150+ Top Graduate Employers You Should Know

This is the list of graduate employers I would start with if I were applying for a graduate job today

This comprehensive post features an extensive list of over 150 top graduate employers, complete with details on the approximate number of vacancies specifically set aside for students and recent graduates by 100 of these employers. It also includes links to their official career websites. So, if you’re still trying to identify which employers offer graduate jobs (i.e., insight programs, internships, or full-time graduate roles), this resource will be incredibly helpful!

This post marks the first step of the 10-step guide to creating a strategic list of employers to target for graduate jobs. For additional posts related to this first step, click here and here.

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You’ll find the names of the 150+ graduate employers split between the following distinct sub-lists, which are both provided in this post:

• A list of the top 100 UK graduate employers (many of the employers on this list also recruit heavily in the US and other countries)

• A list of 50+ additional (UK & US) top graduate employers

With both sub-lists in your arsenal*, you’ll gain access to a comprehensive and diverse selection of over 150 top graduate employers, maximising your opportunities to find the best graduate programs and job openings.

*Yes, this is absolutely a shameless excuse to reference Arsenal, my beloved football team, lol.

I’ve provided different versions of the lists to accommodate various search preferences. For example, you can choose to browse the employers alphabetically or by industry groups.

I encourage you to explore the different versions of the lists and consider how you can use the information provided (such as the range of industries and number of job openings a specific employer has reserved for students and recent graduates) to start constructing your list of graduate employers to target.

As highlighted in the introductory post of the 10-step guide, there are hundreds of graduate employers, and attempting to apply to each one would be overwhelming and inefficient (to say the least). Therefore, it’s prudent to carefully select a subset of employers to target.

Please take your time to work through this first step of the 10-step guide independently for now. I will follow up in a separate post with specific guidance and suggestions on some of the best ways to tackle the lists.

In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me via the comments section or by sending me a DM if you have any questions.

If you’re a premium subscriber to this newsletter, you have exclusive access to the Google Sheet version of the 150+ graduate employers list provided in this post. The Google Sheet version allows you to manipulate the data, enabling you to quickly and easily create different graduate employer target lists to consider. The Google Sheet also has information beyond that provided in this post. For instructions on accessing the Google Sheet, click here.

If you’re not a premium subscriber or if you only require the names of the employers, their respective industries, and the number of vacancies reserved for students and recent graduates and would rather view this information in the format presented in this post rather than in a Google Sheet format, carry on!

And if you know anyone else who might find the list of 150+ top graduate employers provided in this post helpful, please share it with them!

Top 100 UK Graduate Employers

• This is a trusted and well-regarded annual ranking of UK graduate employers. I look out for it every year. The ranking is reported by The Times, which describes the list as ‘Britain’s most sought-after and prestigious graduate employers.’

• Many of the employers on this list also recruit heavily in the US and other countries.

• One of the best features of this ranking is its focus on the number of jobs the graduate employers have reserved for students and recent graduates. In fact, I’ve never paid much attention to this list's ‘most sought-after and prestigious’ ranking and have primarily used this list to (a) discover graduate employers and (b) get an idea of the number of vacancies on offer.

• To cater to different search preferences, I’ve included three versions of the list: (Version 1) The employers are listed alphabetically, with their rank as ‘Britain’s most sought-after and prestigious graduate employers’ in parentheses; (Version 2) The employers are grouped by their core industry and then listed alphabetically; (Version 3) The employers are listed in descending order by the number of UK positions reserved for students and recent graduates.

  

Top 100 UK Graduate Employers (Version 1)

The employers are listed alphabetically, with their rank as ‘Britain’s most sought-after and prestigious graduate employers’ in parentheses.

Clicking on an employer's name will direct you to its careers website via the active relevant link at the time of publication. Please comment on this post if you have any link-related issues, and I’ll look into it.

