Fancy this! It’s a day 1 of your campus final placements. The air is thick with expectations, hushed whispers and vaulting ambitions. And Boy! You sit there with offer letters on your lap –two of them
The first one glistens with promise Rs.24 LPA – a great moolah, the kind your family will squeal with a whoop of joy and delight. What engulfs you is a sense of security and status, an unmissable feeling that “You have made it in the social totem-pole”. The designation? It reads “Associate Data Analyst”.
Then there is the second.
Rs 13 LPA, piffling in comparison to the first until you read the designation: Brand Manager It doesn’t sit snugly on the quite page anymore. It jumps out at you- promising creativity, ownership and the chance to build legacy for the posterity
Now you are in a super fix. The decision is not about the salary anymore. It boils down to the question of who you want to be. Now, What would you pick? Will you follow the path that shines or the one that pulls you inexorably towards “Being your own person”
If that question made you reach for a paus button- You will understand why the Pay Vs designation debate still generates so much heat in every PGDM campus, LinkedIn thread and alumni circles in India. It is not a seemingly simple question. Anyone, who is quick on his/her feet, giving you a simple answer hasn’t lived on both sides of the divide
Let us dig deeper into numbers, real stories and the lens your professor hasn’t put on a slide deck yet.
LinkedIn will not divulge this- The Data will
Before we wax lyrical, let us get empirical. LinkedIn Surveyed over 37,000 working professionals globally in the last quarter of FY 2024. The findings are as revealing as they are grounding
62.3% of job seekers say excellent compensation & benefits is their #1 priority when evaluating a role (Source: LINKEDIN Q4 2024 GLOBAL SURVEY)
30% of employees are “highly satisfied” with their compensation — pay is the lowest-rated work aspect across all demographics (Source: PEW RESEARCH / GALLUP 2025)
18% of US workers describe themselves as “very satisfied” with their job — an all-time low, dubbed “The Great Detachment“. (Source: GALLUP 2024–25)
56% salary premium earned by professionals with AI-related skills — up from 25% just one year prior (Source: PWC 2025)
Look beneath the surface and let the number sink in. 62% chase the pay cheque, yet very fewer feel truly satisfied. This yawning gap defines the core of this debate
The case for Pay: Why Maslow was On-point
Let us get brutally candid. Money matters. And How! It is not down to shallowness. We are simple human. Period
As a PGDM student, You have expended huge amount of time and money, your cognitive and discretionary energy into your management diploma. Your EMI’s are eerily real. Your parents’ expectations are surreally high
The Salary landscape for PGDM grads in India
According to publicly available placement data across India, PGDM graduates from non-top –tier B-Schools in India typically get a salary in the range of Rs5-15 LPA with variations across city, Industry and Specialization. In contrast, the top-tier institutes, including XLRI and few IIM’s reported an average PGP/PGDM package of Rs 27-35 LPA
If you think these are just plain numbers, just wake up. These are compounded wealth. An Rs.7 lakh salary in the formative year, when invested consistently over the next 10 years, could translate into a cool crore-plus in net worth. Starting off with a high salary is unabashedly a legitimate and a rational goal
The case for Designation: Your title is your calling card
If there is one lesson Your PGDM professor in the first semester don’t teach you, it is this- Your designation is the new calling card. In a world where your Linked In profile is processed in a flat 15 seconds by the head hunters, the word after your name decided where you get the next call from. LinkedIn data shows that there has been a huge surge in application volume, reportedly 14,200 submissions (up 58% from 2024). In this huge pool of candidates, Your title acts as a filter. Let’s us get real. Brand Manager at 24 reads differently from an Executive or Associate at 25, even if the pay is mind-blowing
About 26% of employees who quit their jobs cite lack of career progression as a major reason. Organizations that offer a clear career path consistently score higher on employee satisfaction and engagement.
