Ireland's 100 most sought-after graduate employers (2010)

Slippers 2

http://irelands100.com/ranking
http://gradireland.com/awards

If it was conducted the same way as in previous years, students and graduates were asked to name the five employers they saw as offering the best opportunities for graduates. The results went up on Friday 21st.

1. PricewaterhouseCoopers
2. Deloitte
3. Google
4. Department of Education
5. KPMG
6. RTÉ
7. IBM
8. Health Service Executive
9. Microsoft
10. Ernst & Young
11. Airtricity
12. Pfizer
13. Apple
14. BBC
15. Boston Scientific
16. Bank of Ireland
17. Electricity Supply Board
18. Accenture
19. Siemens
20. An Garda Síochána
21. Abbott Ireland
22. Marks & Spencer
23. European Commission
24. Department of Foreign Affairs
25. Motorola
26. GlaxoSmithKline
27. Debenhams
28. Sisk
29. Enterprise Ireland
30. Shell
31. Sony
32. Zurich Financial Services
33. Facebook
34. Arthur Cox
35. Boots
36. Intel
37. J.P. Morgan
38. Bank of America Securities
39. Department of Employment & Learning NI/Teaching
40. Kingspan
41. Quinn Financial Services
42. Wyeth Biotech
43. Department of the Environment
44. Hibernian Aviva
45. USIT
46. Goldman Sachs
47. A&L Goodbody
48. McKinsey & Company
49. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
50. Cisco
51. Ulster Bank/Royal Bank of Scotland Group
52. GE
53. Musgrave Group
54. Stryker Instruments
55. Tesco Ireland
56. VHI
57. Jacobs Engineering
58. Quinn Group
59. Grant Thornton
60. Kerry Biosciences
61. Diageo
62. Arup
63. Bank of Ireland Asset Management
64. An Post
65. Public Appointments Service
66. Shannon Aerospace
67. Medtronic
68. Morgan Stanley
69. Cadbury
70. IFAC Accountants
71. Irish Cement
72. Paddy Power
73. Eirgrid
74. Penneys (Primark)
75. Wyeth Medica
76. Aldi
77. Bayer
78. Eli Lilly
79. Project Management Group
80. Sun Microsystems
81. Defence Forces
82. Irish Life & Permanent
83. Baxter Healthcare
84. Matheson Ormsby Prentice
85. Barclays Bank PLC
86. McCann FitzGerald
87. FÁS Overseas Graduate Programme
88. FBD Insurance
89. Aer Lingus
90. Bombardier Aerospace
91. Ericsson
92. Quinn Property
93. Roche Ireland
94. Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Ltd
95. RPS Group
96. Accenture Technology Solutions
97. BDO Simpson Xavier
98. Davy
99. Coca Cola
100. Vodafone

seamus

4 of the top ten are accountancy firms and only 3 are technology firms.

Goes to show how many wasters we're pumping out with business degrees.

onemorechance

A business degree holder is hardly a waster, 30000 + posts on boards.ie, now there is a waster!

novarock

Is that not just a list of "who I would like to work for when i grow up".. I fail to see the point of it?

PeakOutput

onemorechance wrote: »

A business degree holder is hardly a waster, 30000 + posts on boards.ie, now there is a waster!

in fairness a business degree is of limited use and is not very hard to get

seamus

onemorechance wrote: »

A business degree holder is hardly a waster, 30000 + posts on boards.ie, now there is a waster!

:rolleyes:

I should elaborate. The accountancy firms deal with the nature of running a business. They provide services in relation to running a business. The services they provide don't actually add "content" to the economy. You could argue that they provide supplementary, non-critical advisory services, which any company can easily do without and not suffer.

In contrast, technology firms create content and provide services, without which business and the economy would stagnate and die.

The sheer size of the business of the accountancy firms goes to show that we spend an awful lot more resources talking about business than we do actually running the business. I experience this myself in work where the businesspeople consider the availability of their reports to be more important than the availability of the processes which generate the actual cash figures behind those reports.

onemorechance

PeakOutput wrote: »

in fairness a business degree is of limited use and is not very hard to get

Every degree is of limited use but I would think that a business degree would be a lot less limited than a 2 subject arts degree for example.

As for how hard it is to get, I don't think that it is fair to single out business degrees for easy to get. I think it would be on par with most other courses, especially since it will have many common subjects with other courses such as economics, commerce and IT.

onemorechance

seamus wrote: »

:rolleyes:
You could argue that they provide supplementary, non-critical advisory services, which any company can easily do without and not suffer.

