Indian IT majors will probably tell you they were the first to discover the graduates when they invaded science colleges in Mumbai after facing a drought of programme coders. What started as a hunt for BSc graduates about five years ago has not just picked pace, but also expanded.
Accounting and auditing firms are lapping up commerce students who have studied banking, and investment firms and marketing agencies are substituting their requirements for MBAs with those who have just tasted management education at the bachelor's level in the BMS programme.
Last week, there was a frenzy at the Jai Hind College campus when Google shortlisted over 50 students. HR College (comerce), this year, was host to all the big four accounting firms. While Pricewaterhouse Coopers visited the undergraduate college for the first time, McKinsey is likely to storm in next year, said placement co-ordinator Bidia Batheja. Global firms are hiring our students and placing them in exciting positions. Our students are not being approached for frontdesk or BPO jobs anymore. The average campus salary is in the range of Rs 3 lakh," said KC college principal Manju Nichani.
Interestingly, that is the average annual compensation students in Mumbai's second- and third-tier management schools are also talking about. Although placements are still on, recruitment cell co-ordinators at N L Dalmia Management College quote the same kind of salary numbers.
Lala Lajpatrai, an institute with a commerce college and a management school, is seeing corporates getting equally enthused about hiring graduates and postgraduates.
"Management students often wonder how salary levels for them and for commerce students are similar. After all, management students who have invested good money would like to get higher salaries. We tell them that management students can have an edge over commerce graduates by taking one more degree,'' said Asha Aggrawal, placement officer at the college.
The trend at Edelweiss is similar to many other investment companies. Shaily Gupta, group head for Human Resources, said they hire 200% more undergraduate commerce students than the candidates they select from B-schools now.
"Apart from the fact that they are more affordable, the undergraduates come with no baggage and have a high learning orientation," she added. No matter the degree they hold, everyone starts at the same level, that of trainees; they all undergo a six-month long training programme to understand the Edelweiss business and move up based on their performance.
K V Mangaonkar, principal of Mithibai College, said companies coming to his campus were hiring large numbers of undergrads who specializing in niche courses like accountancy and finance, management studies and economics. To ensure that students are suave in their interviews, Mangaokar even hires an external communications agency to help polish their interpersonal skills. "From broking houses wanting students to operate the bolts to selecting candidates for analytics, almost every student who wants to be placed has an offer letter."
For most students then, the choice comes easy. It's not just the country's engineers who are getting some hands on industry experience before joining management programmes. Even traditional arts, science and commerce students are doing that now before pursuing a professional degree. And companies are rolling out the red carpet.