NEW YORK, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Accounting firms dominate BusinessWeek's second annual ranking of the "Best Places to Launch a Career": Deloitte & Touche is No. 1, followed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young. The last of the Big Four, KPMG, moved up four spots to No. 11.
Accountants used to be spoofed as bean counters -- dutiful, middle-aged, gray-suited men with considerable analytical expertise but little charisma. This year accountants became sexy. Why did the accounting firms do so well? Enormous demand. Across industries, there is a mad scramble to recruit the best and brightest of a new generation, the much-maligned, heavily scrutinized Gen Y. Nowhere is the pressure more intense than in the Big Four. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has so greatly increased the need for their services that the firms are facing an epic talent shortage.
There were a number of surprises beyond the rise of the accounting firms. Only nine companies in the top 50 last year offered starting salaries of at least $55,000. This year twice that many pay big money; among them are the brand-name tech companies, where, thanks to the Google effect, first-year salaries now average $60,000 to $65,000 (and that's before bonuses). BusinessWeek also saw the three pharmaceutical companies surveyed last year fall in the rankings. Merck & Co. (No. 49), which was in the news because of its problems with Vioxx, did poorly in the student poll.
BusinessWeek's "Best Places to Launch a Career" ranking is based on three extensive surveys: of career services directors at U.S. colleges, the employers they identify as the best for new graduates, and college students themselves. This year BusinessWeek was able to examine the records of many more companies, which allowed us to expand the list of employers from 55 to 95 and broaden our view of the corporate landscape. Several newcomers, including PWC, IBM, and Microsoft, eclipsed last year's favorites. Walt Disney had been No. 1; this year it fell to No. 7. Last year's No. 2, Lockheed Martin, slipped to No. 9.
BusinessWeek's "Best Places to Launch a Career" ranking is in the September 24, 2007 issue, on newsstands September 17th. Expanded content is available on BusinessWeek.com, including the full methodology, profiles of each employer, an interactive table, slide shows, and a video roundtable with recruiters from top companies.
BusinessWeek's 50 Best Places to Launch a Career 1 Deloitte & Touche 2 PricewaterhouseCoopers 3 Ernst & Young 4 IBM 5 Google 6 Microsoft 7 Walt Disney 8 Accenture 9 Lockheed Martin 10 Teach for America 11 KPMG 12 General Electric 13 Goldman Sachs 14 Boeing 15 Abbott Labs 16 Merrill Lynch 17 JPMorgan Chase 18 BP America 19 U.S. State Dept. 20 General Mills 21 Hyatt 22 Capital One 23 Peace Corps 24 Johnson & Johnson 25 Macy's 26 Enterprise Rent-A-Car 27 Northrop Grumman 28 Raytheon 29 Exelon 30 Prudential 31 Lehman Brothers 32 Eli Lilly 33 Vanguard 34 UPS 35 L'Oreal USA 36 Harrah's Entertainment 37 Travelers 38 Verizon 39 Chubb 40 Intel 41 Wells Fargo 42 UBS 43 Philip Morris 44 St. Jude Medical 45 Marriott International 46 Sprint 47 New York Life Insurance 48 Kohl's 49 Merck 50 CIA
