We're delighted to announce that we've just released the Top 100 Graduate Employers Rankings with the Australian Financial Review (AFR). Now for the first time you can discover the employers whom students are the most interested in with GradConnection's rich dataset of logged in users in 2014.
1. Check out the Top 100 Employers Rankings Online
You can search and view each employer's rank, the total % of interested users, gender breakdowns, visa breakdowns, the number of graduates hired, top study areas and top universities at the AFR interactive chart.
You can also access an easily printable PDF edition of the rankings here.
Here's the full dataset you can get for each employer - KPMG is just an example.
3. Your guide to the AFR Special Report
However, you can only access the supporting articles online with a digital subscription via the links below. If not, we recommend you get a print copy (Monday, the 16th of February) to access the articles.
1. Graduate job hunters target big firms
In a tough job market, graduates and final-year university students are favouring the top professional services firms as they look for their first job. KPMG was the most popular employer overall for graduate job seekers, with almost 1 in 4 of the 25,600 graduates sampled expressing a preference to work for KPMG. Deloitte was 2nd, and EY was 7th...
2. Where graduates really want to work
Amid signs of gloom and doom for graduates – with a 13-year high in unemployment – there are employers still hiring in big numbers. Queensland's state government was the big employer overall, taking on 1130 graduates in 2014 followed by Deloitte at 425 graduates. Other big employers included KPMG, EY, the Department of Defence, IBM and Accenture...
3. Employers want graduates with more than just good marks
While good grades may be the only goal for many students, employers are looking for much more from graduates. Other important factors include leadership, communication skills, problem solving and customer service...
Don't eliminate yourself. Top employers are willing to consider a far wider range of graduate disciplines than most students think. The top 5 expressions of interest by discipline studied were Engineering, Accounting, Banking & Finance, Business & Commerce and finally IT...
Mayuri Nathoo, a graduate civil engineer at Aurecon talks about the importance of ensuring you have a good cultural fit with prospective employers...
6. International graduates locked out of working at top employers
International graduates are locked out of working at many top graduate employers, with many organisations citing policies that ban the hiring of non residents either outright or for sought after graduate positions. Professional services firm KPMG, technology firms Accenture and IBM, the Queensland government and supermarket giant Coles were among the most popular of the Top 100 Graduate Employers for international graduates on a Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485).
7. Elite 'Group of Eight' leads the job race
The elite Group of Eight universities dominate the list with Monash University, the University of NSW and the University of Melbourne near the top for nearly all the most popular employers of graduates...
8. Graduates tread water in pay start
Starting salaries for Australian graduates remained steady last year but have not regained any of the ground they lost after the 2008 global financial crisis. The median starting salary for graduates in 2014 was $52,500, compared to $52,450 from the previous crop of graduates a year earlier...
9. Companies look overseas for engineering and IT skills
Australia is importing large numbers of workers with IT and engineering skills on temporary 457 visas in response to demand not being met by graduates of Australian universities...