Citigroup ramps up hiring in India

At a time when many foreign banks are reducing their headcount in India, Citi is on a hiring spree. The US-based lender nearly doubled its job offers this calendar year, hiring 239 from the campuses of business schools as compared to 139 it recruited last year.

The move is in line with Citi’s aim to expand its businesses in India after its earnings from local operations improved last financial year. In 2010-11 (April-March), its consolidated net profit surged 78 per cent to Rs 1,859 crore.

“Our campus recruitment strategy is the key to building our talent pipeline, as the entry-level associate and analyst programmes offer broad exposure across different businesses...In fact, many of Citi India’s business leaders opted to join Citi directly from business schools,” said Stephen Cronin, managing director (human resources) for South Asia at Citi.

In fact, Pramit Jhaveri, the current chief executive for Citi India, was also a campus recruit and is an alumnus of the management associate programme.

This is also the first time Citi recruited undergraduates for its newly minted analyst programme.

“Through the analyst programme, undergraduates from premier graduate schools in India and international universities have been given an opportunity to begin their careers at Citi,” Cronin said.

The company had also incorporated a two-year programme that includes rotations and rigorous classroom training across finance, economics, capital markets, trade finance and banking operations to build its leadership pipeline, he said.

Citi’s hiring comes at a time when its rivals like Barclays Bank and Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) have decided to cut down their employee count in India.

Earlier this week, Barclays Bank said it had decided to combine its client relationship teams at Barclays Corporate and Barclays Capital in India that will see 25-30 people losing their jobs.

Karan Bhagat, country head and managing director of Barclays Corporate in India, will also move out of his current role. HSBC has also asked 120 of its employees to look for new jobs. A spokesperson said as part of its restructuring plan, the bank was exploring opportunities if these employees could be shifted to other departments.