Campus hiring 2025: Salary offers rise for MBAs and BTechs after flat 2024, says Deloitte report

NEW DELHI: The Class of 2025 is seeing better salary offers across top campuses, marking a recovery in hiring activity after a sluggish 2024, as per a report.According to the Deloitte Campus Workforce Trends: Placement Cycle 2025 report, which analysed data from 508 institutions, median salaries for MBA graduates are set to rise by 8.3%, and for BTech graduates by 4.3%.

This follows last year's drop of 9% for MBAs and 0.1% for BTechs.The median package at leading MBA institutions (per NIRF rankings) is anticipated to reach Rs 26 lakh annually in 2025, increasing from Rs 24 lakh previously. For premier BTech institutions, it has risen to Rs 17 lakh from Rs 16.3 lakh in 2024.The improvement is attributed to accumulated demand following subdued recruitment last year, focused skill-based hiring, and replacement of departing staff.

Educational institutions confirmed these developments. "Average salary has risen, and this growth is largely driven by expanding opportunities in high-growth sectors such as private equity, renewable energy and healthcare," Himanshu Rai, director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore, told the Economic Times.He noted substantial increases in variable compensation, particularly in consulting and finance positions, reflecting performance-based structures and industry demands.

IIM Ahmedabad's placement committee chairperson Viswanath Pingali indicated whilst finalising their previous placement data, "Informal data analysis suggests there is a small increment in the salaries. It is the general trend."In this fifth edition of Deloitte's report, which surveyed 238 organisations, Neelesh Gupta, partner at Deloitte India, stated, "Engineering degrees are leading YoY compensation growth (4.65%), outpacing the management degrees (2.19%)."BTech graduates continue receiving the highest compensation, followed by Law and BBA graduates.Gupta noted, "The technology sector is the most preferred industry by students for the fifth year in a row."Manufacturing showed the highest compensation growth compared to the previous year, followed by the consumer sector, with life sciences/pharmaceuticals showing the least growth. Variable compensation has become standard in campus recruitment. "97% of organisations have implemented short-term incentive programmes or bonus or performance-linked incentives," according to the Deloitte study.In FY25, pre-placement offer (PPO) conversions rose by 24% across all degree programs compared to FY24. For MBA graduates, the most sought-after roles were management consultant and product manager. BTech graduates mostly secured positions as development engineers and data scientists, while CAs were hired mainly as audit managers or management accountants.Companies are increasingly using retention bonuses, "positioned as a ‘stay incentive’, these payouts are designed to anchor fresh talent through the critical first year," Gupta said.