According to the 2006 GenX2Z Anderson Analytics survey (PDF link), the top five websites of choice by college students are:
- MySpace (13% of visits, a 258% increase from 2005)
- facebook.com (11.5%, a 41% increase from 2005)
- youtube.com (4.5%, with no data from 2005 recorded)
- collegehumor.com (3.7%, a 61% decrease from 2005)
- Google.com (3.7%, a 13% decrease from 2005)
That puts Google, Inc. in two of the top ten spots, making any community-oriented website envious of the search engine that also seems to be faring quite well in social networking too.
Does it come as any surprise that Google is the employer of choice by college students? According to another recent survey on CollegeGrad.com, almost half — 49% — of students would rather work at Google than Microsoft (29%) or Yahoo (12%).
Could they score a job? Maybe, if Google really is getting easier on hiring.
So — why do college students want to work at Google?
- Maybe it’s the supercool work environment
- Or it’s the “Google lifestyle“
- Or it’s the fact that Google is king
- Or people want to work for companies that have a lot of really cool blogs (written by real people!)
- Or there’s a desire to get closer to YouTube
- Or it’s the clean kitchens and good food
- Or it’s simply because Google kicks serious butt in search popularity
- Or it’s because Google loves to acquire competitors, thereby affording employees with new opportunities
- Or it’s because Google is seriously rich with only 14 wealthier companies in its way
College students and recent grads: what do you think?
I’m not sure I like those numbers from CollegeGrad.com. Google vs Yahoo vs Microsoft… Google is seen as more laid back. However, if you expanded that question to * companies, there are many I’d take over Google. Google is full of bullshit, and they spew it out at everyone. All they do is take things that were already implemented elsewhere, slap a fancy ajax front on it, and call it a day.
There is more, including them not acting a non-“evil” and they’ve always claimed, but I don’t feel like looking for those sources.
Awesome post, Tamar! I totally agree with you!
Keep up the great work!
Hey Nick — I’m glad you wrote.
Google isn’t Ajax everywhere — for example, they sucked at Google Answers. 😉 Truthfully, Google has a cool environment. I’ve wanted to work there in the past.
One thing I’ve noticed myself is accessing Google’s employment opportunities does seem more approachable to students. I think that’s a big plus — they really want you to apply there. As a recent graduate myself, it appears that they reach out beyond the other companies to recruit and make it more easily accessible.
Certainly, there are other companies out there, but of the top tech companies, I don’t really think the survey results come as any surprise.
Great post Tamar, I think a lot of the appeal is that they are a big name- and lets face it, they have a greater reach.
Good stuff! keep em’ coming. 😉
The appeal to Google for college kids is that they view it as just playing around though. Making lots of money to jerk around all day. If they are lowering the standards it will end up being the death of them. They will start getting coders who just want to play ping pong all day and won’t be as affective. Sure, at the same time they will be getting coders like me who just happened to fail 2 classes that screwed his GPA, who could take it seriously, but the ineffective ones will still suck.
Of those three, I’d rather work for none of them. I’d see working at Google as a chance to brag to people and get paid a lot to mess around. Which is all good and dandy, but I want to do real coding.
have u ever worked at Google? if u didn’t then why are you putting so much crap on them
Google’s interview process is at minimum 4 interviews — unless you’re acquired in which case I do not know the specifics. From what I’ve heard, the company will weed out those looking to “play around.”
To me the appeal of google is that it seems like a friendly enviroment. I know that I seeem to have my best Ideas when I’m at home starting to relax. Most companies are so stressful the way they demand repeatitive tasks of you, not interested in your ideas, Google would understand me and listen to what I have to say. I think the employees aren’t all slackers, otherwise they wouldn’t be as large as they are. Their company requires a creative thinker, not a trained monkey. As to the yahoo answers/ Google answers the have a program they sponser called ChaCha, look into it. This one, when it becomes large enough, might just do away with yahoo answers completely. And as of right now is helping to constantly improve Google’s search engine.