Google is the top choice technology employer among entry-level job seekers for the second year in a row, according to CollegeGrad.com., an entry-level job site. Respondents selected Google as their first choice before Microsoft, Yahoo or IBM.

Even though Microsoft has long had an edge in recruiting top entry level talent, the popularity of innovative Web technology companies such as Google and Yahoo! has grown. In this year’s results, released on Nov. 20, Google received a 49 percent preference in the top four technology rankings among entry level job seekers. Microsoft, Yahoo! and IBM received 29 percent, 12 percent and 10 percent respectively.

‘There are lots of diverse and exciting opportunities available for graduates in technology right now,’ said Paul Grandel, vice president for Information Technology and Services at Syracuse University. ‘Google is certainly one of those opportunities.’

Google is on entry-level job seekers’ wish lists in other surveys as well.

Asked to name the five firms where they’d most like to work after graduation, 12.55 percent of MBA candidates in the United States specified Google, according to the results of an annual survey of MBA candidates by the research firm Universum Communications in an exclusive Fortune.com list.

‘Personally I would love to work at Google,’ said Tim Waterhouse, a junior electrical engineering and computer science major. ‘Their time sharing plan where a portion of your paid time is spent on personal projects is ideal on top of all of the facilities available for playing sports after work and such.’

Waterhouse said Google pays well because they only accept the cream of the crop.

‘If you don’t come out of a prestigious school they pretty much don’t even consider your application,’ Waterhouse said.

Heidi Hanisko, a spokesperson for CollegeGrad.com, said Google has become a major player not only in the technology department, but in the employment market as well.

‘Google’s great benefits and unique options, combined with the fact that they have some of the greatest technology in the world, make entry level talent excited to work there,’ Hanisko said.

In keeping with its goal to build a company characterized not only by success and innovation, but also by the highest levels of integrity and fairness in dealing with others, Google offers a generous host of benefits.These include an on-site doctor and dentist; massage and yoga; adoption assistance, learning opportunities and tuition reimbursement, an employee referral bonus program, on-site day care; and maternity and parental leave which includes a $500 expense for take-out meals during the first four weeks that they are home with his or her new baby.

‘I’ve talked to a number of people who are currently employed by Google and love it there,’ said Dr. Clifford Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information, an organization dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

The CollegeGrad.com survey was conducted nationally using an online poll placed on the CollegeGrad.com home page during Oct. 2006. The results are based on more than 1,600 respondents.

Published on November 28, 2006 at 12:00 pm