No, I could not argue this!

novarock

with a business degree you are stuck to working in a specific business environment. An accountant is never going to be anything but an accountant With any technology degree, you can generally adapt to working in any field of technology. My degree is in Electronics, I work as a Network Engineer, both far removed from each other..

In my opinion, what your degree is in doesnt matter, unless you have pidgeon-holed yourself with a very specific business degree.

Most of them won't be hiring anyway. Brings me back to my young, naive day, got to college, get a good job bla bla. You're not told in school that most of the folks working in those companies hate the site of the place.

cronos

seamus wrote: »

4 of the top ten are accountancy firms and only 3 are technology firms.

Goes to show how many wasters we're pumping out with business degrees.

Everyone of those companies need technology and business people. Business degrees are easier to get IMO. But that does not make them wasters!

onemorechance

novarock wrote: »

An accountant is never going to be anything but an accountant

John Grisham - novelist,
Kenny G - soprano saxophone player,
Bob Newhart - stand-up comedian and actor,
Gibby Haynes - lead singer of The Butthole Surfers,
Tim DuBois - head of Astoria records,
Walter Diemer - invented bubble gum,
J. P. Morgan - banking and corporate pioneer,
Walter L. Morgan - father of the mutual fund industry,
Arthur Blank - founded Home Depot,
Josiah Wedgewood - of Wedgwood pottery.

novarock

onemorechance wrote: »

John Grisham - novelist,
Kenny G - soprano saxophone player,
Bob Newhart - stand-up comedian and actor,
Gibby Haynes - lead singer of The Butthole Surfers,
Tim DuBois - head of Astoria records,
Walter Diemer - invented bubble gum,
J. P. Morgan - banking and corporate pioneer,
Walter L. Morgan - father of the mutual fund industry,
Arthur Blank - founded Home Depot,
Josiah Wedgewood - of Wedgwood pottery.

I meant in the general sense.. but touché none the less...

starfish12

On what basis is a business degree easy to get?! I think you'll find its the quality and relevancy of your qualification that counts not the tag ignorant people apply to it

novarock

i never said it was easy, but as there are so many people graduating with one, and so many qualifed who are now unemplyed and looking for work, they are becoming irrelevant.

starfish12

And you dont think that applies to all qualifications at the moment?

Sweeping generalisations are fab arent they

novarock

i would say the hardest hit qualified people as a result of the global recession are construction workers, followed very closely by those in business, in a very broad and general sense..

there is nothing wrong with generalising in a conversation like this.

And no I dont think it applies to all qualifications, I havent jumped aboard that bandwagon yet.

onemorechance

novarock wrote: »

i would say the hardest hit qualified people as a result of the global recession are construction workers, followed very closely by those in business, in a very broad and general sense..

there is nothing wrong with generalising in a conversation like this.

And no I dont think it applies to all qualifications, I havent jumped aboard that bandwagon yet.

In a very broad and general sense, we are ALL in business.

Maglight

It's not surprising that three of the top five are accountancy firms. As the OP stated the companies were chosen by graduates on the grounds that they offered the best opportunities.

The big accountancy firms have excellent graduate training programmes. They work you hard, but they pay for your studies and pay you while you are studying. Qualifying as a chartered accountant means that you can work anywhere in the world and have a greater likelihood of ending up as CEO of a business than any other profession.

John_Mc

onemorechance wrote: »

Every degree is of limited use but I would think that a business degree would be a lot less limited than a 2 subject arts degree for example.

As for how hard it is to get, I don't think that it is fair to single out business degrees for easy to get. I think it would be on par with most other courses, especially since it will have many common subjects with other courses such as economics, commerce and IT.

Most of my friends did business in U.L and the only time I saw them working was cramming for exams or frantically trying to finish projects at the end of the semester. So about 5-6 weeks in total.

I did computer systems and had to work hard at it every week, and still only got my 2.2.

My FYP involved spending months coding an application, and then writing a comprehensive report on how I went about doing it. Effectively 2 projects in one, whereas business just had the one.

I certainly don't accept that business is anywhere near as hard as a computer science degree to obtain.

Most of my friends who did business are no unemployed and have had to move home.

onemorechance

Maglight wrote: »

It's not surprising that three of the top five are accountancy firms. As the OP stated the companies were chosen by graduates on the grounds that they offered the best opportunities.

