Hefty pay packets no more a spur

Leading business school graduates prefer better job profiles to handsome salary.

An overwhelming 95 per cent of India's leading B-school graduates are willing to forego hefty pay packets for a job profile of their preference.

These graduates prefer a work profile with growth opportunities instead of high salary offers, according to an Assocham Business Barometer Survey (ABB).

The ABB survey of 271 students was conducted among top B-schools including Indian Institute of Management (Kozhikode), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Institute of Management Technology (Ghaziabad), SP Jain Institute of Management and Research and Symbiosis Institute of International Business (Pune).

Only 5 per cent of the students prefer fat salary packets over a good job profile. Factors like desire for a higher standard of living, family expectations and responsibilities, compulsion to pay hefty amount of education loans, to save for investment in entrepreneurship, draw MBA graduates towards high-paying jobs.

"But, things seem to have changed with preferences changing for the future growth than the present rewards," the survey indicated.

When given a choice between working for a growing company or an established one, 60 per cent of the respondents said they would opt for companies in the growth phase. In terms of location, 65 per cent of the respondents want to work in the US.

UK and Australia are the next favourite destinations with 34 per cent and 24 per cent of them opting for these countries respectively. Europe, Canada, Singapore and UAE are the other preferred countries.

Among the remaining 21 per cent of the respondents who prefer to work in India, 44 per cent place no priority on the location of job within the country. Another 40 per cent consider location as the second most deciding factor when choosing a job.

Banking has emerged has the most preferred sector among the MBA students to work in after their post graduation, with 51 per cent of the respondents, showing a preference for this sector Consultancy, marketing and IT sector are other sectors, which are high on the placement agenda of the students.

Also, 34 per cent of the respondents stated they would not sacrifice the sector for any perk in form of pay or profile.

The remaining 20 per cent have asserted that their decision would depend on factors like job satisfaction, growth potential, ease of switching to desired function, company culture, working hours, challenges and growth opportunities.