Graduating with more than honours

They are barely 20. They have yet to graduate from Delhi's prestigious Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). (The average age at which students graduate in India is 21.) Yet, according to SRCC's placement cell, nine of its students have been hired by global banking major Deutsche Bank with an attractive annual pay package of Rs 15 lakh.

According to job portal Naukri's latest Hiring Outlook, there is buoyancy in hiring activity for freshers and entry-level employees in 2014, with IT and pharma hirers leading the way. This is in contrast to the July 2013 survey in which the maximum numbers of jobs available were for professionals with four-to-eight years of experience.

But it's no longer only business schools that recruiters are flocking to for fresh hires. Top companies, mainly in the field of audit, consulting, IT, as well as start-ups, are now targeting graduate schools as well with lucrative offers. These include premier undergraduate, or Tier-I, colleges such as St. Stephen's College, Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College for Women and SRCC in Delhi; St. Xavier's College, Kolkata; St. Xavier's College - Autonomous, Mumbai; H.R. College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai; and Christ University, Bangalore, among others.

Says Fidelis Mascarenhas, Advisor - Placements & Alumni Relations, St. Xavier's College - Autonomous, Mumbai: "The trend is employers are looking at undergraduates (UGs) now..." Milind Apte, Executive Vice President, HR, Godrej Properties Ltd, says five years ago, his company recruited only three trainee executives from UG colleges. In the last three years, the figure is up to 55 and next year alone, the graduate trainee figure will be 40. "They are raw talent with a lot of fire in their bellies and consistently show energy, passion and drive. They want to pursue higher education. They have an open mind, while management trainees (with more than three years experience) develop strong choices and they are not very flexible in terms the work they want to do."