The big accountancy firms have excellent graduate training programmes. They work you hard, but they pay for your studies and pay you while you are studying. Qualifying as a chartered accountant means that you can work anywhere in the world and have a greater likelihood of ending up as CEO of a business than any other profession.

And in the current climate, graduates in training are being kept over more experienced staff due to their lower costs. These trainees are now working very hard as a result. If they had the thime, they would laugh at how their profession is being generalised and dismissed here by tech geeks who are annoyed that accountancy firms topped tech firms in a grad poll!

novarock

onemorechance wrote: »

And in the current climate, graduates in training are being kept over more experienced staff due to their lower costs. These trainees are now working very hard as a result. If they had the thime, they would laugh at how their profession is being generalised and dismissed here by tech geeks who are annoyed that accountancy firms topped tech firms in a grad poll!

But the poll was not from existing workers, but rather from where the coming graduates want to work? Im also sure that the higher paid existing workers would have taken their cuts to stay in employment, because after all business is business. There is also no need to start getting personal here. We are just debating a point.

ucd.1985

The accountancy firms are seen by many graduates as a training ground or 4th level education.

Hence the massive numbers that leave when their training contract ends.

Many of these people go on to set up their own businesses or work for value adding business.

A large percentage of CEOs and CFOs in Irelands plcs have accounting backgrounds.

Tommy Breen DCC, Patrick Kennedy Paddy Power, etc, etc

PandyAndy

onemorechance wrote: »

John Grisham - novelist,
Kenny G - soprano saxophone player,
Bob Newhart - stand-up comedian and actor,
Gibby Haynes - lead singer of The Butthole Surfers,
Tim DuBois - head of Astoria records,
Walter Diemer - invented bubble gum,
J. P. Morgan - banking and corporate pioneer,
Walter L. Morgan - father of the mutual fund industry,
Arthur Blank - founded Home Depot,
Josiah Wedgewood - of Wedgwood pottery.

Hahaha nice reply. I never knew an accountant invented bubble gum, seems like a cool bloke too going by his wiki entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Diemer

/sorry for straying off topic

Nidot

I would like to point out that altho they may be the most in demand employers this does not mean they take on the most. Between the big four they take on roughly 1,000 graduates every year. So this offers opportunities to alot of graduates so it is obvious that alot of graduates would like to work there.

Now I'm not defending or attacking anyone, I do work in the Big 4, but alot of tech people need to realise that all the graduates taken on by the Big 4 would be the top members of theis class. All would of obtained about 450 points (which would get you any computer science course I know) and would of obtained minimum 2.2 degrees.

What I'm trying to say is that, yes a basic business degree may be easy to obtain but this would not get you into the Big 4.

So all those attacking business degrees, back-off you have no idea of how hard it can be to get into the Big 4 and you have no idea of how hard people work in these firms.

In fact the most wasteful people that I've come across in the Big 4 are the tech guys, and all my mates in the other Big 4 would agree.

Maglight

Maglight wrote: »

The big accountancy firms have excellent graduate training programmes. They work you hard, but they pay for your studies and pay you while you are studying. Qualifying as a chartered accountant means that you can work anywhere in the world and have a greater likelihood of ending up as CEO of a business than any other profession.

For every chartered accountant that's a CEO there are thousands more on poor enough money being flogged to death by one of the "big 4"

starfish12

...and I studied Marketing for 4 years and for 10 months in my final year I spent 12 hours a day 6 days a week in college and got a first....but then its not a tech degree so obv. it was really easy.....

John_Mc

Nidot wrote: »

So all those attacking business degrees, back-off you have no idea of how hard it can be to get into the Big 4 and you have no idea of how hard people work in these firms.

In fact the most wasteful people that I've come across in the Big 4 are the tech guys, and all my mates in the other Big 4 would agree.

Of course it's not at all difficult to get into the IT industry after graduating, we just saunter into a job and put the feet up :rolleyes:

You're clearly ignorant about how it works in the industry. Even though a computer science degree is difficult to obtain (far more difficult than a Business degree in my opinion), you're taken as knowing nothing after you graduate.

The only way to get in the door is by undertaking personal projects in your spare time to increase your skill set so that employers will take a risk with you, or you obtain certifications with the likes of Microsoft, Cisco etc. It's a continuous learning process just trying to keep up with technology.

