Another school year has wrapped up and another batch of eager-to-succeed students has entered the workforce. This infographic is your shortcut to understanding what’s going on in the minds of these students and recent grads, what appeals to them, and where to find them.
Our researcher, Matt Grunewald, analyzed the interactions between 39M+ students and thousands of employers on LinkedIn, and used this information to generate the 2014 Most InDemand Employers for Students ranking.
Research consultant, Allison Schnidman, surveyed over 6,000 students worldwide to find out what matters the most to them when picking a company to work for.
We also pulled data from the LinkedIn student pool reports, where you can find out regional student supply and demand numbers.
According to the Achievers 2014 “Class of 2014: Your Next Generation of Top Talent” report, students are using an increasing number of tools to look for a job. While their top resource is still going directly to the company’s careers website (60% of surveyed students), more and more of them are turning to LinkedIn. To be precise, the percentage of students looking for jobs on LinkedIn has climbed from 10% in 2010 to 28% in 2014. In the meantime, LinkedIn’s student and recent grad membership has grown to 39 million.
We decided to take a closer look at how these 39M members go about building out their careers and analyzed their interactions with employers on LinkedIn. It turns out that the 10 employers that are most popular among students on LinkedIn are typically large consumer (and heavily tech) brands like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and others.
While these results say a lot about the magnetic appeal and prestige of big companies, they also show that students can be swayed by an employer with a strong talent brand, regardless of the size.
What else would attract a student to join your company?
Well, we asked over 6000 students worldwide and below is the complete breakdown of their answers. It turns out that students care the most about work/life balance, compensation and benefits, and a strong career path. On the flip side, they are not as interested in the company’s long-term strategic vision, flexible work arrangements, or an employer that values the workers’ contributions.
Armed with so all this information about student preferences, we wanted to find out the best locations for recruiting them. As expected, booming cities have a high concentration of students and recent grads, but they are also some of the most competitive markets. For example, it would be hard to stand out as an employer in cities like London and San Francisco, as you would have to compete with some of the most renowned brands in the world (refer to the InDemand list above).
On the other hand, there are quite a few cities with prestigious universities and a very smart student pools where you won’t face that much competition. These cities include Munich, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Paris, and Adelaide.
To get a more detailed country and regional breakdown of student and recent grads supply and demand, you can download our talent pool reports.
A special thanks to Lydia Abbot for helping put this report together.
Topics: Data insights University recruiting
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