Janet Sun of Experience.com was curious to find out how certain industries stacked up in terms of applicant preference and interest, so she polled over 6,700 Gen Y to gauge how nine industries compared in terms of overall appeal.
She found that not surprisingly, technology and new media topped the list with 40% or more citing these industries as most attractive. Interestingly, liberal arts majors were just as interested in these industries as business and engineering majors, which signals the broad appeal of these types of companies.
Here are the results of the poll:
Sun said she can’t help but think that students and recent grads are overlooking seemingly less glamorous companies in the manufacturing and insurance industries simply because of an overall industry perception issue, rather than what one prospective firm can offer.
So what can companies do to combat these perceptions? They must put their best foot forward when approaching potential new recruits, and they should be able to show candidates what parts of their business or culture may appeal to them.
Popularity: unranked [?]
March 24th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I agree Vanessa. The fame, glory and fortune seem to be embedded into the more popular industries. One simple solution can be to glamorize the lower industries and promote them across universities. Gen Y gets their perceptions from the media and advertising is one way to change their known perception.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
This is just a marketing problem. Manufacturing companies and others just need to market themselves better. Sounds simple, but will be hard. You can’t just create a facebook page and think smart students will flock towards your brand.