Financial services firms have dropped off the list of top ten graduate employers for the first time as organisations that aim to have a positive impact on society such as charities knocked them off their perch.
The Guardian’s UK 300 poll, in which more than 25,000 UK students voted for their most desirable employer, revealed that search engine giant Google took the number one slot, overtaking last year’s winner NHS Graduate Management Training Schemes, which came in at number four.
BBC TV took the number two position, however, while pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, was third.
Interestingly, meanwhile, MI6 leapt eight places to appear fifth, while MI5 rose 12 slots to appear ninth. Amnesty International also rose nine points to hit the seventh spot and Oxfam vaulted a massive 16 places to come in eighth.
Three key financial services players last year in the shape of Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers were all pushed out of the top 10 completely, however.
Kathryn Callow, UK account director at research company trendence, which compiled the findings, said: “This year’s findings show that the usually desirable financial services companies have fallen out of favour with current students who are becoming more interested in organisations like Amnesty and Oxfam.”
While the shift could well be down to the image crisis that the former has suffered since the downturn, it was also “very interesting” to see that the intelligence services had broken into the top ten for the first time, she added.
“Again, this seems to be an example of a wider trend for today’s students to work for an employer that aims to do good and have a positive impact on society,” Callow said.
