When he took over as the chairman of Union Bank, M V Nair was one of the youngest entrants to the corner office of a public sector bank. So it’s natural that Nair didn’t think twice before rewriting the rules of the recruitment game for his bank.

In fact, Union Bank was the largest public sector bank recruiter from IIMs in the last season. That was the signal public sector banks gave MBAs to make them feel that they are a class apart from other generalists who join as probationary officers.

But compensation was just the first entry point for these MBAs. Mentoring -- a hitherto alien concept in public sector banks -- was the second. Most public sector banks have asked senior bank executives to take on the role of mentoring to guide the MBAs during the first year.

A public sector bank executive says existing managers also had to be mentally conditioned to deal with the B-School graduates. "Their expectations might be different, so they needed to be handled differently," he says.

The biggest challenge was, of course, the cultural gap. A mentor recalls how a recently-hired B-school graduate was reluctant to send Diwali greetings to key customers on behalf of the chairman. The mentor had to use his best persuasive skills to convince the employee that it was a vital part of the job and egos shouldn't come in the way.

A bank chief said the training module for the B-school graduates was also different though they also spend time at the in-house training academies. "They attended a two-week induction programme to understand their likes and dislikes, hobbies, and other personal aspects. We also take their view on the areas in which they want to work and allocate those departments to them," said an executive at Bank of Baroda, which has hired 300 management graduates, including 18 from the IIMs.

The biggest carrot, of course, is the promise of a turbo-charged career. The MBAs stand a much better chance of rising to the top than probationary officer by virtue of their entry at Scale III. An ordinary probationary officer would take 10 to 12 years to reach that level.