5 reasons why 65% B-school grads prefer PSU jobs over private ones

SOUNDS surprising but this is a fact. Business school graduates are now growingly preferring a job in public sector undertakings over private companies. This was shown in an ASSOCHAM paper paper called 'PSUs back in reckoning' said. Statistics don't lie. The number of intakes by PSUs from B-Schools, more...
so those outside the IIMs, has gone up by 160 percent this season compared to last year. The survey sample included over 500 students from various B-schools, including IIMs, BITS, ICFAI Business School and Symbiosis Institute of International Business (Pune). The survey conducted between June and July 2014 found that more than 65 percent of respondents preferred the public to the private sector.Here are five reasons why India's leading profit making PSUs are first choice for B-School grads for jobs.
Job security: The first and foremost thing that a PSU job guarantees is job security. PSUs provide job security in today's fluid economic background. Economic uncertainties often lead to job insecurity in private sector jobs though they are seemingly lucrative to begin with. The hire and fire policy is resorted to by a good number of private companies vis-a-vis their employees.
Lucrative salaries: Apart from providing job security, the PSUs like the Maharatna PSUs (seven altogether) offer the best pay package in the industry. They also offer generous perks and special allowances, says the Assocham survey. The survey said: “More and more pass-outs from business schools are flocking to topline public sector companies due to job security, improving prospects of firms and headwinds faced by the private sector, especially those in highly leveraged sectors like telecom, real estate, power and other infrastructure.” The PSU entities are offering nearly Rs 10-12 lakh annual package, higher than the average starting salary of Rs 7-8 lakh in the private sector offers for fresh engineering graduates and pass outs from second-tier B schools. Most public sector units offer starting salaries between Rs 9-11 lakh.
Good future prospect: Whereas an economic upturn is still elusive, with improved Sixth Pay Commission salaries and announcement of the next Pay Commission, due to give its report in 2016, the PSU jobs had become attractive and more lucrative. Indian students are opting for public sector jobs over private sector because of fatter financial packages with banking and public sector undertakings becoming a major attraction on campuses today.
PSUs in hiring spree: At a time when the private companies are putting a hiring freeze, more and more PSUs are turning out to be lucrative employers. Private sector big companies, especially those in the highly leveraged sectors like telecom, real estate, power and other infrastructure are facing headwinds.
There is a big increase in the demand for jobs in public sector undertaking (PSUs) this year. The number of job applicants for such jobs has increased by over 160 per cent this year. Also, there is a steep rise in the management trainee jobs in public sector in the last one year (120 per cent), the report said.
Special and Liberal allowances: Whereas in case of private players all perks are clubbed together in the form of cost to company (CTC) packages, apart from salaries, PSUs pay a number of special allowances which include for children education, professional pursuit, bungalow maintenance, courtesy, hard duty, canteen subsidy, remote area, North-east and for cable which are over and above normal allowances like house rent allowance and dearness allowance in public sector units.
PSU entities not only pay allowances but such allowances are also paid at liberal rates. These allowances are given in the form of transport subsidy, hostel subsidy, mobile bill reimbursement, newspaper reimbursement, concessional procurement of equipment like laptops, furniture, it noted. .
Also numbers will tell a true tale. The report says, SAIL received nearly 2.2 lakhs job applicants this year from various B-schools which is much higher the last year (1.2 Lakhs). Similarly, ONGC also received 1.5 lakhs job applicants this year, increasing by 120% than the last year. NTPC (1.2 lakhs), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) received 98,000 job applicants followed by Gas Authority of India Limited (91,000), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (88,000), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (75,000) etc. received the maximum job applicants this year, higher than last year, reveals the Assocham paper. Over 65 per cent students said their first choice would be to join PSUs and Central government jobs. The top picks for them include ONGC, IOC, NTPC, HPCL, BPCL, SAIL and leading PSU banks like the State Bank of India (SBI), adds the Assocham paper.