What are the qualities that make a recruiter pick one student of a field of 30 or 60? Or do recruiters merely use well-known B-schools as good places to look for the kind of candidates they have in mind?
Corporates respond differently to each of these questions based on their individual profiles, requirements and plans. But there are several common elements to be found in the general profile of B-school hires.
For instance, if 10 years back recruiters looked for loyalty and hard work in candidates, today the search is for people with clear-cut thinking, knowledge, focus and interpersonal skills.
Take, for example, ICICI Bank. The private bank recruits candidates only from the best schools, including the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), XLRI, the Indian School of Business (ISB) and the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (the last two are not rated in this survey).
The agenda at a campus recruitment, says K Ramkumar, general manager (human resources), ICICI Bank, is to look for people who have clear-cut thinking abilities, good influencing skills, a passion to win and interpersonal effectiveness.
