Top 20 private employers of choice in S’pore
By Juliete Soh of JobsCentral.com.sg courtesy of Penn-Olson
Apple Inc. is the most popular employer among entry-level job-seekers in Singapore, according to an annual survey by our company. This is the second consecutive year the technology giant, which is known for its popular gadgets such as iPhone and iPad, has clinched the top spot in the survey.
A total of 3,255 respondents took the 2011 JobsCentral Employers of Choice Survey (University Edition), which was conducted online from April to May this year. All respondents are from National Technological University, National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University from the graduating classes of 2009 to 2016.
Apple Inc. saw constant improvements over the years in attracting young talents, according to the annual survey. In 2007, the company was ranked the 28th most popular private employer of choice, and rose to the 7th position in 2008, the year the iPhone was launched.
In 2009, it captured 2nd place, just behind Singapore Airlines and finally seized top position to become the employer of choice in the private sector among fresh graduates. This year, Apple retained its top position, with close to 40 percent of the respondents choosing it as the company they would like to work for.
"The brand's mindshare, intense publicity, and the cool factor doesn't just affect the sales of its products, but has clearly spilled over to have a positive influence on its image as an employer," says Lim Der Shing, CEO of JobsCentral.
While Apple is the employer of choice overall, Google appears to appeal most to the crème de la crème among the respondents. Among those who received or expect to graduate with a First Class Honours or Summa Cum Laude, the majority expressed that they would like to work for Google. Last year, Google came in second in the rankings among these top students, trailing behind Apple.
Besides Apple and Google, other tech and internet companies that made it to the top 20 Employers of Choice list are IBM, Microsoft and Yahoo! All of them, except Microsoft, saw an improvement from last year's ranking.
This article first appeared on Penn-Olson on 12 August 2011.
