LinkedIn Post:

“Oh, so Stoa School must be like for Tier-2 college people, right?”

My LinkedIn Comment:

When I graduated from IIT Bombay, TCS was a Day One Company during Placement. IITB was a Tier-1 college and TCS was a Tier-1 company.

Today, TCS does not hire from IIT Bombay. IITB is still Tier-1. TCS is also still perceived as Tier-1. TCS hires from some vague college in Kathangalatthur. (I’m deliberately being PIC to make a point.) Doesn’t mean that college has suddenly become Tier-1.

I know a Tier-1 private sector bank that hires fresh MBAs from IIMA at Level 1 on its hierarchy at 3X CTC, from Tier-2 b-schools at Level 2 at 2X CTC and from Tier-3 b-schools at Level 3 at 1X CTC. All three colleges can rightfully claim that their alumni have been placed at a Tier-1 company but people will still believe that the Tier-3 b-school is not in the same league as IIMA. And there’s nothing $hitty about their belief.

Whether you like it or not, hiearchy is a reality among colleges and companies (and so many other things in life). Ergo there’s nothing $hitty if poeple reference tiers while talking about colleges and companies.

Also, as I said earlier, it’s a best practice in marketing to target a product or service at the right market segment. Segmentation is done by Demographics and Psychographics and includes attributes like gender, income, zip code, religion, caste, high spender, travel lover, and so on.