I'm not going to try to defend your IT guys whom you and all your accountant buddies deem wasteful. I could just as easily use the sales and accounting guys in my company as examples, but what's the point?

John_Mc

starfish12 wrote: »

...and I studied Marketing for 4 years and for 10 months in my final year I spent 12 hours a day 6 days a week in college and got a first....but then its not a tech degree so obv. it was really easy.....

Cry me a river, that means absolutely nothing to me. It was part and parcel of doing a comp science degree for 4 years.

StaggerLee

Nidot wrote: »

I would like to point out that altho they may be the most in demand employers this does not mean they take on the most. Between the big four they take on roughly 1,000 graduates every year. So this offers opportunities to alot of graduates so it is obvious that alot of graduates would like to work there.

Now I'm not defending or attacking anyone, I do work in the Big 4, but alot of tech people need to realise that all the graduates taken on by the Big 4 would be the top members of theis class. All would of obtained about 450 points (which would get you any computer science course I know) and would of obtained minimum 2.2 degrees.

What I'm trying to say is that, yes a basic business degree may be easy to obtain but this would not get you into the Big 4.

So all those attacking business degrees, back-off you have no idea of how hard it can be to get into the Big 4 and you have no idea of how hard people work in these firms.

In fact the most wasteful people that I've come across in the Big 4 are the tech guys, and all my mates in the other Big 4 would agree.

I'd second this. I have an IT degree and have worked in IT for the biggest of the Big 4. In General the graduates they take on are excellent, would all have gotten way in excess of 400 points in their leaving cert, they are worked very hard and usually progress to have a very successful career. In my opinion they would generally do much better than your average techy. They are seen as a much more valuable asset than IT people to the Firm as they are potential fee earners. IT and other support people are generally class as second class citizens unfortunaley, I wouldnt call them all wasters though...

Nidot

Nidot wrote: »

of how hard people work in these firms.

From my knowledge I think ye are flogged to death for relatively poor money even at partner level.

starfish12

starfish12 wrote: »

...and I studied Marketing for 4 years and for 10 months in my final year I spent 12 hours a day 6 days a week in college and got a first....but then its not a tech degree so obv. it was really easy.....

lol

many courses expect that input for 4 years.

starfish12

John Mc get a grip, all I'm saying is that people don't know what goes on in other degrees and we all need to get over ourselves judging others....I'm sure you worked v.hard, as did I...end of. To call ANYONE either business or IT graduates is a joke, and citing examples of 'people I worked with etc,' is a waste of time

Nidot

RoverJames wrote: »

From my knowledge I think ye are flogged to death for relatively poor money even at partner level.

That's definitely the case. The money paid to graduates for the duration of their graduate contracts is outragously low for the work required of them.

LiamD

seamus wrote: »

:rolleyes:

The accountancy firms deal with the nature of running a business. They provide services in relation to running a business. The services they provide don't actually add "content" to the economy. You could argue that they provide supplementary, non-critical advisory services, which any company can easily do without and not suffer.

In contrast, technology firms create content and provide services, without which business and the economy would stagnate and die.

The Big 4 provide critical support services to business. Payroll, tax, account auditing - without these services business would, in your words, stagnate and die. Consultancy and advisory are merely one business line and are becoming more and more IT focused.

IT firms also provide services to business. Very few businesses have IT as a core competence. This is evidenced by the sheer amount of outsourcing of IT function.

Typical techie tbh... "To he who has a hammer, the whole world is a nail."

Maglight

RoverJames wrote: »

For every chartered accountant that's a CEO there are thousands more on poor enough money being flogged to death by one of the "big 4"

I'm not disagreeing that there are more overworked, trainee accountants in the world than CEOs. My point is that training as a Chartered Accountant with a Big Four firm is probably a better path to becoming a CEO or Board Member than any other route.

As other posters have noted already, most junior accountants leave the firm once they have qualified. They slog for a few years at low pay and then move on to well paid roles in wider business. A bit like junior hospital doctors, but without the life and death responsibility:)

helimachoptor

John_Mc wrote: »

Cry me a river, that means absolutely nothing to me. It was part and parcel of doing a comp science degree for 4 years.

