Campus hiring up by 36.5% as top recruiters back at B-schools

MUMBAI: India's top recruiters seem to have bet on 'achhe din aane wale hain' a few months before the new government was elected, stepping up campus hiring at leading B-schools by 36.5%, an exclusive ETstudy has revealed.
Ten of India's biggest recruiters hired a total of 774 MBAs from 21 top B-schools ET surveyed for the purpose of this study. Only 567 graduates were picked by the top ten recruiters the previous year.
Placement season 2014 broke a two-year spell of sluggish hiring with many companies recruiting aggressively.
Two employers Cognizant and ICICI Bank hired more than 100 MBAs each, the first time since 2011 that two companies breached a century of offers. "This year's placements were remarkably good given the economic conditions prevailing at the time. There was more participation from international firms, and companies across the board stepped up hiring," says Partha Sarathy, external relations secretary, IIM-Calcutta.
Cognizant topped the list for the second year in a row. Cognizant, along with ICICI Bank, Deloitte and Accenture are the four companies that have found a place among the top 10 for four years running. The ET India's Top Recruiters Study is now in its fourth year.
A team of ET reporters fanned out to 21 campuses and pieced together placement data to unravel India Inc's hiring strategies. The fiercest war for talent in placement season 2014 was perhaps fought between homegrown e-tailer Flipkart and global giant Amazon. Both muscled their way into the list of top ten for the first time this year, coincidentally hiring an identical 41 MBAs each.

Both companies declined to comment on salaries. But campus sources say Amazon offered compensation packages in the Rs 15- 29 lakh range. Flipkart offered a little lesser between Rs 13 lakh and Rs 21 lakh, depending on the role offered and candidate's experience. Amazon hired more than Flipkart at the top three IIMs, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta.
Both Amazon and Flipkart have been stepping up their engagement with B-schools exponentially over the last couple of years. Flipkart participates in conferences and workshops at the B-school campuses where senior leaders get a chance to address students directly and tell them about the brand. Amazon, on its part, conducts multiple activities across campuses including live projects and business competitions such as the Amazon Customer Experience (ACE) Challenge contest. This saw a 55% increase in footfall and popularity across campuses.
Among other big moves, RIL enters the top recruiters list for the first time; and HCL enters the list again after a one-year gap. Capgemini, which made a grand debut at No 2 in ET's top recruiters list last year, dropped off the top ten this year. Accenture walked away with the cream of talent at the top 3 IIMs with 43 hires, followed by Boston Consulting Group (40), Amazon (31) and McKinsey & Co (26). BCG missed out a spot in the overall top 10 by a whisker.
Bharti Airtel, a fixture on the top recruiters list for the last two years, is conspicuous by its absence this time. The company, which faced an exodus of senior-level executives in the last year, did not figure among the top 10 recruiters at any of the campuses surveyed.
This year, IIM-Kozhikode, JBIMS and IMI Delhi replaced IIM-Lucknow, DMS-IIT Delhi and IIT-Bombay-SJMSOM from the universe of top B-schools ET surveyed as a part of this study. Only the top 10 recruiters at each of the B-schools tracked have been considered for the purpose of this survey.