Top professional services firms ramping up hirings from premier UG colleges

At a time when hiring at entry-level roles has taken a pause, major professional services firms like Grant Thornton and PwC have shown an increased interest in hiring freshers from the country's top undergraduate colleges like Lady Shri Ram College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, St Xavier's college, and Christ University, among others, The Economic Times (ET) has reported.

Grant Thornton has increased its intake from UG colleges by more than double this year. In a similar trend, PwC has also ramped up its hiring of non-engineers from UG colleges. In PwC's case, the newspaper reported that these hirings have doubled in the last two years.

 

Chief Business Officer at Grant Thornton Bharat, Satya Jha, told ET, "There has been a clear increase in the demand for freshers from top UG colleges at our firm." He added, "This talent pool is absolutely valuable for us, considering they are adaptable, scalable, and trainable across our service lines."

Grant Thornton plans to continue their hiring expansion from UG campuses of Delhi University, Uttaranchal University, and Mumbai University, along with UG campuses in the South, including institutions like Christ University and Loyola College.

These hirings will be done for a variety of consulting roles within different service lines like risk, tax, corporate intelligence, growth, CFO services etc, the report said.

Apart from these roles, Jha added that, like every year, there will also be a requirement of Article trainees from these campuses for the audit business.

Elaborating on why companies prefer to hire undergraduates from these companies, PwC India's Managing Director and talent supply chain leader, Joydeep Roy, said that it is easier to train young talent. Trained candidates can later be utilised to serve in different roles.

He highlighted that these candidates come from top institutes like St Xavier's, SRCC, Christ University, Loyola College, Kamala Nehru College, Stella Maris College, and Maitreyi College, among others, the ET report said.