The Model: When to pick which
The over-arching question that is upper most in the mind and lips of the 25 plus young person is which is important: Money or designation. If truth be told, it all depends on one’s stage, ambitions and financial reality. Here is a model to cut through the fluff
| Your Situation | Gravitate toward s | Why |
| You have taken an educational Loan | Pay | Financial stability comes first. It keeps the stress at bay. You get a focus and lets you perform better |
| You want to switch Industries within 4 to 5 years | Designation | Designation demonstrates portable Leadership. Your salary seldom do that |
| You are drawn to a fast-growing start-up | Designation | Equity plus salary grow at a fast clip than salary at a formative stage |
| MNC with a rigid salary band | Pay | Career progression is slow. Boxed in a strong pay |
| Role offers one plus (Mentorship +Brand name) | Pay and Designation-both counts | Learning from a well-established brand opens a new avenues that salary can seldom do |
| You are eyeing for entrepreneurship 5 years down the line | Designation | Prioritize decision-making roles and Investor value experience over pay history |
The third angle nobody is talking about: Learning Velocity
This is something neither of the side of the debate- Pay Vs Designation is talking about enough: the rate at which you are growing faster than in traditional roles.
Per 2025 PWC study, Skills in Jobs exposed to AI are growing 66% faster that in traditional roles. The life span of a static job even if it pays well or carries a fancy title is fast getting shorter. What you actually want in your first role out of PGDM course is actually a spring board for accumulating skill sets
Ask yourself: Will my current role genuinely enhance my market value in the next 25 months? If the answer is no- just walk away, no matter what the pay or title is
The employees who remain satisfied aren’t the one who drove hard bargain on the Day 1. They joined the organisation that invested quite a lot in their upskilling or reskilling endeavours. There is no gain saying the fact that the best job is the one that makes you irreplaceable where you are after two years –so valuable that you are practically unhireable anywhere
The PGDM Specific Context
As a PGDM students, you are sauntering in to a corporate world that prioritises skills over pedigree. If LinkedIn’s data is anything to go by, 26% of the paid job postings in 2024 has junked “Oh-we-take-only-degree” requirements signalling a strong preference towards skills over strict degree credentials. Recruiters spend 35% of their AI-saved time on candidate screening and 26% on skill assessments. Clearly, recruiters are eyeing capability, not credentials.
Rajalakshmi School Of Business sits where the job market is heading—skills over degrees.
With many employers dropping rigid degree filters, applied capability matters most.
Rajalakshmi School Of Business’s cross-functional projects prepare students for real, messy business challenges.
Early exposure to P&L builds decision-making and accountability.
Live cases and internships create industry-ready professionals, not just graduates.
The result: students who can deliver impact from day one, not just hold a qualification.
This flips the whole equation. A PGDM from a top-tier institute packages you as Industry-ready and adaptable. You first role should leverage that packaging. Go for the title that lets you showcase cross-functional thinking, own a P&L or a project and craft a compelling story around your management impact. This salary is shades better than a five-digit number on your salary slip
The average PGDM salary from the best Indian B-schools is between ₹8 and ₹18 LPA. SP Jain, for example, has an average salary of ₹33 LPA. The difference is huge, and it’s not just because you have a PGDM. It’s also because of how good your experience is and how clear your career story is.
When firms look at a PGDM graduate, they’re not just reading your CTC band; they’re scanning for a clear career story. RSB’s ecosystem—who you work with, the complexity of projects you handle, and the responsibility you are given—helps you build that narrative. Whether you land a high-pay role or a strategic designation, the learning velocity you gain at Rajalakshmi School Of Business lets you compound that first role into more valuable options down the line.
And the verdict is
If you are freshly-minted PGDM with little or no financial obligations, settle for designation and learning velocity. Let your designation and skill sets do all the talking and the salary will eventually follow much faster than you think .On the flip side, if you are saddled with financial obligations – EMI’s, galloping cost of living , and family support , settle for a role that also promises a visible growth path. Don’t choose a High-cheque for a career cul-de-sac
No matter whichever way you slice the situation, keep asking one consequential question that will outlive both the debates” What will this role make me of in another three years that cannot hope to do today?”
The Bottom Line
Admittedly, a good pay holds key to resolving today’s problems. Designations opens door to tomorrow’s opportunities. Neither of them matter if you are growing in your role at a great speed. Ideally, go for a role that promises all the three- Pay, Title and learning velocity .If you end up with just two, use your common sense and judgement to decide which of the two.