1. A&O Shearman (ranked #35)

2. Accenture (ranked #53)

3. AECOM (ranked #62)

4. Airbus (ranked #42)

5. Aldi (ranked #9)

6. Amazon (ranked #12)

7. Aon (ranked #82)

8. Apple (ranked #27)

9. Arcadis (ranked #95)

10. Arup (ranked #29)

11. AstraZeneca (ranked #25)

12. Atkins (ranked #46)

13. Aviva (ranked #100)

14. BAE Systems (ranked #28)

15. Bain & Company (ranked #54)

16. Baker McKenzie (ranked #77)

17. Bank of America (ranked #75)

18. Bank of England (ranked #81)

19. Barclays (ranked #10)

20. BBC (ranked #7)

21. BCG (ranked #33)

22. BDO (ranked #68)

23. BlackRock (ranked #79)

24. Bloomberg (ranked #60)

25. BP (ranked #40)

26. British Airways (ranked #83)

27. British Army (ranked #47)

28. BT (ranked #67)

29. Cancer Research UK (ranked #91)

30. Capgemini (ranked #98)

31. Channel 4 (ranked #66)

32. Citi (ranked #89)

33. Civil Service (ranked #2)

34. Clifford Chance (ranked #17)

35. Clyde & Co (ranked #58)

36. CMS (ranked #65)

37. Deloitte (ranked #4)

38. Deutsche Bank (ranked #70)

39. DLA Piper (ranked #51)

40. Dyson (ranked #50)

41. Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ranked #97)

42. EY (ranked #6)

43. Forvis Mazars (ranked #94)

44. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (ranked #44)

45. Frontline (ranked #63)

46. Goldman Sachs (ranked #16)

47. Google (ranked #5)

48. Grant Thornton (ranked #90)

49. GSK (ranked #14)

50. Herbert Smith Freehills (ranked #45)

51. Hogan Lovells (ranked #72)

52. HSBC (ranked #13)

53. IBM (ranked #38)

54. Jacobs (ranked #93)

55. Jane Street (ranked #56)

56. JLR (ranked #59)

57. Johnson & Johnson (ranked #87)

58. JP Morgan (ranked #11)

59. KPMG (ranked #8)

60. Kubrick (ranked #85)

61. L'Oréal (ranked #19)

62. Latham & Watkins (ranked #86)

63. Lidl (ranked #26)

64. Linklaters (ranked #23)

65. Lloyds Banking Group (ranked #20)

66. M&S (ranked #73)

67. Mars (ranked #96)

68. McDonald's (ranked #71)

69. McKinsey & Company (ranked #18)

70. Mercedes Benz (ranked #88)

71. MI5 - The Security Service (ranked #74)

72. MI6 - Secret Intelligence Service (ranked #92)

73. Microsoft (ranked #30)

74. Morgan Stanley (ranked #32)

75. Mott MacDonald (ranked #84)

76. NatWest Group (ranked #36)

77. Newton (ranked #24)

78. NGDP for Local Government (ranked #57)

79. NHS (ranked #3)

80. P&G (ranked #31)

81. Penguin Random House (ranked #39)

82. Pfizer (ranked #49)

83. Police Now (ranked #43)

84. PwC (ranked #1)

85. Rolls-Royce (ranked #34)

86. Royal Navy (ranked #48)

87. Santander (ranked #61)

88. Savills (ranked #76)

89. Shell (ranked #80)

90. Siemens (ranked #78)

91. Sky (ranked #41)

92. Slaughter and May (ranked #37)

93. Teach First (ranked #15)

94. Tesco (ranked #55)

95. UBS (ranked #69)

96. Unilever (ranked #21)

97. Unlocked (ranked #22)

98. Vodafone (ranked #52)

99. White & Case (ranked #64)

100. WSP (ranked #99)

Top 100 UK Graduate Employers (Version 2)

The employers are grouped by their core industry and then listed alphabetically.

Clicking on an employer's name will direct you to its careers website via the active relevant link at the time of publication. Please comment on this post if you have any link-related issues, and I’ll look into it.

