University-educated youth prefer Finnish companies
Nokia, Finnair, Kone, and Suunto favourites of fresh engineers and economists
Well-established Finnish listed companies are the preferred employers of academically-educated young Finnish professionals who have found work since graduation. The most popular enterprise for young people who have studied either economics or technology continues to be Nokia.
Other companies making the top ten favourites include the airline Finnair, the elevator and escalator manufacturer Kone, and the sports instrument manufacturer Suunto.
The ranking list for young well-trained Finns continues to focus on Finnish enterprises. Topping the list of business school graduates are Nokia and Finnair, as well as such traditional Finnish companies as the sweets manufacturer Fazer, the retailer Stockmann, Amer Sports, two banks, and the S-Group of retailers.
Favourites for newly qualified engineers include established Finnish industrial companies, such as the engineering company Metso, and the paper manufacturer UPM-Kymmene, as well as Jaakko Pöyry, a consultant company in the forest sector. Engineers were also interested in the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).
The only foreign-owned enterprise to make it into the top ten for engineering professionals was the Swedish electricity and automation technology company ABB. The only foreign company on the economists' list is the Swedish-run Nordea Bank, which many perceive to be a Finnish company.
The survey was conducted by Universum, a consulting firm which examines career plans of students and young people. The survey, conducted in August and September this year, involved 5,452 young academic professionals who had been working between one and eight years.
There results showed few changes from last year. Only companies in the forest industry had lost in popularity - a possible reflection of their large job cutbacks and poor results in the past year.
Respondents were allowed to name five companies that they would most prefer working for. They were given a list of 120 firms to choose from, and they were also allowed to write in a company that was not on the list.
"On the basis of this, we could say that Finns are very patriotic. In other Nordic Countries, the list has contained somewhat more international companies", says Michaela Herlin of Universum.
Falling in line with the Finnish orientation is the finding in the same study according to which only about 22 percent of respondents felt that the possibility for an international career ranked among the three most important benefits that a company could offer.
Finnish corporations might therefore be happy to know that although they tend to pay lower salaries than many foreign companies, Finnish young people still prefer domestic employers.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 12.10.2006 - TODAY |
 University-educated youth prefer Finnish companies |
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