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Charlie Osborne
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Google retains employer top spot among students

By | September 30, 2011, 7:11am PDT

Summary: Google, for the third year running, hits the top employer spot among business and engineering students. What makes Google out-shine others?

Business and engineering students have found Google to be, once again, the most attractive prospective employer in the world.

According to a report by Universum’s global ranking, Google reached the top spot amongst business and engineering students. 160,000 career seekers with each respective background were asked which employer they find most attractive, with some surprising results.


(Source: Flickr)

Close behind Google, arch-rival Microsoft beats Apple hands down, though the two still appear in the top ten for both business and engineering students. While Intel and Sony feature further down the list, many seemingly popular companies on the web today do not feature at all: Facebook, Twitter, or even AOL — though, the last one may not be much of a surprise.

As the younger generation have been brought up on Google’s technologies, it seems fitting that Google holds onto the title in the business and engineering categories for a third consecutive year. With workplace benefits and a ‘chilled out’ attitude to working, plus the opportunity to work on technologies that students already live and breath — from search to email — Google is winning the hearts and minds of students amongst its competitors.

Today’s graduates look at employment differently to their parents. Instead of looking for long-term benefits, from healthcare to a steady pension, the Generation Y instead focus on the workplace environment, starting and continuing salary, and more materialistic gains.

As workplaces change, employers need to appeal their offices in particular to be more attractive and attainable for younger workers. Google set a precedent that others cannot ignore, and as the workplace evolves and ages, employers need to adapt their working environments to be more suitable for productivity, and maintaining a strong internal work ethic.

Global top fifty (business)

  1. Google (1)
  2. KPMG (2)
  3. PricewaterhouseCoopers (4)
  4. Ernst & Young (3)
  5. Deloitte (5)
  6. Microsoft (7)
  7. Procter & Gamble (6)
  8. J.P. Morgan (9)
  9. Apple (18)
  10. Goldman Sachs (10)

Global top fifty (engineering)

  1. Google (1)
  2. IBM (3)
  3. Microsoft (2)
  4. BMW (5)
  5. Intel (6)
  6. Sony (4)
  7. Apple (10)
  8. General Electric (7)
  9. Siemens (8)
  10. Procter & Gamble (9)

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Topics

Google Inc., Employer, Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from the Huffington Post, Business Insider, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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Realistic
sissy sue 3rd Oct
"Today???s graduates look at employment differently... Instead of looking for long-term benefits....,Generation Y instead focus on the workplace environment..."

Good for them! They are just being realistic. They understand that the workplace has changed, and the chances of working for one company all one's life are very remote.

Actually, this has been true since the 1970s. The days of people working 30-40 years for one company are long-gone. I am a Boomer, and this was the ambition of my parents' generation -- not mine. "Job-hopping" used to be a dirty word, but, in fact, it was the way in which ambitious boomers could improve their lot. It is a truism that you can usually do better for yourself by looking outside your company than by hoping for promotion and raises from within.

I learned this quickly, and I believe that this is a good trend. Employers are not your mommy and daddy, and they don't owe you a thing. Once you get it through your head that it's just business, and that it's up to you to make your own destiny, your career becomes more of an adventure and a journey rather than a dead-end.
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0 Votes
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It doesn't surprise me
toddybottom 30th Sep
The more innovative the company, the higher up on the list it appears.
0 Votes
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Sure ......
wackoae 30th Sep
@toddybottom Because Google is an "innovative" company and not a copycat at all.

That must be why they have created so many unique, innovative and never done before patentable products ..... not.
0 Votes
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Google probably is the most innovative tech company in the world
toddybottom 30th Sep
@wackoae
Not all of their products have been successful but they have, for the most part, been incredibly innovative.

Take a look at iOS 5. There is a lot of Android in there.
0 Votes
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It said nothing about being innovative
William Farrell 30th Sep
@toddybottom
It said students/graduates (not actual new employees) where looking at short term, materialistic gains and an easy work loads.

I can see why the corporate myth about life inside Google would be enticing to students.
0 Votes
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RE: Google retains employer top spot among students
hoaxoner 30th Sep
@William Farrell
Do you have any evidence that points to the life within Google being a myth? Those that I know that work there love it.
0 Votes
+ -
I know, I was simply noticing the pattern
toddybottom 30th Sep
@William Farrell
The more innovative companies like Google and MS were nearer the top. I suspect that students, in addition to materialistic gains, want to work for innovative companies.

It could just be a coincidence but I did find it interesting.
0 Votes
+ -
Probably has more to do with culture
hoaxoner 30th Sep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xOfeu_J_vY

Pretty simple really. College students have ideas and don't want to be buried in bureaucracy. They just want to be involved and not in traditional ways.
0 Votes
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RE: Google retains employer top spot among students
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 30th Sep
Students choose to work for Google because they know they can sit around and play with office toys all day instead of doing any real work. Its kind of like them being in college again.
0 Votes
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RE: Google retains employer top spot among students
anono 30th Sep
@LoverockDavidson_
"Its kind of like them being in college again."

Which college did you come from? Or should I say community college?
0 Votes
+ -
Realistic
sissy sue 3rd Oct
"Today???s graduates look at employment differently... Instead of looking for long-term benefits....,Generation Y instead focus on the workplace environment..."

Good for them! They are just being realistic. They understand that the workplace has changed, and the chances of working for one company all one's life are very remote.

Actually, this has been true since the 1970s. The days of people working 30-40 years for one company are long-gone. I am a Boomer, and this was the ambition of my parents' generation -- not mine. "Job-hopping" used to be a dirty word, but, in fact, it was the way in which ambitious boomers could improve their lot. It is a truism that you can usually do better for yourself by looking outside your company than by hoping for promotion and raises from within.

I learned this quickly, and I believe that this is a good trend. Employers are not your mommy and daddy, and they don't owe you a thing. Once you get it through your head that it's just business, and that it's up to you to make your own destiny, your career becomes more of an adventure and a journey rather than a dead-end.

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