Top 100 Graduate Employers: The Real Truth

BridgewaterUKSep 14, 2017Advice For Graduates, Business Insights, Job Market0

Every year The Times publishes their Top 100 Graduate Employers Guide. Their 2016-2017 guide comes as a result of interviewing over 18,000 final year students and asking them “Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?”. The list boasts that these are the most sought-after and prestigious graduate employers. We’ll give them that.

Are they really the “top” graduate employers?

The employers that do make The Times’ renowned list are all large corporations that pump thousands of pounds into their employer branding. Why do students and graduates think they are the best? Because these companies have the budget to appear at every university careers fair and they pay to be seen in all the places graduates go.

We’re by no means saying that the opportunities they offer aren’t great. Aldi attracts grads with an impressive £42,000 starting salary and who can complain about that? However, is the list just a glorified popularity contest?

Advice for graduates looking for jobs

If you’re keen to work for a large corporation where you can learn and progress alongside fellow grads then this list may be a good place to start. A few points to bear in mind are:

Graduate roles with these businesses are super-competitive so be ready to fight off the competition and to show the employer that you are the best.
Deadlines for many of these businesses fall early in the academic year. It’s best to check them out in the first term of your final year to ensure that you don’t miss important deadlines.
These really are BIG businesses, so be sure that they are the right fit for your personality. This article might help you to decide.

If you know a large corporation definitely isn’t for you, or you simply aren’t that interested in the roles that the “top 100” have to offer, you still have more than enough choice! Start browsing on these popular job sites and working with graduate recruiters like us and you’ll find graduate opportunities with businesses of all sizes.

What you should look for in your first graduate job

If you want to give your career the best possible start, it’s important to find the right role within the right company for you. There are thousands and thousands of graduate jobs out there; some are great and some are not so great…

Wherever you are looking, there are a few boxes that you should be aiming to tick:

Training. You’re just getting started with your career and for you to be able to grow and progress, you’ll need some great training.
Mentor. Is there someone in the business that you can learn from and look up to? Learning from your superiors and their knowledge and experience will have a big impact on your own performance and future career.
Career progression. Once you’re all trained up and performing well, how can you move up the ladder? You don’t want your first graduate job to be a dead end.
Company culture. At the end of the day, you’ll want to be happy at work and the company culture can make or break this.

