Top 100 Graduate Employers: The Real Truth

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

 

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