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Employers are looking for candidates who have the required experience to be senior managers, says Prof. Shrikant of IIM-A. Summer placements are often too short a duration to serve any valid purpose. Students are often given mundane tasks which neither employer nor internee take too seriously.
Unless a student is actually given a responsibility and certain targets to achieve in the summer placement, the experience ends up being just a minute exposure to the world of work.

According to Sandhya, HR Manager in a leading IT company, "Well your work experience as a business analyst or as a management trainee can be very useful. That does not go to say that shop floor experience is not useful, but it is only useful if a person goes back to the production line, and is waste if they end up selling soap. A look at the top business schools in the world and you will see that recruiters look for what your work experience has been, your superior's opinion of you, the contributions you have made, etc. Globally, Indian MBAs have tremendous market potential because they are available at relatively cheaper prices and our rigorous selection process ensures that excellent people come out anyway."

Besides this aspect, there are several situations where work experience and the final job secured don't possess much in common. How do companies resolve the issue? Shivadurgesh of IClCI Bank says, "Any candidate with a certain level of work experience, is started at the same level as those without work experience. But with definitely a higher level of compensation." Corporate India echoes this viewpoint. If candidates have work experience that's not totally relevant, but is of a certain level in terms of number of years, they should be compensated monetarily.

As most HR managers say, it's only about how good you are at the job. Whether you're from an IIM or a Sydenham, whether you've worked for two years or none at all, if you don't perform you would be shown the door.

Part-time Vs. Full-time

"Till some time back, all MBA students entering the portals of IIM Ahmedabad had less than two years or no work experience at all. The graduating batch today has over 30 people with more than four years of work experience and the trend for people with a larger number of years of experience has been steadily upwards. Clearly, there is a growing demand for MBAs from people with substantial experience," says IIM-A's G. Raghuram.

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* Contributed by -
Oumkar Umesh,
Senior Correspondent - The Observer of Management,
Vol. 1 Issue 4 April 2006,
(With inputs from Prithvi Singh).