Among the most attractive for Russian students are Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Google and Yandex, according to the Universum rating. Future employees named stable employment as their main career goal.

Photo: Mitya Aleshkovsky/TASS

The Universum company, which conducts research in the field of employer branding, presented the annual rating “The Most Attractive Employers in Russia 2016”. During the compilation, more than 25 thousand Russian students were surveyed at 93 universities across the country.

The most attractive industries for future workers are the public sector (18%), IT (16%), and media and advertising (15%). Gazprom was named an ideal place to work by students of two majors - business and engineering/natural sciences. The top five most attractive employers for business students also included Google, Gazprom Neft, Rosneft and BMW Group.

Students with a specialization in engineering/natural sciences, in addition to Gazprom, choose Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Google and Rosatom.

Among IT students, Google leads the employer rankings. Yandex took second place, but at the same time, Universum notes that students with this specialization are more likely to send their resume to Yandex rather than to Google. Next come Microsoft, Intel and Gazprom.

Google also topped the list of attractive employers for liberal arts/education majors. Following the Internet giant on the list are Gazprom, Yandex, L'Oréal Group and Microsoft.

The average age of students participating in this year's survey was 21.8 years. The majority of survey participants are women (63%). As Universum notes, they indicated that after graduation they expected to earn an average of 53,571 thousand rubles , while male respondents indicated a significantly higher expected salary - 65,638 thousand rubles. per month. Perhaps the gap in salary expectations is explained by the fact that Russian female students “assess the situation on the labor market more realistically and better understand the needs of employers: they are more willing to gain experience and work for the future,” the authors of the rating note.

In addition to Russia, Universum surveyed students in another 55 countries. Russian students are “much more self-confident” compared to their Western peers, said Yves Schneuwly, managing director of Universum's Switzerland, Central and Eastern Europe region. According to him, students in Russia have longer-term career goals (professional development, high incomes in the future), while Europeans are focused on what they can get “here and now.”

Russian students have called “stable and secure employment” their main career goal in recent years. At the same time, future employees are now more ready to adapt to the employer’s requests: this year the career goal “solve interesting and complex work problems” rose from third place to second, displacing “have a balance between work and personal life.” Perhaps the change in priorities is due to changes in economic conditions, the study authors explain.

Russian students associate an ideal employer with such attributes as “company success in the market”, “professional training and development”, “high earnings in the future”, “ prestige” and “high performance orientation”. At the same time, for future employees it is not so important whether the employer is a Russian company or a foreign one, notes Universum.

Russian students chose the most attractive employers