When it comes to job searching, knowing where to start is half the battle. Using data from self-reported grad surveys conducted at more than 100 colleges and universities across the country, NerdScholar crunched the numbers to produce a list of 40 top employers who hire recent college graduates. The data covers 2010, 2011, and 2012, and pulls from both public and private schools of all sizes (see a list of colleges with the highest employment rates in 2012 here). So keep these companies in mind when sending out job applications—chances are they’re hiring.
[Looking for career advice? Check out our Job Search Guide for Gen Y.]
Employer |
Approx. Number of Employees Globally (in 2012 or later) |
Headquarters |
|---|---|---|
| Accenture | 174,300 | New York City/Dublin |
| AmeriCorps | 80,000 (current volunteers) | Washington, D.C. |
| Bain & Company | 37,000 | Boston |
| Bank of America Merrill Lynch | 284,000 | Charlotte, NC |
| Barclays | 139,900 | New York City/London |
| Boeing Company | 157,100 | Chicago |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | 24,500 | McLean, VA |
| Boston Consulting Group | 8,614 | Boston |
| Capital One | 38,280 | McLean, VA |
| Citigroup | unavailable | New York City |
| City Year | 2,500 (corps members) | Boston |
| Credit Suisse | 46,400 | New York City/Zurich |
| Deloitte | 60,950 | New York |
| Deutsche Bank | 98,220 | New York City/Frankfurt |
| Epic Systems | unavailable | Verona, WI |
| Ernst & Young | 175,000 | New York City/London |
| ExxonMobil | 83,600 | Irving, TX |
| General Electric | 287,000 | Fairfield, CT |
| Goldman Sachs | 27,360 | New York City |
| 37,550 | Mountain View, CA | |
| IBM | 426,750 | Armonk, NY |
| JP Morgan Chase | 261,000 | New York City |
| KPMG | 155,000 | New York City/Amsterdam |
| Lockheed Martin | 116,000 | Bethesda, MD |
| McKinsey & Company | 6,500 | New York City |
| Microsoft | 99,140 | Redmond, WA |
| Morgan Stanley | unavailable | New York City |
| National Institutes of Health | unavailable | Bethesda, MD |
| Northrop Grumman | 70,000 | Falls Church, VA |
| Peace Corps | 7,210 (current volunteers) | Washington, D.C. |
| PricewaterhouseCoopers | 184,235 | New York City/London |
| Procter & Gamble | 129,000 | Cincinnati |
| Schlumberger | 108,000 | Houston |
| Target | 365,000 | Minneapolis, MN |
| Teach for America | 1,500 | New York City |
| The Advisory Board Company | 2,400 | Washington, D.C. |
| U.S. Army | 539,675 (active duty) | Washington, D.C. |
| U.S. Navy | 326,684 (active duty) | Washington, D.C. |
| UBS | 62,630 | New York City/Zurich |
| Wells Fargo | 272,200 | San Francisco |
Number of employees data from company websites or money.cnn.com.
Businesswoman in office photo courtesy of Shutterstock.