+1, there were many nights i and others were kicked out of labs at 2/3/4am up to our eyes in Java (of both varieties:D)

Pittens

Well, lets agree that both sides work hard in College.

the only other input I would have is that the IT guys in the Big 4, may well have it easier than the accountants in the Big 4 - because the accountants there are the producers of wealth, the BIG 4 proletariat. Meanwhile the accountant who works in the startup I work in just signs off payroll, and expenses. I dont see him past 5.

it depends where you work.

helimachoptor

Pittens wrote: »

it depends where you work.

True words Pittens, in my last company as a techie at one stage i worked 50 days straight, a previous job I was doing 70 odd hours a week (on contract paid by the hour) and pretty much working 7 days a week. But the marketing person there also did a lot of hours.

muboop1

Maglight wrote: »

It's not surprising that three of the top five are accountancy firms. As the OP stated the companies were chosen by graduates on the grounds that they offered the best opportunities.

The big accountancy firms have excellent graduate training programmes. They work you hard, but they pay for your studies and pay you while you are studying. Qualifying as a chartered accountant means that you can work anywhere in the world and have a greater likelihood of ending up as CEO of a business than any other profession.

Absolute poo.

Most CEO's in the world have engineering degrees over any other type.

http://science.blogdig.net/archives/articles/August2009/20/S__038_P_500_CEO__8217_s__Engineers_Stay_at_the_Top.html

craggles

I have a B.Sc. Hons. 2:1 in Chemistry which makes me better than all of you clowns. :cool:

Slippers 2

muboop1 wrote: »

Absolute poo.

Most CEO's in the world have engineering degrees over any other type.

http://science.blogdig.net/archives/articles/August2009/20/S__038_P_500_CEO__8217_s__Engineers_Stay_at_the_Top.html

The S&P 500 are US companies. Chartered Accountant is not a qualification that's available over there. I think Chartered Accountant in Ireland is a bit like MBA is in the US, an introduction to the business community. If we looked at executives of Irish companies we'd probably find a few CAs. Also, it says engineering is the most common undergrad. Doesn't mean they didn't become accountants after doing their undergrads.

muboop1

Slippers 2 wrote: »

The S&P 500 are US companies. Chartered Accountant is not a qualification that's available over there. I think Chartered Accountant in Ireland is a bit like MBA is in the US, an introduction to the business community. If we looked at executives of Irish companies we'd probably find a few CAs. Also, it says engineering is the most common undergrad. Doesn't mean they didn't become accountants after doing their undergrads.

Ridiculous statement... An MBA is like being an accountant? care to back that up? I fully intend on doing an MBA in the future and following the management path... Does that make me an accountant?

And yes undergrad engineers! still 4 years min training to be an engineer! Majority of engineers from my experience excel into management quite quickly (not comparing to anything specifically, just general) very few become accountants!

Please have you any proof or back up or well anything that shows most CEO's anywhere are accountants?

cronos

Cant we all just get along. Think of the children!

FYI I did Computer Systems in UL also and its crazy difficult. But some of it is pointlessly difficult. COBOL... Paddy... what were they thinking :P

InReality

I can't believe the HSE is 8th on the list. They are never short of bad press.
I guess the health sector graduates have no alternative but to go there so they are convincing themselves its a good employer ????

This thread is hilarious.

It's turned into a "we're all unemployed but business degrees are the easiest to get and accountants rule the world..."

What does it matter????? It comes down to you as a person you fools.

Slippers 2

muboop1 wrote: »

Ridiculous statement... An MBA is like being an accountant? care to back that up? I fully intend on doing an MBA in the future and following the management path... Does that make me an accountant?

And yes undergrad engineers! still 4 years min training to be an engineer! Majority of engineers from my experience excel into management quite quickly (not comparing to anything specifically, just general) very few become accountants!

Please have you any proof or back up or well anything that shows most CEO's anywhere are accountants?

The boards of the first half of the ISEQ 20:

AIB

Dan O’Connor BComm, FCA
Colm Doherty BComm
Declan Collier BA Mod (Econ), MSc (Econ)
Kieran Crowley BA, FCA
Stephen Kingon CBE, BA, DBA, FCA, FCIM
Anne Maher FIIPM, BCL
Sean O’Driscoll BComm, FCA
David Pritchard BSc (Eng)
Dr. Michael Somers BComm, M.Econ.Sc, Ph.D
Dick Spring BA, BL
Robert G Wilmers
Jennifer Winter BSc

