InsideIIM Recruitment Survey Results - Part I - Most Preferred Work Cities

These are results for the year 2012. The 2013 results are now available here   2012 So they are finally here! Let's see how the country has responded! Part I looks at Most Preferred Work Cities rated by three groups of respondents - 1) MBA Aspirants and 1st Year MBA Students - Since the academic year starts only in July/August across the country, both these types of respondents have similar exposure at the time of taking the survey and a month into a business school is unlikely to affect choices of 1st year students in a significant way and hence they are clubbed as one group of respondents. 2) 2nd Year MBA Students - Having spent over 12-14 months in BSchool and also having gone through a 2 month internship, they are likely to have a different perspective by now. 3) Post-MBA Industry Professionals - Post BSchool life changes dramatically and so do beliefs and opinions. Let's see what this group has to tell us. After a month of survey responses from across the top 20 business schools in India, we have the results of the InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2012. For those who haven't taken the survey, we will explain the methodology for arriving at the results as and when we release the results.

Most Preferred Work Cities

1st Year MBA students and Aspirants  

(The y-axis above represents the composite City score for each city calculated based on the responses)

As strange as it may seem, most 1st Year students and MBA aspirants have opted for Indian cities above the global centres like NY,Singapore and London. One theory propounded is lack of exposure and knowledge about the scale and quality of life in these global business hubs. Another is that the new admission seekers and 1st year students do not see the economies in the developed world improving very fast and maybe they don't see it as a very lucrative option anymore. Or maybe they are just realistic looking at the employment scenario? Yet another theory is that culturally we are tuned to searching for employment in India. It is possible that this group of respondents would not be fully aware of the high living costs in Mumbai and also the infrastructure issues. One would believe that they would be equally unaware of the importance of  being in Mumbai for certain domains like Finance and Management Consulting. 2nd Year MBA students

(The y-axis above represents the composite City score for each city calculated based on the responses)

Is this the e-commerce boom effect? Or did people experience / hear about the Mumbai struggle stories during/after the summer internship season tipping the scales in Bangalore's favour? Also, the difference in the cost of living between Mumbai and Bangalore (actually Mumbai and anywhere else in India) would have kicked in. However, given the concentration of top Banking firms and Consulting majors in Mumbai apart from General Management biggies like TATA,Reliance and Aditya Birla Group will ensure that Mumbai's appeal is unlikely to go down very soon. 10 years back Delhi/NCR would have not been as popular as it is today and one feels that popularity of this region will only increase with more connectivity and improvement in the perception of relative lack of safety in the region. Post-MBA Industry Professionals

(The y-axis above represents the composite City score for each city calculated based on the responses)

  The result based on the responses of the alumni and industry professionals is a complete contrast. What explains this aspiration to go abroad? Is it the realization that the real global business nerve centres are in NY,Singapore and London? Or are they in that stage of their careers where the most logical next step is to get global exposure to be eligible for leadership positions within the firm at a later stage? Or is it just plain disillusionment with the quality of urban life in India? Surely, there are no lack of opportunities in India. There is still a substantial difference in earnings not only because of the exchange rate but also due to global standards and that could have affected the survey responses. We must point out that over 70% of Post-MBA industry professionals who responded to our survey have graduated in the 4 years between 2009-12.  

Methodology

Over 700 respondents took the survey. All the respondents were asked to rank their most preferred work cities from the following list of cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore,New York, London, Dubai/UAE, HongKong, Singapore,Hyderabad,Chennai,Other Scores were calculated based on Ranks given by the respondents and appropriate weights (10,6 and 3) were assigned to the top 3 ranks to decide the most preferred work cities.   If you are preparing for Summer Placements or Final Placements, please have a look at our Career Guide - The InsideIIM Career Guide   The InsideIIM Recruitment Survey 2012 Results Part I – Most Preferred Work Cities Part II – Cost of an MBA Programme in India, Minimum Salary expectations (Class of 2013), Companies delivering the Best Pre-Placement Talk (Voted by Class of 2013)  Part III – Career Choices – Most Preferred Career Domains, Most Preferred Sales & Marketing Companies Part IV - Most Preferred Companies in Finance & Consulting Part V -  Most Preferred Companies in General Management & Dream Companies - Overall