Like every year, we recently had the right to the endless prize list for everything and anything. To believe that our fellow human beings cannot separate things if they do not have one or more rankings under the eyes. Take a weekly newspaper at random, you can be sure that it will contain at least one, whether it's about schools or universities, or about hospitals and clinics.

That being said, I must admit that there are some rankings which are of real interest (in addition to selling paper...), such as for example the latest rankings of the Trendence agency published on July 10, 2012 which established a list of 500 companies that European students prefer.

Computer science is always a dream!

I don't know if it's because they are part of what we call the " Generation Y ", but the fact is that students seem more attracted to firms specializing in IT than to industry. You will tell me, in view of the latest news, I would have a hard time believing someone who told me that they dream of working at PSA... In fact, that is not entirely true because if the we look precisely at the ranking, we realize that the Volkswagen group comes in eighth place among the most attractive companies for business school students and fourth for engineering school students. This second category continues to dream of a position in the industry because, in addition to the inventor of the Beetle, BMW, Siemens and EADS are in the top 10 most attractive companies.

This being said, it is unsurprisingly the IT companies, notably Google and Apple, which are doing the best. Indeed, the two Californian firms monopolize the first two places, whether for students of engineering schools or for those of business schools. It must be said that the “sympathy capital” of the two firms is very high among students who consider them “popular and nice”. I must admit, despite my relatively developed cynicism, that if I had to use the anglicism “cool” to designate a company, it would most certainly be the most famous search engine. Anyone who has seen Google's premises, even if only in photos, is obliged to recognize that this company is not like the others and that it is, in many ways, particularly attractive!

On the other hand, I would be much more measured regarding the Apple brand... Obviously it is a very popular company and if you look in a metro train, it is very unlikely that you will not see at least one person in using one of its products, but I doubt that we can say that the Cupertino company is “cool”. However, it seems that my opinion is not shared by the majority of European students... They also rank it before the other software giant, namely Microsoft, which must be another victory for the late Steve Jobs!

Stability above all…

Far be it from me to claim to find the right conclusion to this list, but it still seems that students are clinging to promising sectors or at least to companies which, according to them, will provide them with a certain stability. This is not surprising given the crisis that we have been going through for more than four years... This is one more explanation for the good performance of IT companies in this ranking, as well as of the leaders of European industry, in particular the German automobile firms. Conversely, companies which do not seem to offer good prospects for the future are largely shunned, as is the case for example for Renault which loses 10 places compared to last year to only find itself in 43rd place among engineers.

This search for stability is even more visible when we look at the public sector. While one might believe that students would be more attracted by the challenges of private sector companies than by the relative comfort of civil servant status, it would seem that many state or European institutions are once again making young people dream. So, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the Space Agency all jumped seven places in the rankings. Interestingly enough, “the European Commission is gaining a lot of popularity, particularly in countries in crisis,” according to Mariana Rajic, senior marketing at the Trendence institute.

Even the banking sector, which has not had very good press in recent months (I don't know why...) is doing well in this ranking. Société Générale thus gains three places, becoming the thirteenth preferred company of European students. The sulphurous “Firm” Goldman Sachs jumped ten notches to settle in 26th position, far ahead of Deutsche Bank and its 35th place (+7). It must be said that if there is one sector that can only recover, it is the banking sector, and students therefore undoubtedly judge that this is an opportunity to take up "challenges by bringing new ideas”, as the Trendence institute rightly says.

In conclusion, this list of prizes, if it is not really surprising as it seems outrageously dominated by IT firms, in any case shows to what extent students are anxious and have a deep need for professional stability.

Consult the complete Trendence ranking of the favorite companies of young European graduates.