Foreign Degree Might Not Land Job in India: British Council Survey

While companies had increased hiring of foreign graduates in the last 3-5 years, the number is expected to come down this year (2014)Having a foreign degree does not mean one will get a job in India because most companies find job seekers with domestic degrees good enough, a British Council survey said.

The survey, across 200 Indian & foreign companies to understand the employability of Indian students, found only 13% of companies actively seek foreign-degree holders. While companies had increased hiring of foreign graduates in the past three years, the number is expected to come down this year.

Highlights of British Council Report..!

* Students with foreign degrees 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, etc. 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 that do not hire foreign-trained students cite these two factors as the main reason they do not actively look abroad for talent.

* Among foreign degree holders, those with US degrees are more likely to find recruiters than those graduating from other countries. The study suggests 41% of recruiters are likely to hire students who graduate from the US, followed by 26% from the UK and 6% from Germany.

* The study also suggested that 59% of the respondents have not hired students from abroad in the past 2 years, owing 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.

* On the cost side, 72% of the companies have said those who have studied abroad expect higher salaries than similarly-qualified Indian candidates.

* On an average, graduates from abroad expect to be paid nearly 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.

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 $ 300 crore during 2008-2012 to study in the US.

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