Unlike yesteryears, job offers from the industry to defence personnel undergoing a six-month certificate programme in a B-School are no longer confined to ‘security’ roles.
“The acceptance from the corporate sector has been remarkably pleasant; they have understood that defence officers can go beyond the security department,” chairperson of XLRI’s general management programme (GMP) Pranabesh Ray said to FE.
Members of XLRI’s outgoing defence services batch has been picked up by companies like Wipro, TCS, TechMahindra, ABB, L&T, Vedanta Resources, RN Infrastructure and TIS. These pass-outs have various specialisations behind them, ranging from engineers, doctors, air traffic controllers to naval aviators, submariners and mountaineers (including two who had scaled Mount Everest).
Corporate India is thus awaiting to greet personalities like Captain Isha, who having conquered the Everest earlier, secured the fourth spot in XLRI’s third passing out batch of exceptional defence officers.
The roles offered to the 59-strong batch include that of senior project managers, marketing managers, security chiefs, with five doctors in the batch having been recruited by Wockhardt Hospitals as hospital administrators.
XLRI’s six-month certificate programme in business management for defence personnel, like that of some other leading B-Schools, equips them with basic concepts and skills of all functional areas of management, thereby enabling them to find a second-career option in the corporate world.