Slowdown making many executives for CAT

AHMEDABAD: Freshers, beware! From next year, belling the CAT will be much more tougher. For there would be additional competition from candidates with two to five years of work experience—a profile preferred by the top B-schools in the country.

The number of candidates appearing for CAT has gone up by 11% versus last year. However, the ratio of freshers to those with some work experience has remained more or less constant at 30:70. Experts feel that this ratio will alter for CAT 2009 in favour of those with additional work experience.

Driven by economic slowdown, many professionals from IT, engineering , medical and finance background are gearing up for CAT.

“Given the current slowdown in the economy, working people are looking to rescale and upgrade their profile, which will lead them to take up CAT next year. Already inquiries are pouring in from people with such profiles. This means, competition for country’s top BSchool will get tougher,” said Career Launcher director Arindham Lahiri.

Experts believe people who have been otherwise busy with their job are now making up their minds to take up CAT and are readying themselves to take the plunge next year. “It is better to do an MBA now as promotions are not expected quickly. In two-years’ time, as economy picks up, job prospects might improve. By that time, I would hopefully have my MBA degree,” says Sakshi Verma, who has been working for eight months for a Delhi-based KPO and has been shifted to a different department as the volume of work in her department had shrunk.

While the bulk of candidates applying for CAT are fresh graduates, over the years there have been an increasing trend of people with two to five years of experience taking up the test for admission to the coveted B-Schools . And candidates with prior work experience have a special preference over freshers for top-slot B-Schools , including IIMs.

“We do consider candidates with prior work experience. This is part of our admission policy. Although it varies from year to year, candidates with varying degree of work experience (which may be as little as six months) are our first choice,” said IIM-A chairperson (admissions) Satish Deodhar. IIM-A has more than 50% candidates with two to five years of work experience.

“Around 40% of candidates take up CAT more than once, and the number has accumulated over the last several years. They are also candidates with some amount of work experience in the fields of IT and banking-finance and have an edge over freshers ,” said director and CEO of Endeavor , an institute that prepares for admission to management schools.

GETTING TOUGHER

Number of candidates appearing for CAT has gone up by 11% compared to last year Ratio of freshers to those with work experience has remained constant at around 30:70 IIM-A has more than 50% candidates with work experience Candidates with prior work experience have a preference over freshers for most B-Schools.

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