without a job and searching for the right one. There are always home responsibilities to think about.

It is hard to say which is a better avenue to secure jobs placements or career services. While for an Indian student, it is imperative to stand on one’s feet ASAP, students abroad have the luxury of hunting for the right job. Ironically, Vinika Rao, who heads Career Services at INSEAD is an IIMB graduate and when she enrolled at IIMB as a fresh graduate years ago, she knew a job would be waiting for her at the end of the course. She did get a job through placements but today she is happy being part of Career Services: “It’s a good feeling to secure a job with some struggle,” she says.