Ecommerce most popular career destination for Top B school graduates

Ecommerce continues to top the Nielsen Campus Track Business School survey as the most popular career destination. Students across 35 top B-schools voted it the most preferred sector for employment for the second year in a row.

According to the survey, shared exclusively with ET, as much as 30% of the students from the 2016 graduating batch indicated ecommerce as their top choice for employment, about 2% higher than last year. Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) saw an increase in traction with 25%, or 4% more than last time, favouring the sector. IT, too, was picked by 25%, compared with 17% last year.

"Ecommerce retaining its No. 1 spot as the most preferred sector indicates how much of a foothold the sector has gained. The nascency that was initially attached to ecommerce has long since disappeared, and today it has become a highly employable sector," said Ajay Macaden, executive director at Nielsen India. "Moreover, as the study found out, the opportunity to learn is also driving B-school graduates towards this space."

While the FMCG sector saw 24% of students indicating preference — the same as last year — in terms of overall popularity it has moved down to No 4. Management consulting was preferred by 23%, putting it in fifth place in the survey that allowed each student to pick up to five sectors.

Despite FMCG slipping in the popularity charts, sector biggie Hindustan Unilever continues to maintain its status as the most preferred employer for five years in a row, and as a dream company across sectors for the seventh year running.

"We believe in building a strong relationship with the student and academic community and invest senior leadership time to bring alive our employer value proposition on campuses," BP Biddappa, executive director-HR at Hindustan Unilever, told ET.

Online retail giant Amazon soared up to be at No. 6 in the campus recruiter index (CRI), a huge leap from last year's spot of No 34. This is the first time that an ecommerce company has made it to the top 10 companies in the 16 years of the survey.

"Our vision is to enable students to be innovative and get encouraged to take up challenging assignments that are rewarding for their career. Our engagements, including internships go beyond just hiring with focus on enabling, facilitating and improving skills. Amazon has several businesses i.e. ecommerce, cloud computing, devices and content. This diversity offers students the unique opportunity to work across industries as well as globally," said Raj Raghavan, director of HR at Amazon India.

In the ecommerce space, other big players including Flipkart and Snapdeal have also gained ground, moving up to 17th and 27th spots, respectively, from last year's 26th and 49th positions. CRI is the weighted summation of companies' goodwill across attributes.

According to the CRI rankings for the year, the top 10 companies for the 2016 graduating batch are HUL, Google, Microsoft, HDFC Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Amazon, ICICI Bank. P&G, McKinsey & Co and Facebook. When asked about their dream employer, respondents across B-schools polled HUL (15.2%), Google (14.8%) and Amazon (12%) as the top three. The survey measures and monitors attitudes and perceptions of students in relation to career preferences and potential recruiters.

Source:Techgig