The Companies Where Millennials Want to Work the Most (BusinessWeek)

Google dominates in popularity whether among business or engineering students, men or women

If you want to attract the largest generation in history to work at your company, you're going to have to give them two things: a sense of purpose and the ability to innovate. 

A new survey from Universum, a global research and advisory firm specializing in employer branding, gives insight into which employers are winning this key demographic. The survey asked more than 240,000 business and engineering students from across the globe what was important to them and which companies they would most like to work for. 

"Students are seeking platforms for their own performance and growth,” says Petter Nylander, chief executive officer of Universum. 

This isn't the first year that this survey has been done, and there was little movement in the top five companies from last year's report. Google once again led the way as the No. 1 choice for both business and engineering students. Other firms with high rankings were PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, Microsoft, Apple, BMW Group, and General Electric. 

Here is a breakout of the top employers according to business students:

Goldman Sachs entered the top five after coming in at No. 8 last year, with Deloitte and Apple slipping a few spots. One of the biggest gainers was Barclays, which climbed eight spots from 35 to 27. The biggest loser was luxury brand LVMH, falling to No. 34 from 19. New names this year include Grant Thornton, General Motors, and Samsung. 

When it comes to engineering students, there was again little movement in the top five, but Samsung came in at No. 11 after not even making the top 50 in 2014.

Universum also broke down the results for men and women in each industry. For business students, it appears men are more drawn to large banks such as Goldman Sachs than women are. This isn't necessarily surprising, given the small number of female executives in the industry, although a number of the firms have developed programs aimed at changing that. 

Here are the rankings according to female business students:

And here they are for male business students: 

When looking at engineering students, the key difference between men and women was that men preferred companies like BMW while women gave the likes of L'Oreal Group and Johnson & Johnson higher rankings. 

Here's the female breakout:

And here's the male breakout:

The key standout in all of this is Google, which topped every single breakout provided by Universum. 

"Millennials want to truly understand a company’s purpose, align with it, and work with others to propel the organization’s performance," Universum said. "Millennials are highly attracted to entrepreneurial energy in the workplace. They want to work in innovative settings, unencumbered by infrastructure, while still delivering strong financial results. Consequently, the tech industry generally attracts this kind of talent."