Big Americans named world’s most attractive employers

Graduating students around the world – from across both business, and engineering and IT faculties – overwhelmingly view Google as the dream employer-of-choice. That is according to Universum, which surveyed more than 225,000 students from the world’s 12 largest economies for its annual World’s Most Attractive Employer rankings.

Google maintained its position on both lists for the third year in a row.

For business graduates, investment banking Goldman Sachs was also unchanged from the 2017 study in second position. Consultancies Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and KPMG rounded out the top five.

Claudia Tattanelli, Universum’s Strategic Advisory Board chairman, says this year’s research saw a strong influence of the Generation Z population expressing their desires for an employer who can offer high future earnings.

“Younger generations are also especially-focused on professional training. This explains why banks gave really solidified and increased their positions in many markets in the past year,” she said.

For engineering and IT students, it is the technology and advanced manufacturing giants that pique the most interest. After Google in top position (unchanged from last year), the survey found that Microsoft and Apple (also unchanged) are the most favoured potential employers. BMW Group (5th in 2017) and Intel (7th) were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.

Tattanelli says work-life balance and employer culture were also important considerations among the survey population.

“Being part of a work culture where they can be productive and work hard but attain a healthy work-life balance has become something that Generation Z is not willing to compromise on,” she said. “Google, Apple, Adidas, Amazon, and Microsoft are all great examples of employers that put great emphasis on communicating through videos, social campaigns and employee testimonials to draw attention to their culture at work rather than the jobs they offer.

“In doing so, these employers underline how important it is to them to foster friendly, flexible, inclusive, stable, and creative environments where the sky is the limit.”

2018 Business Rankings Top 5:
1. Google (Non-mover)
2. Goldman Sachs (Non-mover)
3. EY (Ernst & Young) (4^th in 2017)
4. Deloitte (6^th in 2017)
5. KPMG (9^th in 2017)
2018 Engineering/IT rankings Top 5:
1. Google (Non-mover)
2. Microsoft (Non-mover)
3. Apple (Non-mover)
4. BMW Group (5^th in 2017)
5. Intel (7^th in 2017)