The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

Rank	2015	Employer	Industry or Business Sector	Graduate Jobs in 2017	Starting Salary
1	1	PwC	Accounting & professional services	1,500	Competitive
2	2	Aldi	Retail	150	£42,000
3	4	Teach First	Public sector	1,750	Competitive
4	5	Civil Service	Public sector	900+	£25,000-£27,000
5	3	Google	IT & telecommunications	No fixed quota	Competitive
6	9	KPMG	Accounting & professional services	1,000	Competitive
7	6	Deloitte	Accounting & professional services	1,200	Competitive
8	7	NHS	Public sector	100+	£22,896
9	8	EY	Accounting & professional services	900	Competitive
10	10	BBC	Media	35-40	£22,000+
11	13	Unilever	Consumer goods	50	£30,000+
12	14	J.P. Morgan	Investment banking & fund management	No fixed quota	Competitive
13	12	GSK	Chemicals & pharmaceuticals	50+	Competitive
14	25	Lidl	Retail	240+	£36,000-£44,000
15	15	Goldman Sachs	Investment banking & fund management	Around 300	Competitive
16	18	HSBC	Banking & finance	500+	Competitive
17	17	Accenture	Consulting	500+	Competitive
18	11	John Lewis Partnership	Retail	30+	Dependent on scheme
19	19	Jaguar Land Rover	Engineering & industrial	250	£29,000
20	16	Barclays	Banking & finance	300+	Competitive
21	22	McKinsey & Company	Consulting	No fixed quota	Competitive
22	28	L’Oréal	Consumer goods	28	£30,000
23	23	Rolls-Royce	Engineering & industrial	200+	Competitive
24	21	IBM	IT & telecommunications	300+	£30,000+
25	30	Lloyds Banking Group	Banking & finance	400+	£28,000+
26	20	BP	Oil & energy	100+	£33,000+
27	26	Shell	Oil & energy	70+	£32,500
28	35	Army	Armed Forces	650	£25,727
29	29	Microsoft	IT & telecommunications	40	Competitive
30	33	Clifford Chance	Law	100	Competitive
31	36	Morgan Stanley	Investment banking & fund management	No fixed quota	Competitive
32	24	Tesco	Retail	150-200	£24,000-£32,000
33	31	Arup	Engineering & industrial	250+	Competitive
34	27	P&G	Consumer goods	100	£30,000
35	51	RBS	Banking & finance	300+	Competitive
36	39	Allen & Overy	Law	90	£42,000
37	53	Boston Consulting Group	Consulting	No fixed quota	Competitive
38	32	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer	Law	80	Competitive
39	41	Linklaters	Law	110	£43,000
40	42	Atkins	Engineering & industrial	350	£22,000
41	43	Sky	Media	90+	£25,000-£32,000
42	40	Frontline	Public sector	300	Competitive
43	49	BAE Systems	Engineering & industrial	350+	£28,000-£30,000
44	37	Apple	Consumer goods	No fixed quota	Competitive
45	38	Mars	Consumer goods	40	Up to £32,000
46	75	AstraZeneca	Chemicals & pharmaceuticals	80+	£28,000
47	44	BT	IT & telecommunications	250	£27,500-£31,500
48	69	Transport for London	Public sector	50	Competitive
49	72	WPP	Media	1-10	Competitive
50	56	Bain & Company	Consulting	No fixed quota	Competitive
51	64	ExxonMobil	Oil & energy	No fixed quota	£37,500+
52	81	Amazon	Retail	500+	Competitive
53	55	Newton	Consulting	120	£45,000-£50,000
54	34	M&S	Retail	200	£23,500-£28,000
55	83	MI5 – The Security Service	Public sector	150	£30,000+
56	50	Slaughter and May	Law	80	£43,000
57	63	Baker & McKenzie	Law	30	£45,000
58	78	Nestle	Consumer goods	30-35	Competitive
59	48	Citi	Investment banking & fund management	Unknown	Competitive
60	66	Danone	Consumer goods	25-30	£28,500
61	85	Penguin Random House	Media	50+	Competitive
62	58	Police	Public sector	250	£29,331
63	NEW	Santander	Banking & finance	Up to 50	£30,000
64	NEW	Virgin Media	Media	50+	£29,000
65	59	Deutsche Bank	Investment banking & fund management	No fixed quota	Competitive
66	100	Bank of England	Public sector	60+	£30,000
67	47	Royal Navy	Armed Forces	No fixed quota	£25,727
68	62	Airbus	Engineering & industrial	80+	£26,000+
69	96	Herbert Smith Freehills	Law	70	£44,000
70	97	AECOM	Engineering & industrial	400	£23,000-£26,000
71	70	Boots	Retail	40-60	£25,000
72	95	Wellcome	Charity	10-12	£26,000+
73	NEW	RAF	Armed Forces	500-600	£30,000+
74	60	DLA Piper	Law	75-80	£24,000-£42,000
75	71	Mott MacDonald	Engineering & industrial	250+	£24,000-£28,000
76	76	Network Rail	Transport	125-175	£26,500
77	84	Bank of America Merrill Lynch	Investment banking & fund management	200+	Competitive
78	87	Norton Rose Fulbright	Law	Up to 50	£42,000
79	93	Lloyd’s	Banking & finance	25	Competitive
80	54	Diageo	Consumer goods	50+	Competitive
81	90	Grant Thornton	Accounting & professional services	200+	Competitive
82	61	Hogan Lovells	Law	60	£43,000
83	73	Siemens	Engineering & industrial	70-80	Competitive
84	86	Oxfam	Charity	50+ voluntary internships	Voluntary
85	NEW	Irwin Mitchell	Law	50	£25,000+
86	45	European Commission	Public sector	No fixed quota	£41,500+
87	52	British Airways	Transport	To be confirmed	Competitive
88	67	Local Government	Public sector	120	£24,174+
89	79	BlackRock	Investment banking & fund management	120	Competitive
90	89	Facebook	IT & telecommunications	Unknown	Competitive
91	46	Cancer Research UK	Charity	8	£25,000
92	92	UBS	Investment banking & fund management	300	Competitive
93	99	Credit Suisse	Investment banking & fund management	No fixed quota	Competitive
94	NEW	Savills	Property	170	Competitive
95	NEW	Standard Life	Banking & finance	50	Competitive
96	65	Bloomberg	Banking & finance	250+	Competitive
97	80	Mondelez International	Consumer goods	Around 40	Competitive
98	68	McDonald’s Restaurants	Retail	100	£21,500-£24,500
99	NEW	BMW Group	Engineering & industrial	20-30	£31,000
100	94	BDO	Accounting & professional services	250	Competitive