Four out of the 10 best companies for graduates to work for in the UK are from the IT and Telecoms sector, according to research.
For the second year running, Microsoft was voted the best company for graduates to work at. Sky (4th), Vodafone (6th) and FDM Group (7th) were all also voted in the top 10. Firms from 17 different industries were featured in the list, which comprised of a mixture of established multinationals and smaller employers.
Led by Microsoft, who once again have been rated incredibly well by their graduates, it is clear that IT and telecoms companies are among the very best graduate employers in the country.
Lucy Saunders, graduate recruitment manager at Microsoft, said the company was delighted to be voted number one place to work and to be rated so highly by graduates.
"This is a great reflection of both life and opportunity at Microsoft," she said. "It's also a great reflection of the Technology sector as a whole. It highlights what an exciting and evolving industry it really is to join".
The study, carried out by job review website TheJobCrowd.com asked more than 4,000 graduates in their first three years of employment to score their company on a range of criteria including training, career progression, responsibility levels, work-life balance and benefits.
The tech industry garnered positive reviews across the board with particularly strong praise for the compensation and benefits levels. The IT development and telecoms sector was also revealed have the shortest average working day of any graduate career just eight hours and 39 minutes, compared to the graduate average of 9 hours and 18 minutes.
The firm said that the results were very positive for IT and telecoms and would tempt graduates into exploring careers in the sector in future.
"The fact that there were four IT and telecoms companies among the top 10 companies overall - indeed in the top seven is a phenomenal achievement," said Keren Mitchell, co-founder of TheJobCrowd.com.
"Led by Microsoft, who once again have been rated incredibly well by their graduates, it is clear that IT and telecoms companies are among the very best graduate employers in the country."
