B – School Salaries – Is the hype justified?

The ever-increasing salaries offered to B – School students at the end of the placements have become one big media event. Although the salaries offered are big enough to talk about, sometimes the excitement goes over board.

Also, the exceptions are singled out & the averages are ignored. How many students in the leading B-Schools of India take home a salary of 35 lakhs per annum? End of the day the fact remains that the average salary offered is approximately around the 7 lakhs to 10 lakhs range.

The big salaries & the hype about it are good only for two people. One is the student who got the huge offer & the other is for the institute where he studied. The increase in salaries is making the brand value of the institute increase as well. This is where the media should pitch in & put things in black & white.

Of late there is a lot of talk about the CTC. It’s now well known that the salary amount offered is not the gross salary but the CTC (Cost to Company). CTC covers all the perks, benefits extended to the individual, which he can take home only on reaching certain performance standards. There have been a few occasions when the relocation costs have also been added to the CTC, that way making it that much rosier.

The other areas where we need more clarity are on what is the hike a B-School student gets at the completion of his 1-year with the company. It would be interesting to know the % hike. One of the recruitment strategies of companies today is to hike the initial offer to the candidate & not have any hikes at all at the time of appraisals for a few years thereafter. Also does the student stick with the company forever there after? So if he moves does he get a hike as per market standards?

Like a friend who was involved in campus placements pointed out recently, there was a time when colleges (Graduate & Post Graduate levels) were ready to welcome recruiters for placing their students in various companies. Today there is so much competition to tap the best talent first that unless the recruiters plan months in advance as to which college to tap they will be left high & dry at the nth moment. This can be attributed to the increasing coverage of B-School campus placements.

Apart from the news itself, it would be worthwhile if the media presents the other side also to such results.