One in Four Wants to Work At Google, But Top Ten Most Desirable Job List Includes Five Government Agencies

The most interesting finding in this research is not that 25% of those surveyed wants to work at Google, but that five of the top ten on the list are government agencies (including Teach for America, which sends college grads to work in inner city or rural schools). Cynics might say that this is because government agencies rarely lay people off, but with conservatives in some semblance of political control in the UK and US, that is less true than at any time in the last 50 years. A more likely explanation has to do with some combination of finding work with meaning, a sense of patriotism and, perhaps, that government jobs in the US traditionally give younger people more training, responsibility and experience at an earlier point in their careers than do businesses. This combination of pragmatism and idealism, if true, is noteworthy.

Joe Light has the story at the Wall Street Journal:

"One in four young professionals wants to work at Google Inc., according to a survey by Universum, a consulting firm that helps companies improve their attractiveness to prospective employees.

Nearly 25% of survey respondents picked Google, almost twice as many as chose Apple Inc., which ranked second. Walt Disney Co., the U.S. State Department and Amazon.com Inc. rounded out the top five.

To conduct the survey, Universum asked 10,306 young professionals—defined as college graduates with one to eight years of work experience—to pick as many as five ideal employers out of a list of 150.

Respondents also could write in companies not on the list. The top write-in was Facebook Inc., followed by the Department of Homeland Security and the United Nations.

Young professionals generally want to work at companies that the professionals like as consumers, said Kasia Do, a project manager for Universum. Such people also appear to be drawn to companies that seem financially strong and can offer job stability, Ms. Do said.

Google, in particular, has tailored the image it projects to potential employees, said John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University.

The company regularly hosts open houses and tech-related talks in areas where it wants to recruit, said Yolanda Mangolini, director of outreach programs for Google. "It's incredibly powerful and helps them imagine themselves at Google," she said. The company also runs blogs, Twitter feeds and YouTube channels that try to show what it's like to work there, she said.

Government agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, also ranked in the top 10. That might be in part because the federal government hasn't laid off as many employees as the private sector has, Ms. Do said.

Plus, "Those government agencies can articulate a reason for being that gives employees a sense of purpose," said Jon Picoult of brand consultant Watermark Consulting. "For young people looking to make a difference in the world, they have a good story to tell."

While the top 10 on the list featured several high-tech companies, few young professionals likely have the skills to win jobs at such employers. According to the Education Department, the top majors for the class of 2008 were business, health sciences and social sciences and history. About nine times as many people majored in business in the class of 2008 as majored in computer science.