💸Accounting & Professional Services

1. BDO

2. Deloitte

3. EY

4. Forvis Mazars

5. Grant Thornton

6. KPMG

7. PwC

💸Armed Forces

1. British Army

2. Royal Navy

💸Chemical & Pharmaceuticals

1. AstraZeneca

2. GSK

3. Pfizer

💸Consulting

1. Accenture

2. Bain & Company

3. BCG

4. Capgemini

5. Kubrick

6. McKinsey & Company

7. Newton

💸Consumer Goods

1. Dyson

2. Johnson & Johnson

3. L'Oréal

4. Mars

5. P&G

6. Unilever

💸Engineering & Industrial

1. AECOM

2. Airbus

3. Arcadis

4. Arup

5. Atkins

6. BAE Systems

7. Jacobs

8. JLR

9. Mercedes Benz

10. Mott MacDonald

11. Rolls-Royce

12. Siemens

13. WSP

💸Finance (excl. Impact Investing, Investment Banking and Private Equity)

1. Aon

2. Aviva

3. Bank of England

4. Barclays

5. BlackRock

6. HSBC

7. Lloyds Banking Group

8. NatWest Group

9. Santander

💸Investment Banking

1. Bank of America

2. Citi

3. Deutsche Bank

4. Goldman Sachs

5. Jane Street

6. JP Morgan

7. Morgan Stanley

8. UBS

💸IT, Telecoms & Technology

1. Apple

2. Bloomberg

3. BT

4. Google

5. IBM

6. Microsoft

7. Vodafone

💸Law

1. A&O Shearman

2. Baker McKenzie

3. Clifford Chance

4. Clyde & Co

5. CMS

6. DLA Piper

7. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

8. Herbert Smith Freehills

9. Hogan Lovells

10. Latham & Watkins

11. Linklaters

12. Slaughter and May

13. White & Case

💸Media

1. BBC

2. Channel 4

3. Penguin Random House

4. Sky

💸Oil & Energy

1. BP

2. Shell

💸Property

1. Savills

💸Public Sector/Third Sector

1. Cancer Research UK

2. Civil Service

3. Frontline

4. MI5 - The Security Service

5. MI6 - Secret Intelligence Service

6. NGDP for Local Government

7. NHS

8. Police Now

9. Teach First

10. Unlocked

💸Retail

1. Aldi

2. Amazon

3. Lidl

4. M&S

5. McDonald's

6. Tesco

💸Transport/Automotive

1. British Airways

2. Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Top 100 UK Graduate Employers (Version 3)

The employers (for whom this data is available) are listed in descending order by the number of UK positions reserved for students and recent graduates during the relevant graduate recruitment year (which typically runs from September to August in the UK). The quoted number of vacancies refers to those available in 2023/2024 unless stated otherwise (Source: The Times). This information is available for 74% of the graduate employers on the Top 100 UK Graduate Employers list.

Clicking on an employer's name will direct you to its careers website via the active relevant link at the time of publication. Please comment on this post if you have any link-related issues, and I’ll look into it.

