LinkedIn has released a new list of the most desirable companies to work for, and the technology sector is clearly favored, with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook sitting at the top.
The rankings are based on the "actual actions of over 175 million professionals on LinkedIn," according to LinkedIn senior manager Michael Li. He writes:
We cross-referenced our data with thousands of survey responses to pinpoint the specific activities that best indicate familiarity and interest in working for a company: connecting with employees, viewing employee profiles, visiting Company and Career Pages, and following companies. After crunching this data and normalizing for things like company size, we developed our top 100 global list. We then applied LinkedIn profile data to rank the most sought-after employers among professionals in five countries and four job functions.
Of the top 100, 21 companies were labeled as "technology and software" providers, the highest of any category. "Retail and consumer" businesses had 20 companies, "professional services" had 16, and "oil and energy" had 10.
Notably, major brands were listed frequently, but half of the top 100 have fewer than 7,000 employees.
Here's the top 50:
1. Google 2. Apple 3. Microsoft 4. Facebook 5. Unilever 6. General Electric 7. Pepsico 8. P&G 9. McKinsey & Company 10. The Coca-Cola Company 11. The Walt Disney Company 12. Nike 13. Salesforce.com 14. Twitter 15. Shell 16. Nestle 17. BCG 18. Ogilvy & Mather 19. Expedia 20. Accenture 21. Pfizer 22. Johnson & Johnson 23. L'Oreal 24. Adidas 25. Amazon 26. Bain & Company 27. Roche 28. Diageo 29. Burberry 30. Chevron 31. Razorfish 32. BP 33. Starbucks 34. Warner Bros. 35. Electronic Arts 36. Samsung 37. HP 38. Total 39. Netflix 40. Red Bull 41. Groupon 42. Zynga 43. ExxonMobil 44. ThoughtWorks 45. Bechtel 46. VMware 47. LVMH 48. Kraft Foods 49. Red Hat 50. Oliver Wyman
For more data behind this list, here's an infographic from LinkedIn:
