IT Hiring in Europe
This year, there is a trend in Information Technology global hiring. More U.S companies are opening offices in Europe and hiring European students to fill the gap due to the shortage of IT workers in the U.S. The company Universum conducted a survey of 19,890 students studying at Europe's top universities to find out who do they want to work for. The result found that Google is considered the top company for most European students, followed by Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Accenture. According to this survey, the other preferred European employers are BMW, Siemens, Porsche, Ferrari, and Lufthansa Group. In the past few years, Google has been very active in hiring more European students and probably paid the highest wages for top graduates. Next to Google is Apple as a serious contender, taking second place in nearly all rankings. Although engineering and computer students prefer Google, most business students ranked Apple better as this company hire more business students for the marketing and sales department.
Based on the number of student nominations that a company receives as an ideal employer across Europe's most prestigious universities, Universum produces a Top 100 rankings reflect the level of employer attractiveness that top students want to work for. Europe's university students ranked their favorite employers based on good reputation (72%), market success (70%), prestige (66%), best technology (33%) and high ethical standards (30%). With 135 nationalities represented in the European survey, the multicultural and diverse composition of the top academic institutions in Europe is well reflected. However, when asked students about their chances of getting a job with these top U.S. employers within six months of graduation, the most optimistic students were the Germans (57%), Norwegians (56%) and Ukrainians (54%). The least positive students were the Italians (29%), Irish (27%), Greeks (26%), British (25%), and Spanish (18%).
The main reason for more U.S. companies are hiring European is the skills of students who graduate from their top universities. One U.S. executive told the newspaper: “India and China have good software testers and developers, they are good for some outsourcing works but for serious software developments, they are still far behind European education systems. Today software is getting larger and more complex, it is not just coding or testing but designing and architecture so we must look for the best students from top schools that have these higher value skills trainings. Instead of outsource, we open offices in Europe to hire these people to work for us”. The competition for skilled workers in Europe is also a signal that the second wave of globalization has begun. As more global companies are competing with each others on the scare resource of skilled workers, the wages of these students are also increasing fast. One professor told the newspaper: “Most global companies do not hesitate to offer our graduates top wages, as long as they have the skills that they are looking for. The time of lower labor is over, at least not in Europe. Today U.S companies like Google, Apple or Microsoft do not come over here for cheap labor, they hire our students for their skills.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
