CAT aspirants with work experience to rise 10%

To be at par with engineering students, many aspirants from non-engineering strams are opting for at least a year of work experience before appearing for the Common Admission Test (CAT). Career Launcher, a leading education service provider, states that this year’s CAT will see a 10 per cent increase in aspirants with work experience, as compared to last year.

“Students do not want to have too many things on their plate these days. They like to focus on what they want to achieve and hence, are taking at least a year’s experience before attempting CAT.

This trend is more prominent among students from the non-engineering academic background, as they want to be at par with the engineering students, who are believed to find it easier to crack the CAT,” says Nandkumar Bhujbal, head (marketing), Career Launcher, Mumbai.

Even the top business schools such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), are said to believe that candidates with prior work experience make better future managers than fresh graduates.

Even for the 2008-10 batch, while IIM Ahmedabad recorded a 67 per cent of students with work experience as against 62 per cent last year, IIM Lucknow saw the highest increase at 89.25 per cent as against 50.41 percent of students with prior work experience last year.