Cognizant tops Recruiters list in India

The IT services sector is perhaps the worst hit by global economic turbulence over the past few years. But when one company this industry hires more MBAs 21 top B-schools than any other company acrosssectors, you know it is doing something right. 

Cognizant, number one in India's Top Recruiters list this year, also featured in the top ten in the previous two years. 

It hires one MBA for every 20-25 tech professionals and this, the company believes, is the best way to beat the industry-wide slowdown. "Our industry-leading growth is, in part, a function of our ability to proactively provide solutions to business problems and not just technological capability . This attribute is strengthened by our MBA talent," says R Chandrasekaran, group chief executive , technology and operations. 

At Cognizant, MBAs undertake a varied spectrum of roles such as IT consulting, client relationship management, business development, opportunity assessment , M&A, business integration and analytics. The company hired more than 200 MBA students the 2013 graduating batch. And it is not done hiring yet. "We now have several groups within our Emerging Business Accelerator businesses, looking for MBA talent for their ventures," says Chandrasekaran. 

ET reached out to the country's top 21 B-schools and compiled hiring data over 119 companies to put together the third edition of 'India's Top Recuiters List.' Capgemini, a new entrant in this list, made itthe way to the number two slot. 

"We doubled our B-school hire intake this year," says Rajesh Padmanabhan, head, HR. "We engage with a few campuses and keep reviewing this list based on our experience of candidate performance, retention rates and their overall progress," says Padmanabhan. BCG, which hired more than rival McKinsey, made the most of the slowdown. 

There were fewer offers others. For a consulting firmours, people are the raw material. We are hiring more," says Sachin Nandgaonkar, senior partner and director at Boston Consulting Group. BCG, which was also the top recruiter at IIM-A , B and C, is now looking beyond. "We also recognise that there are other bright people who for some reason have not made it to IIMs. We wouldto see if that talent gets attracted to BCG," says Nandgaonkar. The firm also hired five Indian-origin graduates Insead, The Wharton School, and Kellogg School of Management. "We are seeing non-Indians at these B schools wanting to do India stints as it is an addition to the resume," says Nandgaonkar. 

For Goldman Sachs, the lone investment bank among the top 10 recruiters, this year was the most aggressive in recent memory. Says Bunty Bohra, MD : "We have been growing over the past seven to eight years and are expanding the breadth of our internship experience." 

Goldman Sachs visited 65-plus campuses this year, and Bohra himelf visited more campuses than ever. The firm used social media aggressively to woo top talent. It significantly upgraded its web-based content to communicate with the generation of millennials and also launched a global career app in February 2013. 

"If we are not connectingthe future of workforce is, we are not doing it right," says Bohra. Airtel's hiring numbers have remained the same, but this year, it reviewed the campuses it visits. "We have made our list crisp," says Krish Shankar, executive director, HR at Bharti Airtel. The company also picked some young leaders for its overseas operations in Africa campuses this year.