It pays to be in finance; but IT grads get a good start

In 2010, those armed with an MBA degree and one-two years of work experience got the highest salary hikes, on an average, if they were from the IT (Systems) departments of companies. They got an increase of nearly 13 per cent while those in general management got the lowest at 6.5 per cent. Finance MBAs with around 10 per cent hikes, and sales and marketing MBAs with around 10.11 per cent performed much better.

The story was repeated in the three-four years work experience category with those in the IT sector topping the list, followed by sales & marketing, general management and finance at the bottom. However, the scenario changes with more work experience, according to the MBA Salary Survey 2010 which was conducted by iimjobs.com. The survey was administered from May 16 to 31, 2010 with over 5,600 MBA graduates sharing their salary data anonymously with the education portal.

Those with five-seven years work experience in sales & marketing, according to the survey, got the highest salary increases. Those from the IT department, however, could get only around 6 per cent hike in salaries on an average.

A similar trend can be seen when one looks at the salary figures of MBA graduates. Around 65 per cent of general management graduates, with around one-two years experience, got over Rs 10 lakh. Only 60 per cent of finance MBAs in the same category got over Rs 10 lakh while the percentage dips further for sales & marketing at 51 per cent. IT comes at the bottom of the rung with only 48 per cent in this category getting over Rs 10 lakh.

In the over Rs 25 lakh category, it’s finance graduates that rule the roost with over 12 per cent. This is followed by 10 per cent for general management graduates getting over Rs 25 lakh and nine per cent for sales & marketing. Only 6 per cent IT MBAs make the grade in this category.

“We conduct this survey every year to help professionals benchmark their salary against their peers in the industry. We made sure that we did not collect any individually identifiable information to maintain confidentiality during the whole process. The data was then tabulated based on area of specialisation and years of experience. The areas being covered as part of this survey are — finance, marketing, general management/ consulting, and systems (IT),” says Tarun Matta, founder of iimjobs.com and an IIM Indore alumni.

“Even though, salaries in finance and consulting didn’t increase as much as other sectors, the average salaries were observed to be higher than sales, marketing and IT. Finance and consulting still remain top choices for MBAs graduating from top business schools,” adds Matta.

However, while an MBA in finance may fetch you the most desirable salaries, it may also attract the maximum attrition, reveals the survey which was conducted to understand trends in compensation for MBAs from top business schools in India. The attrition rate was observed to be highest at 13.6 per cent for finance graduates with three-four years of experience. It was lowest at 6.9 per cent for professionals in general management/ consulting sectors.

Attrition rate is defined as percentage of people who switched jobs in the last 12 months.Those with an experience of five-seven years in the IT sector, have changed maximum jobs in a year at 8.3 per cent as compared to the least in the general management sector at 5.4 per cent.

Even those with one-two years experience, although got the highest salary hikes last year, faced highest attrition as compared to other sectors at 13.5 per cent. On the other hand, finance graduates with one-two years were least encouraged to switch jobs at 8.2 per cent, the survey states.

What about salary trends next year? Matta says he expects the growth to be higher next year, as the economy picks up.

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