Most Desirable MBA Employers Of 2013

imagesGoogle hasn’t lost its mojo–not with MBAs at least.

For the seventh year in a row, Google topped the list of the most desirable MBA employers, according to a newly published survey of MBA opinions by research firm Universum USA. One in every four students–exactly 23.4% of the 3,739 responding MBAs–surveyed at 135 top business schools placed the search firm among its top five. At Google, MBAs work in a wide variety of functions, from product management and sales to finance, marketing and operations.

The annual survey–something of a popularity contest for companies with the MBA crowd–found that McKinsey & Co., which recruits the largest number of top MBAs in any year, was second behind Google, with 16.6% of those polled placing the prestige consulting firm among their top five potential employers. Rounding out the top five were No. 3 Apple, No. 4 Amazon, and No. 5 Boston Consulting Group.

Universum’s opinion poll–with had responses from 1,622 women and 2,097 men who were studying for their MBA degrees in the U.S. between the months of December 2012 and March 2013. Students were asked to choose the five companies they would most like to work for from a list of over 175 companies. They also have the opportunity to write-in the name of a company if it was not included in the list. The rankings are based on how many times the company was selected as one of five ideal employers.

AMAZON, STARBUCKS, 3M AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE GAINED POPULARITY AMONG MBA STUDENTS

The 2013 version of the survey showed gains by such Top 25 companies as Amazon, Nike, Walt Disney, Deloitte, Microsoft, Starbucks, IBM, LVMH, 3M, and the U.S. Department of State (see table on following page of the top 25 companies). Losing ground in the Top 25 were Bain & Co., Goldman Sachs, Facebook, J.P. Morgan, Johnson & Johnson, Blackstone Group, and General Electric.

Some very well-known companies dropped off the Top 100 list entirely. UBS, which had been ranked 73rd last year, disappeared off the list. So did Harrah’s Entertainment (77), Groupon (82), Zynga (85), HSBC (88), Hewlett-Packard (89), Monitor Group (91), Daimler/Mercedes-Benz (94), Colgate-Palmolive (98), National Security Agency (99), and Oracle (100).

They were nudged off the list by No. 30 Nordstrom, No. 54 Estee Lauder, No. 66 H&M, No. 69 GlaxoSmithKline, No. 86 MGM Resorts, No. 92 Northrop Grumman, No. 94 General Motors, No. 95 Intuit, No. 97 Novartis, No. 98 Merck, and No. 99 E&J Gallo.

BIGGEST LOSER ON THE TOP 100 LIST: CREDIT SUISSE

This year’s biggest gainer–other than the newcomers to the most popular list–was Hilton Hotels, which jumped 34 places in a single year to finish 44th. Other companies that have gained significant popularity among the MBAs surveyed tended to be in the healthcare arena. No. 37 eBay rose 24 places, No. 42 Genentech was up 21 spots, No. 65 Pfizer (up 21), and No. 77 Abbot Laboratories (up 20).

This year’s biggest loser–other than the companies that did a disappearing act in the Top 100–was Credit Suisse, which fell a remarkable 37 places to a rank of 71 from 34 in 2012. Not far behind among the companies that lost the most popularity were No. 79 Deutsche Bank (down 32 places), No. 89 Siemens (down 29 spots), No. 63 Barclays (down 24), No. 68 Kraft Foods Group (down 22), No. 82 KPMG (down 22), and No. No. 87 Wells Fargo (down 20).

(See following page for table of the top 25 companies)