Aryzta

Denis Lucey Diploma in Dairy Science
Albert Abderhalden Commercial Diploma
Denis Buckley
J. Brian Davy BComm
Noreen Hynes BComm, FCA, AITI, Member of the National Association of Estate Agents (Overseas)
Hugo Kane Certificate in Business Management
Owen Killian Bachelor of Agricultural Science
Patrick McEniff FCMA, MBA
William Murphy BComm
Hans Sigrist Commercial Diploma
Dr. J. Maurice Zufferey PhD in History, Master of Law, Advanced Management Degree
Pat Morrissey BCL, Solicitor

BoI

Patrick Molloy
Dennis Holt BA, ACIB
Richie Boucher
Des Crowley BA(Mod) Econ, FCMA
Denis Donovan B Comm, MBA
John O’Donovan B Comm, F.C.A.
Tom Considine BA, F.C.C.A.
Paul Haran M.Sc, B.Sc
Rose Hynes BCL, AITI, Solr
Jerome Kennedy F.C.A.
Declan McCourt BL, MA, MBA
Heather Ann McSharry B.Comm MBS
Terry Neill MA, M.Sc (Econ)
Patrick O’Sullivan BBS MsC F.C.A.
Joe Walsh

CRH

J.M.C. O’Connor B.Soc.Sc., M.Soc.Sc., PhD
T.V. Neill MA, MSc (Econ.)
K. McGowan
M. Lee BE, FCA
J.M. de Jong
G.A. Culpepper CPA, BA, MBA
J.W. Kennedy M.Sc, BE, C.Eng, FIEE
N. Hartery CEng, FIEI, MBA
W.I. O’Mahony BE, BL, MBA, FIEI
U-H. Felcht
W.P. Egan
M.S. Towe
A. Manifold FCPA, MBA, MBS
D.N. O’Connor BComm, FCA

C&C

Tony O’Brien
John Dunsmore
Stephen Glancey
John Holberry
John Burgess
Liam FitzGerald
John Hogan
Richard Holroyd
Philip Lynch
Breege O’Donoghue

DCC

Michael Buckley, MA, LPh, MSI
Róisín Brennan, BCL, FCA, MSI
David Byrne, SC
John Moloney, B.Agr.Sc., MBA
Donal Murphy, B Comm, BFS, MBA
Maurice Keane, B Comm, M Econ Sc
Kevin Melia, FCMA, JDIPMA
Tommy Breen, B Sc (Econ), FCA
Fergal O’Dwyer, FCA
Bernard Somers, B Comm, FCA

Dragon Oil

Mohammed Al Ghurair
Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa
Nigel McCue
Ahmad Sharaf
Ahmad Al Muhairbi
Saeed Al Mazrooei

Elan

Kyran McLaughlin
Vaughn Bryson
Shane Cooke
Lars Ekman
Jonas Frick
Gary Kennedy
Patrick Kennedy
Giles Kerr
G. Kelly Martin
Kieran McGowan
Donal O’Connor
Richard Pilnik
William Rohn
Jack W. Schuler
Dennis J. Selkoe

FBD

Michael Berkery
John Donnelly
Sean Dorgan
Andrew Langford
Philip Lynch
Cathal O’Caoimh
Dr. Patrick O’Keeffe
Vincent Sheridan
Adrian Taheny
Johan Thijs
Padraig Walshe

Glanbia

Michael Horan B. Comm, FCA
Liam Herlihy
John Moloney B.Agr.Sc., MBA
Siobhán Talbot B.Comm, FCA
Kevin Toland FCMA
John Fitzgerald
Victor Quinlan B.Agr.Sc.
John Callaghan FCA, FIB
Henry Corbally
Nicholas Dunphy
Edward Fitzpatrick
James Gannon
James Gilsenan
Patrick Gleeson
Paul Haran
Christopher Hill B.Agr.Sc.
Martin Keane
Jerry Liston B.A., MBA
Matthew Merrick
William Murphy B. Comm
Anthony O’Connor
Robert Prendergast

I'm saying that students in Ireland who want to climb the corporate ladder view accountancy the same way that budding US ladder climbers view an MBA - as an introduction to a career in the business community no matter which industry they want to work in later. I think that's why three of the top five answers to the survey were accounting firms. Have you got a better explanation?

muboop1

Slippers 2 wrote: »

I'm saying that students in Ireland who want to climb the corporate ladder view accountancy the same way that budding US ladder climbers view an MBA - as an introduction to a career in the business community no matter which industry they want to work in later. I think that's why three of the top five answers to the survey were accounting firms. Have you got a better explanation?