1. PwC (approx. 1,800 vacancies)

2. Teach First (approx. 1,750 vacancies)

3. Enterprise Rent-A-Car (approx. 1,600 vacancies)

4. Deloitte (approx. 1,500 vacancies)

5. Civil Service (approx. 1,000 vacancies)

6. EY (approx. 1,000 vacancies)

7. KPMG (approx. 1,000 vacancies)

8. Barclays (approx. 900 vacancies)

9. JLR (approx. 900 vacancies)

10. BAE Systems (approx. 800 vacancies)

11. Kubrick (approx. 700 vacancies)

12. BDO (approx. 620 vacancies)

13. Capgemini (approx. 600 vacancies)

14. HSBC (approx. 600 vacancies)

15. Frontline (approx. 500 vacancies)

16. JP Morgan (approx. 500 vacancies)

17. Mott MacDonald (approx. 500 vacancies)

18. AECOM (approx. 400 vacancies)

19. Goldman Sachs (approx. 400 vacancies)

20. Grant Thornton (approx. 400 vacancies)

21. Police Now (approx. 400 vacancies)

22. Bloomberg (approx. 350 vacancies)

23. Forvis Mazars (approx. 350 vacancies)

24. NatWest Group (approx. 350 vacancies)

25. Morgan Stanley (approx. 300 vacancies)

26. Rolls-Royce (undisclosed for 2024, approx. 300 vacancies in 2020)

27. WSP (approx. 260 vacancies)

28. NGDP for Local Government (approx. 250 vacancies)

29. NHS (approx. 250 vacancies)

30. Sky (approx. 232 vacancies)

31. Amazon (approx. 200 vacancies)

32. Aon (approx. 200 vacancies)

33. Arcadis (approx. 200 vacancies)

34. BBC (approx. 200 vacancies)

35. Citi (approx. 200 vacancies)

36. MI5 - The Security Service (approx. 200 vacancies)

37. BP (approx. 190 vacancies)

38. Newton (approx. 185 vacancies)

39. Airbus (approx. 150 vacancies)

40. BCG (undisclosed for 2024, approx. 150 vacancies in 2022)

41. IBM (approx. 150 vacancies)

42. Unlocked (approx. 143 vacancies)

43. BT (approx. 120 vacancies)

44. Aldi (approx. 100 vacancies)

45. AstraZeneca (approx. 100 vacancies)

46. BlackRock (approx. 100 vacancies)

47. British Airways (approx. 100 vacancies)

48. Clifford Chance (approx. 100 vacancies)

49. Deutsche Bank (approx. 100 vacancies)

50. Dyson (approx. 100 vacancies)

51. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (approx. 100 vacancies)

52. Linklaters (approx. 100 vacancies)

53. Lloyds Banking Group (approx. 100 vacancies)

54. MI6 - Secret Intelligence Service (approx. 100 vacancies)

55. P&G (approx. 100 vacancies)

56. Penguin Random House (approx. 100 vacancies)

57. Savills (approx. 100 vacancies)

58. Vodafone (approx. 100 vacancies)

59. CMS (approx. 95 vacancies)

60. Slaughter and May (approx. 95 vacancies)

61. M&S (approx. 91 vacancies)

62. Clyde & Co (approx. 75 vacancies)

63. Channel 4 (approx. 50 vacancies)

64. DLA Piper (approx. 50 vacancies)

65. GSK (approx. 50 vacancies)

66. Hogan Lovells (approx. 50 vacancies)

67. Pfizer (approx. 50 vacancies)

68. Santander (approx. 50 vacancies)

69. White & Case (approx. 50 vacancies)

70. Microsoft (undisclosed for 2024, approx. 45 vacancies in 2022)

71. L'Oréal (approx. 35 vacancies)

72. Latham & Watkins (approx. 32 vacancies)

73. Lidl (approx. 30 vacancies)

74. Mars (approx. 25 vacancies)

50+ Additional Top Graduate Employers (UK & US)

• Curated by Keep, Ding, Ghost (i.e., me), this supplementary list features over 50 top UK and US graduate employers.

• The main objective of this post is to identify the leading graduate employers. Since rankings frequently change, an employer’s specific rank in a given year is not definitive. Thus, instead of focusing on yearly ranks, I concentrate on employers generally regarded as top employers, even if they are not in the top 100 in a particular year, as being missed out on a ranking does not alone diminish one’s reputation as a ‘top graduate employer’. As such, I reviewed The Times’ top 100 lists from the past six years to identify previously ranked employers not included in this year’s top 100. These employers are featured in this supplementary list of 50+ additional top graduate employers.

• Additionally, the Times’ top 100 list omits several other notable graduate employers because the ranking is based on those ‘most sought after’ by students and recent graduates, who can only name employers they are familiar with. Thus, lesser-known but highly respected employers may not make the list if too few students and graduates are aware of them. Drawing on my extensive experience as a job applicant and recruiter, this curated supplementary list also includes a selection of top graduate employers chosen for the quality of their graduate job opportunities, esteemed company reputation, and overall prestige.

• This supplementary list also extends beyond The Times’ top 100 list by including new industries, such as fintech, luxury goods, and private equity/alternative investments.

• This broader coverage ensures you have a wider range of high-quality graduate employers to consider.

• To cater to different search preferences, I’ve included two versions of the list: (Version 1) The employers are listed alphabetically, and if the data is available, the number of UK positions that were reserved for students and recent graduates in the last known graduate recruitment year is included in parentheses; (Version 2) The employers are grouped by their core industry and then listed alphabetically.

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