Flipkart, a prominent recruiter at IITs and IIMs, is preparing to hire from Harvard, Wharton and Stanford’s management batch of 2015.
This is part of its plan to acquire management and technology talent from global campuses. The Bangalore-based e-commerce company’s top brass, who are alumni of global business schools, have started talks with their alma mater on hiring interns and graduates.
Founder and CEO Sachin Bansal and CTO Amod Malviya met Stanford’s career office this January to discuss placement and internship prospects for engineering graduates.
“Flipkart has become a brand with visibility and we want to absorb global talent,” said Mekin Maheswari, chief people officer for the company. “The awareness has increased and so has inbound requests for internships and hiring from international universities.”
Flipkart is yet to firm up the numbers it will hire and the salaries it will offer. Salary reports of class 2013 for Harvard show that the basic median salary ranged from $120,000 to $135,000, excluding perks, bonus, etc. Placement season for most of the international Bschools starts in October-November and the class graduates in May-June.
Nipun Mehra, senior director for retail, who has a masters degree from Stanford University and an MBA tag from Wharton (batch 2010), spearheaded talks with Wharton’s career office. “It is initial rounds yet and if it works out we will hire students with experience for lateral roles. There has been a positive response since many students want to be part of the new retail experience of India,” Mehra said.
Flipkart is also talking to Stanford’s B-school. “There are hundreds of companies that may submit job postings, or send representatives to visit Stanford personally, in the hope of recruiting Stanford students. It would not be possible for us to comment about any one company,” stated Lisa Lapin, associate vice-president University Communications, Stanford University.
Flipkart received an invitation to be part of ‘Employability Workshop’ conducted by UK’s University of Leeds. These workshops help students and prospective employers to discuss the kind jobs available.
The company, which crossed $1 billion in sales in March, is fighting rivals like Amazon and homegrown Snapdeal. The e-commerce firm is estimated to have raised over $700 million in funding so far, says large hiring plans are in line with the steep growth chalked out for next year.
Snapdeal officials said they have no global hiring plans. Flipkart made 172 offers to the class of 2014 at IITs and B-schools.
It also hired 108 interns in 2013, up from 37 it hired in 2012. Some of these interns came from international colleges like University of Leeds, London, IE Business School in Spain and Netherlands-based HAS University. The company plans to almost double its total recruitment this year, including campus and laterals.
