Whats important to graduates when choosing employers?

Graduate recruiters spend vast amounts of money and time to raise their profile and popularity on campus. But how effective are their efforts? What makes students choose one employer over another? Europeís leading graduate careers publisher GTI has released the first sector-based student research - GTI Employer of choice graduate survey 2006 - covering 16 sectors of work. The research is based on over 20,000 students and recent graduatesí responses using data gathered through the annual TARGET National Graduate Recruitment Awards survey.

When asked what was important in choosing between employers, respondents placed a higher importance on training and development opportunities than starting salary and were almost as keen to approve of the environmental policies of the organization. But in finance and law, students were much more influenced by the reputation of the employer than those interested in other sectors.

Despite encouragement from parents and careers advisers, nearly 40% have either not started looking or done only a little research into their future careers. However, there was a very different picture in the financial and law sectors where students had done more research and many had already started applying for jobs.

Other findings of the survey:

With 20% of the total vote, the investment banking and investment sector was the most popular sector of work with students.

The Construction and Retail sectors were the least popular and this argues the need for employers in these sectors to promote both themselves and the sector as a whole

Compared to the overall gender split the engineering, design and manufacturing, and IT sectors are very male dominated with over 70% of the responses coming from men. In the law (solicitor) sector, women dominate to the same degree.

The accountancy and professional services and IT/information management sectors are the most popular sectors amongst respondents from minority ethnic backgrounds.

ìCompetition for the best graduates remains as intense as ever, which is why employers spend so much each year to build and maintain their profiles on campus. But how does the money they spend influence students in their choice of employer? The GTI Employer of choice survey gives students a voice and produces a definitive picture of whoís the most attractive graduate recruiter across 16 sectors of work.î

Chris Phillips, UK Publishing Director, GTI Specialist Publishers