ITC is ‘the ideal Indian employer’ on the radar of MBA students in the country. According to a Survey done by Stockholm-based Universum Communication which brands companies for potential employees, ITC Ltd is at number four behind the top three global consultants Mckinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Lehman Brothers, making it the only Indian company in the top 5. It is followed by Microsoft. The online poll - the second in India covered 6,638 MBA students and an almost equal number of engineering students. ITC has scored a big gain, moving up from the 16th spot in the previous survey.

These are the other findings of the survey conducted:

THE WISH-LIST - In search of a dream job: MBA students prefer MNC consultants

MULTINATIONAL CONSULTANTS remain the ideal employer for Indian MBA students with McKinsey leading the pack closely followed by Boston Consulting Group and Lehman Brothers. These are findings of a survey conducted by Universum Communications, a Stockholm-based research firm.

There are only two Indian companies in the top-10 and surprisingly it is ITC Ltd that is at number four behind the top consultants and the other Indian company, Infosys, is at number nine.

ITC have scored a big jump, moving up from the 16th spot. Another big time mover is Merrill Lynch, which has climbed from the 25th to the seventh position.

Google is at number 15 for MBA students and at number 14 for engineering students and has climbed by almost 100 places, not just in India, but also all over the world.

The preferences of the Engineering students are a little different with NTPC at the third spot behind Microsoft and McKinsey. L&T and Reliance Industries are at fourth and fifth spots. Clearly, working with large Indian companies is the dominant choice of the budding engineers.

The next Indian company on the list of engineers is Reliance Energy on the ninth spot. At tenth is Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, at 12th is ONGC and at 16th position is Gail India. All the Indian companies have moved up quite a few notches with Reliance Energy jumping 63 spots from 72 last year.

Arshjit Singh, country manager for India at Universum, says, "A lot of factors go into these rankings and campus presence as well as the recruitment website of these companies are a major factor. At the same time, brand awareness as well as if the company has been getting positive coverage in media also play a role."

There are interesting insights that can be gleaned out of the results. For example, in the MBA rankings, Reliance Industries is listed at 54, even though it figures in the top ten of the companies favoured by the engineers.

Arshjit says, "The difference between MBA and engineering students is also one of experience. The MBA students, in most cases, have some work experience while engineers are approaching the job market for the first time. The MBA students also have some idea about what they want to do in their career."

So what are the attributes that MBA students think employers need to make it on their short list? Dynamic organisation was selected the most times (21 per cent), followed by strong corporate culture and good/confidence-inspiring management (20 per cent), market success innovation and high ethical standards (28 per cent). For engineers, the most attractive employer qualities "international career opportunity" in 2005 is only at number five in 2006. They chose instead employers who offer them a competitive compensation, managerial responsibility, rapid career advancement and increasingly challenging tasks.