Tech grads shun end user IT

Europe's best-known companies are struggling to attract top talent.

Audi, BA, Bayer, BP, Shell, Volvo, (pre-merger) SmithklineBeecham - none of these are considered ideal employers by this year's crop of science and engineering graduates.

In their stead we find IT companies and telcos and even more significantly, the major management consultancies.

Why? Well, a survey out today identifies what this year's university graduates are looking for in a job.

They want flexibility and project-based work, personal responsibility on an international level and to experience other cultures to enhance their career opportunities.

Indeed, career development, personal growth and travel are seen as the top priorities for engineering graduates in the first three years of their working lives - not salary.

Their ideal future employer should also offer a balance between personal life and work.

It's easy to see how a management consultancy can be associated with these desires, but less so with the IT department.

So what's the answer? One glimmer of hope for those that find themselves short of good staff is the current downturn in the IT and telecoms fields. A year ago, graduates could pick and choose who they work for as the world and his wife took on staff.

Now, thousands live in fear of redundancy. Recruitment freezes are not unusual.

But to survive and thrive in any environment, companies must still have the best staff. In order to get them, employers will have to bear in mind the priorities of today's job seekers. It's not all about money. Working conditions and the nature of that work are just as, if not more, important.

The educated youth of today also feel it's important to be able to identify themselves with their future employer, making good marketing and effective employer branding vital in the industries which are currently finding it tough to get hold of good graduates.

These are 'soft' issues, and are not traditionally well understood by engineers and scientists, but they have become too important to ignore.

It's time for many companies to reassess their HR policies. Either that, or see others grab the cream of the crop.

Need staff or looking for work? See silicon.com's recruitment site at http://www.silicon.com