The employability of management graduates mainly depends on their skills. Mismatches between an individual’s skills and employer expectations can hinder employability. A good placement offer is what any management student aims for when they get into management education. However, the gap between what the recruiters are expecting from a management student and what they get is widening day by day.  The paper tends to identify the critical skills which recruiters look for when they hire management graduates.

Design/methodology/approach – Research design for the paper is a primary research conducted with the use of interview interview-administered research instrument. The respondents are working in medium and large organizations and have been recruiting management graduates for different roles and responsibilities. The population researcher took for the study is  50.

Findings – The research exposes that there are six critical skills which recruiters look for while recruiting Management Graduates are Good Communication & Presentation Skills, Hands-on Experience, Aptitude, Orientation and Attitude, Creativity and Out of the Box thinking, and Domain Knowledge.  

Practical implications – The findings you refer to should focus on identifying key skills that management alumni need to develop to improve their placement outcomes. These skills typically encompass a variety of hard and soft skills that are vastly valued by employers across industries