The Wall Street Journal reports that a survey asked college graduates with one to eight years of work experience to select five ideal employers.
While the top 10 on the list featured several high-tech companies, few young professionals likely have the skills to win jobs at such employers. According to the Education Department, the top majors for the class of 2008 were business, health sciences and social sciences and history. About nine times as many people majored in business in the class of 2008 as majored in computer science.
The top 20 list of employers:
- Google
- Apple
- The Walt Disney Company
- U.S. Department of State
- Amazon
- FBI
- Microsoft
- Central Intelligence Agency
- NASA
- Teach for America
- Peace Corps
- Nike
- Johnson & Johnson
- National Institutes of Health
- Mayo Clinic
- Centers for Disease Control
- Sony
- American Cancer Society
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Whole Foods Market
It isn't just what you major in. Google wouldn't hire 99% of the computer science grads out there, and in fact, they do hire lots of humanities types. Getting a job at Google means getting through their interview process, which is very difficult, and very oriented to puzzle solving.
ReplyDeleteI do agree, though, that we don't produce enough engineers and CS grads. There are many problems, though, and it isn't just with kids or our educational system. Employers are complicit as well, by viewing engineering as a low status, not so well paid job that can be filled by importing H1B visa workers. Students know that, and ask themselves why they should kill themselves in college when they could major in business and do just as well for themselves.
Whole Foods? The one in White Plains seem to mostly hire unskilled workers.
There's probably a degree of naivete that went into the responses. Kids, what do they know? lol!
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