- According to our study, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has more employees (18,661) that graduated from a prestigious Ivy League university than any other of the most valuable tech companies in our analysis. Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) comes in second place, with 14,397 graduates from Ivy League universities working there.
- Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) andHuawei ranked as two of the least elitist tech giants in their hiring practices with only 3,300 and 2,624 alumni from Ivy League colleges, respectively.
The World’s Biggest Tech Companies Are Most Likely To Hire University Of Washington Graduates
- Graduates of the University of Washington are more likely than graduates from any other US university to work at one of the world’s biggest tech companies. We counted 16,343 graduates on LinkedIn who are now working at one of the world’s most valuable tech companies.
Which US Colleges The ‘Big Five’ Are Most Likely To Hire From
- University of Washington graduates are the top choice for Amazon and Microsoft. In fact, University of Washington alumni have a 264% greater chance of being hired by Microsoft than the 2nd best university, Georgia Institute of Technology.
- Stanford University alumni are the most likely to get hired by Google and Apple.
- Facebook predominately hire University of California–Berkeley alumni (1,102 alumni).
Amazon is most likely to hire University of Washington graduates over any other US college with 4,540 alumni currently working there. University of Southern California alumni ranked as the 2nd most likely to get hired by Amazon (2,085 alumni), and the University of California – LA ranked in 3rd place (1,786 alumni).
Stanford University alumni are Apple’s top choice with 2,322 of Stanford’s graduates now working for them. In close second with 2,216 alumni is the University of California – Berkeley and in 3rd place, the University of Texas – Austin (1,540 alumni).
Facebook is most likely to hire Berkeley alumni with 1,102 alumni now working for the tech giant. Stanford University graduates came in 2nd place (997 alumni) and Carnegie Mellon University in 3rd place (757).
Stanford University alumni are also most likely to get hired by Google than any other US college with an impressive 3,990 alumni now working at Google.
Microsoft is more like hire University of Washington alumni than any other US college graduates with a whopping 6,251 alumni now working for them. In fact, University of Washington alumni have a 264% greater chance of being hired by Microsoft than the 2nd best university, Georgia Institute of Technology which has 1,719 alumni now working for Microsoft.
Which States Are Most Likely To Produce Alumni For The World’s Biggest Tech Companies?
California reigned in the number one position, with acolossal 73,617 alumni now working for a tech giant. New York ranks in second place with 43,162 alumni and Massachusetts in third place with 34,499 alumni.
The university in California where graduates are most likely to get hired by a tech company is the University of California, Berkeley (15,307 alumni). Below you can find which university in each state in the top list has the most alumni working for tech companies.
Only 43 states are included in the table as our analysis only looked at the top 100 public and private colleges in the US.
Q&A With Carrus.io
Q: In the hiring process, is it likely that a Big Tech company would show a preference for a graduate of a prestigious university, for example those in the Russell Group or Ivy League, over an applicant that has attended a non-prestigious university?
A: This still happens, but your alma mater is a lot less of a priority than it was 10 years ago. There’s a huge push for diversity and inclusion at most tech companies right now; they have quotas to meet. Market research company Link Humans created this ranking and summary of some of the top tech companies and their diversity initiatives. There’s still a long way to go, but I think we’ll continue to see the floodgates opening for people from all sorts of different backgrounds.
Q: Is elitism more or less likely to exist in the hiring process or the career progression of big tech companies vs the most prestigious companies in other industries, such as finance or media?
A: It can go both ways and the lines aren’t always so clear. We actually find a lot of elitism in traditional industries outside of tech that are ingrained in old ways of thinking (think Mad Men-esque workplaces). I worked in the recruitment industry, for example, which isn’t always the most welcoming towards women. Tech companies can definitely fall into their own traps and groupthink, too, but generally do a better job, partly because they face more external and internal pressure to be inclusive.
All that said, most companies nowadays are actually evolving to have a strong tech focus and pulling people from tech to join their companies. For example, the New York Times has more focus on digital and mobile than offline. Starbucks sells coffee, but they’re actually turning into a huge data company. Home Depot hired over 1,000 tech professionals with the goal to move most sales online and revamp their retail experience. There are tons of examples like this of ongoing digital transformation that will very likely bring a big shift in the culture of these companies!
