Top Business-School Employers: Google, Microsoft, Apple

MBA graduates will have their pick of the world's top technology companies when they finish with business school.

Global internet search engine giant Google has been named the world’s most attractive employer in the eyes of business school job-seekers for the third year in a row.

As well as Google, other household names in the technology sector that appear high up in the 2011 employer ranking are: Microsoft, Apple, Sony, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Nokia, Dell and Cisco, all featuring in the top 50.

The Global Top 50 World’s Most Attractive Employers, produced by Swedish employer branding firm Universum, ranks employers based on the perceptions of business school job-seekers. This year's ranking shows a marked rise in the popularity of IT companies amongst business school students, compared to previous years.

“This new trend reveals that the war for talent is now conducted in a broader scale and companies are tapping into talent pools that they have not considered before. This is also a result of the increased complexity of companies, with... big technological companies needing more and more to find good marketing and sales people to gain market share,” says Claes Peyron, director for Northern Europe at Universum.

“This new trend reveals that the war for talent is now conducted in a broader scale and companies are tapping into talent pools that they have not considered before. This is also a result of the increased complexity of companies, with... big technological companies needing more and more to find good marketing and sales people to gain market share,” says Claes Peyron, director for Northern Europe at Universum.

‘Big four’ in the top five

However, four of the top five places this year remain with the ‘big four’ professional services firms; KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young, and Deloitte. This is a trend which began in the 2010 business school employer ranking. Meanwhile, the ranking suggests that, following the ongoing global economic woes of recent years, financial firms are losing appeal amongst business school job-seekers.

“Apart from J P Morgan that still manages to attract more talent in 2011, other financial organizations are underperforming in what could be considered their niche market,” Universum explains in a statement. “UBS falls five places, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse lose two positions. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank take a smaller hit and climb down one place. Goldman Sachs and Citi manage to keep last year’s position.”

The lessening appeal of the financial sector to business school graduates seeking employment is a growing trend that was first reported by TopMBA.com in the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2011 earlier this year.

“The MBA is used by many people to bring about a career change, with consulting being the most popular industry for candidates to consider moving into... Finance, though still the second most popular MBA career destination, is down on recent year’s figures,” explains Nunzio Quacquarelli, managing director of QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited, and the report’s author. “Furthermore, where finance had previously held parity with consulting as a career option amongst MBA aspirants, it is now less appealing.”

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