Pretty much tbh. First these are more or less strictly Irish companies am I right?

Well the problem with that is most employers in Ireland in big companies are likely multinational or whatever. Majority of which will not be present on the ISEQ 20. This means it is not all to accurate. You could argue from your info that to become a CEO of someone int eh ISEQ 20 that being an ccountant helps you along greatly

However what you have shown is that a sample of the ISEQ specifically have majority accounting degrees. Considering 3 of 5 of the companies you chose were accounting companies there is obviously going to be more accountants then anything else! This would cast doubt on the accuray of such an assumption for the rest of the ISEQ 20 making your data fairly biased and likely to be not accurate.

A lot if not all of the S&P 500 are present in ireland they just have to have their headquarters in the USA. And as such are completely relevant! Due to the large sample it is also very accurate. This S&P 500 will also include accounting firms etc.

However the reason it is so strange that engineers top the number of CEO's is that they are 22% of CEO's but only approximately 7% of undergrad degree presented in USA which is significant. Engineers are out performing in all other fields.

Many of them do go on to get a MBA to help them succeed. But I would not say they are the same by any means as having an accounting qualification. It's just to far of a stretch to assume they are the same.

AARRRGH

Graduates should try to work for startups.

It's more fun, more interesting, you'll learn more and there are absolutely no office politics.

Slippers 2

muboop1 wrote: »

Pretty much tbh.

I was asking if you had a better explanation than mine as to why PwC, Deloitte and KPMG came 1st, 2nd and 5th when students were asked where they wanted to work after college. Not if you had an explantion why there were so many accountants on the boards I listed.

muboop1 wrote: »

First these are more or less strictly Irish companies am I right?

Well the problem with that is most employers in Ireland in big companies are likely multinational or whatever. Majority of which will not be present on the ISEQ 20. This means it is not all to accurate. You could argue from your info that to become a CEO of someone int eh ISEQ 20 that being an ccountant helps you along greatly

However what you have shown is that a sample of the ISEQ specifically have majority accounting degrees.

The ISEQ 20 are the companies on the Irish Stock Exchange with the largest market cap and trading volume. The ones I went through are the first ten of the twenty when listed alphabetically (here). I was going to do the whole lot but I got halfway and decided that that was enough.

muboop1 wrote: »

Considering 3 of 5

There are ten.

muboop1 wrote: »

of the companies you chose

I didn't choose them, it's the ones whose names start with a letter between A and G.

muboop1 wrote: »

were accounting companies there is obviously going to be more accountants then anything else!

There are no accounting companies on that list.

When I said "three of the top five" I was refering to the post which you quoted (here) which itself was refering to the list of Ireland's 100 most popular graduate employers which this thread is about.

muboop1 wrote: »

This would cast doubt on the accuray of such an assumption for the rest of the ISEQ 20 making your data fairly biased and likely to be not accurate.

Feel free to check the other ten.

muboop1 wrote: »

A lot if not all of the S&P 500 are present in ireland they just have to have their headquarters in the USA. And as such are completely relevant! Due to the large sample it is also very accurate. This S&P 500 will also include accounting firms etc.

Accounting firms don't usually organise as publicly traded companies. I'd be a little surprised if there are any in the S&P 500.

muboop1 wrote: »

However the reason it is so strange that engineers top the number of CEO's is that they are 22% of CEO's but only approximately 7% of undergrad degree presented in USA which is significant. Engineers are out performing in all other fields.

Many of them do go on to get a MBA to help them succeed. But I would not say they are the same by any means as having an accounting qualification. It's just to far of a stretch to assume they are the same.

I didn't say they teach the same stuff. I said people do them for the same reasons - to help their career in business. So when the survey asked the students where they wanted to work after college they said to themselves,

"If I work in a big accounting firm for three or four years I'll progress faster in my next company than if I went straight to that one, so I'll put down an accounting firm as my answer."

I'm just trying to get to the bottom of why accounting firms came 1st, 2nd and 5th in the survey. It probably also has something to do with the fact that it's clear which are the leading accounting firms so all the students that put down an accounting firm end up putting down the same ones and pushing them up the list, and something to do with all the effort that the firms put into promoting themselves on campus.

token101

how did RTÉ get onto this list??? They rarely hire anyone outside immediate family and friends and when they do they are usually from the surrounding Dublin area. RTÉ doesn't offer any opportunities. End of Story!