Going abroad may not help find jobs, staying in India could

Study says that less than 13% of the companies actively seek to hire students with foreign degrees

Going abroad to study and receive a foreign degree may not assure a job back in India as companies are cutting down their hiring of foreign degree holders according to a study by the British Council.

The survey, carried out across 200 Indian and foreign companies to understand the employability potential of Indian students, has said that less than 13% of the companies actively seek to hire students with foreign degrees. While companies had increased hiring foreign graduates in the past three years, the number is expected to come down this year from 26 to 20%.

"Students with degrees from abroad should actively consider tapping into a job market that is still underdeveloped. They will, however, need to modify their expectations in terms of salaries, job content, and so forth. They will also need to compete with a domestic talent pool that most companies see as 'good enough' or 'large enough'. In fact, most companies who do not hire foreign-trained students cite these two factors as the main reason they do not actively look abroad for talent", the report said.

Meanwhile, students who graduate from United States of America are more likely to find recruiters as compared to other countries. The study suggests that 41% of recruiters are likely to hire students who graduate from United States followed by 26% from UK and 6% from Germany.

The study also suggested that 59% of respondents or 99 firms have not hired students from abroad in the last two years largely due to the huge talent pool in India. "Other reasons for sticking to Indian talent pools included unrealistic expectations about salaries, job content or career growth and not finding suitable matches from among these applicants", the survey said.

On the cost side, 72% of the companies have said that foreign-university graduates expect higher salaries than similarly-qualified Indian ones who have affected their prospects. "On an average, graduates from abroad expect to be paid about 25% more than their peers with Indian degrees, and 20% expect as much as a 50% premium, or even more. However, these expectations are not always matched by reality. A much-smaller 38% of firms actually pay higher salaries to graduates from abroad, and the average premium paid is fairly modest", the study said.

Indian universities have also emerged as a hunting ground for recruiters with more than 50% of the companies hiring from the top 20 Indian institutions. According to a report by Brookings Institution, Indian students spent at least $3 billion during 2008-2012 to study in the United States.