Attrition rate on the rise

Engineers wanting to leave their first job up to 65% this year

AC Nielson ORG-MARG's Campus Recruiter Index for Engineering Colleges indicated an increasing trend towards early intentional attrition amongst engineering students in India.

The survey findings suggested that graduates desirous of leaving their first employers within the two years or less has gone up to 64 per cent this year as compared to 59 per cent among those who graduated in 2005 and 47 per cent in 2004.

"The trend reflects the explosion in job opportunities for skilled workers, the growing IT sector and the aspirations of today's engineering graduates," said Associate Director AC Nielson ORG-MARG Prasenjit Das.

In the most preferred employers list selected by the engineering students due to graduate in 2006, global internet search firm Google has made a surprise entry securing a 2nd place after Microsoft, while displacing Mckinsey & Co to the third place.

IBM, which was rated highly by the batch of 2005, did not find much favour with prospective batch of 2006 and slipped from the No 3 slot to the 10th place this year.

The survey also highlighted the increasing trend among engineering graduates to pursue a post-graduate management degree with more than half of all prospective engineering graduates covered in the survey inclined to go for an MBA degree.

Further the desire was strong even in graduates from non-premier engineering colleges. "MBA is increasingly being seen as a prerequisite and not an add-on to an engineering degree. The implications of this are important for HR professionals within the organisations that seek to attract and retain engineering talent," said Das.