FOR MBA JOBBERS
Campus Contests Offer Jobs in Prize
IN GOOD COMPANY:
Corporates chart out competitions around their businesses and management practices to vie for top talent in campuses
Priyata Modi, 24, was in her second year of MBA at MDI, Gurgaon, in 2010 when she received an email notification of a competition by JP Morgan for management students. Though this economics graduate from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, had always aspired to make it big in investment banking, she had no clue the competition would help her become the frontrunner for a dream job in the IBank six months later. Modi, at present, works as an analyst in JP Morgan and does number crunching with its top investment bankers. Modi is not the only one who got to showcase her talent and kickstart her career through a competition. Management students every year are joining companies through the ‘competition’ route, after proving their abilities. In the war for talent, companies are reinventing hiring. And it’s win-win for both the companies and the students.
Companies, such as JP Morgan, PepsiCo India, CEAT, Schneider Electric and GSK Consumer Healthcare, are all taking this course to hire young managers. The inter-B school contest that Modi enrolled for was titled DEAL.
The contest has been created to gauge the research and analytical abilities of students from across various premier management institutes. The students, including Modi, were provided with a case study, in which, Company A is planning to acquire Company B. These management students are supposed to present a case whether this alliance is possible and if yes, how would Company A present its case to Company B, in order to crack the deal. While students get job offers, corporates get to identify and recognize the desired managerial talent and recruit them. “The Deal is a platform which helps JP Morgan identify and recruit high potential candidates across target premier B-School campuses. Additionally, the competition will also showcase and build awareness on the firm’s Investment banking business, to this audience,” said a company spokesperson. “By the end of the competition, each participant has a self-assessment of his potential and interest to become a successful Investment Banking professional,” he adds. For students, contests are also an opportunity to learn about the potential employer. Garima Pathak, HR head at CEAT said, “The basic design of the competition is always woven around the latest that is happening in the organisation. The contest simulation itself gives the student a fair idea of what is the kind of business the company is into and what it expects in terms of solutions. A lot many times students can see correlation between the organisations and their own professional interests, which we believe, does help them in making prudent career choices.”
EMPLOYER BRANDING
Puneet Malhotra, another student from MDI, who joined Religare Finvest through a competition, says such contests also help employers analyse and understand potential employees better. “When you present a plan to a boardroom filled with top management executives, you know they are taking you seriously and you get a chance you present yourself accordingly.” Malhotra and his teammates presented a strategy on how to take the firm’s revenues from . 10,000 crore to . 25,000 crore. Kamlesh Dangi, group chief people officer at Religare, says that such competitions help corporates get more eyeballs from the students. Religare has already organised Traders Trophy, wherein participants trade one or more securities in a fictive market, with each other and fictive market players at IIM-A .
Stratospear, a case study competition wherein participants were expected to present ways and means to drive up the firm’s revenues, at NMIMS, Mumbai, in the last two years. It plans to organise another contest at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade this year. Recruiting through such a process not only improves the quality of hiring, but such candidates are also likely to remain longer with the company, claims Dangi. “This is because it is a well-informed decision for both the sides. While the company has reviewed the candidate at various stages of the contest, the candidate too gets to understand the company’s businesses and practices a lot better,” he says. Dangi compares hiring through contest with summer internships candidates, wherein the situation is quite similar and both the parties get to know each other well. “That’s why a summer intern who performed well is very much likely to get an interview or a job offer with the same company,” he added.
Religare hired two students in its group of companies through contests last year, but plans to add many more as it expands its exposure on campuses.
Most of these competitions are at the moment limited to around 15 management schools, including the IIMs, MDI, XLRI, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management.
While for PepsiCo India, the campus programs help the company enhance its employer brand proposition on campus, GSK Consumer Healthcare EVP-HR Arun Sehgal said it also gives the company an opportunity to showcase its brands and products to the students and understand their ideas for growth for the company. Mili Kapoor, who is currently working with PepsiCo India, had won the ‘Become Indra’s Advisor’ contest, along with two other members of her team from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, last year. Kapoor describes such contests as ‘a mini reality check’. “Such contests are a platform to interact with corporates, an experience that is essential before students step into their world. Students get to know where they stand and what they might need to work on academically and otherwise,” she says. “As an organization, we have continuously engaged with campuses by taking a multi-pronged approach to ensure that we remain visible, relevant and top of mind. Our interventions include high impact pre-placement talks on campuses, fun days and our flagship contest,” said Samik Basu, chief people officer at PepsiCo India.
All of this together has helped create impact with key campuses and students and left a strong impression of our employee value proposition, our growth story and the world of infinite possibilities in PepsiCo, according to Basu.
Little surprise then that more and more companies, including multinationals are assessing young managers through contests. For students, the reward goes much beyond cash prizes and sometimes is a gateway to the dream job. Strategies to Attract Talent PepsiCo Be Indra’s Advisor
THE CASE-STUDY
competition is focused on providing solutions to live challenges being faced by the business. The winners are taken to PepsiCo’s headquarters in New York and given a five-star treatment CEAT Wheels on Web
THIS MARKETING campaign competition is focused on creating an online business promotional strategy for CEAT, along with giving the participants a fair idea of the kind of business the company is into and what it expects in terms of solutions Religare StratoSpear A CASE study competition where participants are expected to present ways and means to drive up the firm’s revenues in the years to come JP Morgan The Deal
THIS INVESTMENT-BANKING competition focuses on a possible merger and acquisition between two companies. Participants are expected to present a case on whether a company should go for the acquisition, and if yes, how GSK Consumer Healthcare StratEdge A SALES and marketing competition, it is aimed at providing strategic solutions to the challenges that organisations today face in a dynamic business environment.
- MAHIMA PURI ET21OCT11
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