Thousands of workers have spilled the beans for the very first time on what working for their employer is really like in the most detailed review of the UK graduate employment market to date.
Anonymous career review site TheJobCrowd.com asked 3000 graduates in their first three years of employment to score their company on a range of criteria including responsibility, progression opportunities, colleague interaction, training, work-life balance and benefits.
Computer giant Microsoft came top after scoring particularly highly on progression, culture and training. Operational transformation experts Newton Europe came a close second followed by National Grid, FDM Group, The Co-operative Group and Sky. Channel 4, Barratt Developments, Waitrose and Kiln Group comprised the rest of the top 10.
TheJobCrowd.com Top 100 is expected to provide University students with a new weapon in the hunt for employment as it allows them to access genuine feedback from their counterparts inside companies.
Firms from 17 different industries were featured in the list with accountancy, banking, retail, law, engineering, transport , IT and media particularly well represented.
The list comprised a mixture of established multinationals and smaller employers, with an emphasis on the realities of the day to day graduate roles, rather than a prediction as to how they believed the role would be. This differs significantly from other graduate recruitment studies.
Keren Mitchell, co-founder of TheJobCrowd.com, said the results provide the most accurate portrayal to date of what working for a variety of top employers actually entails.
Mr Mitchell said: “We asked thousands of graduate employees to score their day to day role across a range of criteria and after collecting our results over a number of months, have been able to compile a list of the most loved graduate employers.
“Extremely specific questions were asked of participants and we feel we’ve been able to develop a clear understanding of the key benefits and limitations of working for a wide variety of different employers.
“The list also ranked the best companies to work for in various key industries, with the top companies often surprising – such as Nationwide triumphing in the Banking & Finance section and Sidley Austin topping the law category.”
Co-founder Natasha Freeman, says she hopes the information will provide greater insight for those set to enter the working world for the first time after completing university.
She said: “Large firms feature throughout the Top 100 but smaller firms and businesses from industries which have a less favourable reputation also scored well.
“What we want to stress is that this is data collected from people actually doing the roles rather than from those predicting what it would be like to work for a specific firm and as such we believe this data is unique and infinitely more valuable.
“All of the information was collected anonymously and therefore respondents gave a warts and all assessment of their employer and their role which we think will be invaluable to those planning their first steps in the working world.”
See below for a full list of the top 100 firms to work for according to their employees. The full ratings for each company and Top 100 guide can be viewed at: http://www.thejobcrowd.com/top-companies-to-work-for .
1 Microsoft
2 Newton Europe
3 National Grid
4 FDM Group
5 The Co-operative Group
6 Sky
7 Channel 4
8 Waitrose
9 Barratt Developments
10 Kiln Group
11 British Airways
12 Mars
13 Credo Business Consulting
14 Diageo
15 CHP Consulting
16 InterContinental Hotels Group
17 Nationwide
18 nucleargraduates
19 Sidley Austin
20 TUI Travel
21 GlaxoSmithKline
22 John Lewis
23 Softwire
24 edf energy
25 GE
26 Network Rail
27 Grant Thornton
28 Atos
29 Merlin Entertainments Group
30 BP
31 Wood Group
32 PKF
33 BAM Construct
34 Amey
35 easyJet
36 Associated British Foods
37 Teach First
38 Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International
39 Arcadia Group
40 Shoosmiths
41 BNP Paribas Real Estate
42 RM Education
43 Asda
44 Tube Lines
45 IBM
46 Penningtons Solicitors
47 Transport for London
48 Morgan Stanley
49 Citigroup
50 Rolls-Royce
51 BAE Systems Detica
52 Capgemini
53 Science and Technology Facilities Council
54 PA Consulting Group
55 Leo Burnett
56 Simmons & Simmons
57 DHL Supply Chain
58 BDO
59 HSBC Bank
60 DSTL
61 Savills Commercial
62 CRODA
63 Civil Service Fast Stream
64 Marks and Spencer
65 Marsh
66 AkzoNobel
67 Mott MacDonald
68 Intel
69 L’Oreal
70 Clifford Chance
71 KPMG
72 Unipart Logistics
73 Siemens
74 Sainsbury’s
75 Fidelity Worldwide Investment
76 Starwood Hotels and Resorts
77 Steer Davies Gleave
78 Red Gate Software
79 Cooper Industries
80 CMS Cameron McKenna
81 Costain
82 Mace Limited
83 Balfour Beatty
84 Dickinson Dees
85 Aon
86 GVA
87 Centrica
88 Arriva
89 Bank of England
90 Bird & Bird
91 Kraft Foods
92 Saatchi & Saatchi X
93 WM Morrisons
94 PwC
95 Ocado
96 Financial Services Authority
97 Linklaters
98 Thales
99 Herbert Smith
100 Gist
