Several of Westchester”™s most prominent corporate tenants, including IBM Corp., PepsiCo Inc., Heineken and Morgan Stanley were ranked among the world”™s 50 most attractive employers for business students by global employer branding consultant Universum.
More than 144,000 college students with a business or engineering background from the world”™s 12 largest economies were surveyed by Universum as part of the firm”™s annual rankings of the most-sought employers, released Sept. 20.
Among the business students who were surveyed, Google Inc. took home top honors, while IBM, based in Armonk, ranked 16th; Morgan Stanley, which is headquartered in New York City and has a campus in Purchase, ranked 19th; PepsiCo, based in Purchase, ranked 31st; and Heineken, whose U.S. subsidiary is headquartered in White Plains, ranked 38th.
Automobile manufacturers, energy companies and management-consulting firms were among the biggest movers compared to prior years, according to Universum, with the likes of BMW, Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co.; General Electric Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell plc.; and McKinsey & Co., The Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Co. all represented among the top 50.
All four local companies were also ranked among the top 80 ideal employers for business students in Universum”™s 2012 American Students Survey, which was released in conjunction with its global employer rankings.
The American survey featured responses from 60,000 U.S. college students, with about a third coming from business students and the remainder divided among students studying engineering, information technology, the natural sciences and the humanities.
Among U.S. business students, Morgan Stanley ranked 15th, PepsiCo ranked 43rd, IBM ranked 45th and Heineken ranked 77th.
Large, well-known corporations are still popular among students and recent graduates of Westchester colleges and universities, but less traditional firms and startups are gaining in popularity, administrators of several local institutions reported.
“I think students realize that they have to find the opportunities where they can these days and so they”™re not so quick to shy away from a startup company, a company where they can see growth,” said Phyllis Blake, director of the Gerri Ripp Center for Career Development at Iona College in New Rochelle. “They”™re looking to start a career and a lot of them are not looking to jump around ”“ they”™re looking to find an organization they can grow with.”
Blake said that for Iona”™s business students, financial services and marketing tend to be among the most popular industries, with many of them leaning toward large firms like Morgan Stanley and PepsiCo.
Additionally, she said employers in the computer science and technology fields “have just exploded” in popularity.
Other key factors for students and recent graduates include the availability of benefits, the ability to balance work with a social life, the opportunity for promotions, and a sense of social and environmental sustainability, the administrators said.
At Pace University, which has campuses in New York City and Westchester, students are gravitating toward careers where they can be creative, said Helene Cruz, associate director of employer relations in the school”™s Career Services office.
With startups and up-and-coming firms, “The culture of it and the spirit of it ”“ they”™re not as structured as the conventional environment, and a lot of our students are gravitating toward that,” Cruz said. “There, they”™re able to be creative, and they”™re paid to be creative.”
In addition, Cruz said Pace students are looking for a job where they can enjoy a “work-life balance,” so that “they”™re not chained to the desk and working crazy hours.”
At Purchase College, where about half the students study the arts while the remainder studies the liberal arts, current students and recent graduates “want an employer that values their creativity and their individuality,” said Wendy Morosoff, the university”™s director of career development.
She said students are inclined to more socially minded companies that are “tuned into the environmental, sustainability, gender-equality” movements.
