Having captured the hearts and minds of undergraduate business students, Google is still No. 1 in the latest Universum ranking of the most popular employers rated by young people. But it shouldn't get too cocky: The competition is getting fiercer.
Google (GOOG), along with the Big Four accounting firms—KPMG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte—respectively make up the top five on the 2010 ranking compiled by Universum, a research firm in Stockholm. The list is based on the responses of more than 130,000 business and engineering students in 12 major global markets who told Universum where they dream of working.
The accounting firms fared well among business students in the ranking because their training programs are highly regarded and they have been on a hiring tear when jobs for college grads have otherwise been difficult to come by. Google, which took the top spot among both business and engineering students, benefited from a unique corporate culture that includes free food and haircuts and lets employees bring their dogs to work. Kyle Ewing, talent and outreach programs manager for Google in Mountain View, Calif., said in an interview that many are attracted to the company because of its sense of mission.
"Google is a place where you can tackle big problems," she said. "For all employees, there's a real sense that people are working on things that could change the world."
Procter & Gamble (PG), Microsoft (MSFT), Coca-Cola (KO), J.P. Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS) respectively round out the top 10. Finance firms in the banking and investing sectors, management consulting, and oil and gas companies have become less appealing to students, according to the list.
HSBC (HBC), which ranked 22 in 2009, dropped out of the top 50 in 2010. And Intel (INTC), Nokia (NOK), and ExxonMobil (XOM) fell out of the upper 30 to the bottom of the list. Among companies new to the list, Apple (AAPL), Bank of America (BAC), IKEA, and Adidas (ADS:GR) broke into the top 30.
Universum asked students to select the five employers for which they would most like to work from a list of more than 120 that was based on Universum's 2009 top employers ranking. Respondents could write in employers that were not on the list. A company's ranking is based on the percentage of business students who designated it among their top five. Of the top 50, eight are Universum consulting clients.
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