With the US economy drained by the recession, the job market in the US has become weak and now American graduates are looking at India as a destination for a job. They are motivated by the fast growing economy in India. Now Indian companies have started to conduct recruitment drives in institutions in America.

US graduate working in India

Win Bennet is a US citizen born and bought up in Minneapolis. After passing out from Brown University in economics and international relations in 2009, he looked for opportunities in the American job market. But he soon realized that the job market was weak and was not welcoming. So he looked at India for opportunities.

He said that the India is a favorite destination for many reasons. According to him the Indians in the United States is very vibrant and welcoming. He added that the Indian professional networks in the United States are large and growing. This has made it easy for job seekers from the west to find out opportunities in India and to choose a job that fits their passion and skill set, just by holding casual discussions with friends and acquaintances. Bennet now works with ICICI as an analyst, India’s biggest private sector bank. He has been living in Mumbai for the past 3 years.

Job seekers from the US increasing

With the American economy showing no signs of improvement, an increasing number of recent graduates for institutions across America is seeking job in India. The Indian companies which are looking for talented and skilled graduates have responded to this situation by carrying out recruitment programmes abroad. Even though the pay in India is much lower than what a graduate can earn in America, the lower living cost as compared to America makes it attractive for a better quality life. The opportunity to travel across the world and work in Asian country which gives them better experience outweighs the salary considerations.

Indian companies recruiting from the US

The co-founder of snapdeal, Kunal Bahl, has recently conducted recruitment drives at various universities in the United States including the university of Pennsylvania, and University of Stanford. According to him in India, which do not have an old legacy of internet technology to boast about, companies which are rapidly growing, face a problem with shortage in talent pool. Bahl is an engineer who holds a business degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Surprising response

When Snapdeal announced that they were planning for a recruitment drive in the United States, the response was surprising. After the announcement was made, they received more than 2000 resumes, out of which 30 per cent of the resumes were from students who were not of Indian origin. As far as non Indians are concerned, they want to get a job of their choice and location is not a barrier to them, be it India or any other Asian country. They are not particular about working in the United States only, all they want is a job of their passion. And that is the reason why young American graduates prefer to come to India to work and do exciting things. Mr. Bahl says that he plans to go to America during the spring for another recruitment drive.

Nonresident Indians wants to come back to India

Another promising trend is that the Indians who have been living abroad for quite some time is now looking forward to come back to India to work. Hitesh Oberoi, CEO of Naukri.com, a major Indian job site, says that they have received large number of resumes from Indians abroad, and most of them want to come back to India to work. He added that the number of Indian students going abroad for their higher studies is increasing and they form a large talent pool for companies in India, especially for start ups.

Other Indian companies recruiting from the US

Snapdeal is not the only company that is looking for talents from the west. M & M has started to focus on the Western institutes and is recruiting at the Wharton School at Pennsylvania. Other companies which recruit from this institute include Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. As in the case of India, there are job fairs in the US too. In one such job fair held at New Jersey and California, Indian companies such as FlipKart, InfoTech Enterprises, Jindal Steel & Power and Tata Motors had participated in the recruitment process.

In the recent years many of the Indians living and working in foreign countries have started to show interest to come back to India and settle down here. Mekin Maheshwari, President of engineering at FlipKart explains that this is reason why they decided to participate in the job fair in the United States.

The trend is gaining attention

Universities and colleges have started to notice the trend that has come up recently. According to Rajiv Dewan, senior associate dean at the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester, about 20 % of the 400 graduates in the institution have taken up jobs in the Asian region. Five years back it was just 10 per cent of the students who took up jobs in Asia.  He added that out of 40 Indian students, about ten of them have taken up job in India. Earlier only a handful of them used to take up jobs in their homeland.

Once considered as a failure

Mr. Dewan said that people considered it as a failure to come back to India, in the past. But now that perception has changed and now they consider India a perfect destination for finding a job of their choice and perfect location for a perfect career start.

As the Indian GDP grows at a better rate, we can expect that more and more western graduates will turn to India for job and career opportunities as they have already realized that they cannot turn a blind eye on India. Let us hope that the Indian economy will grow at a faster rate to accommodate both Indian and foreign graduates and both of them work in harmony.