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A just-published survey of Taiwanese students found the preferred employer for both business/commerce and engineering/IT students was tech giant Google.
The survey of Taiwan’s emerging talent pool was undertaken by employer branding firm Universum and collected opinions of over 3000 students from its top universities.
Among engineering and natural science students, local success story emerged TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) emerged as the second most attractive employer. While for budding business graduates, Apple came in as the second-most popular choice.
“In Taiwan, we see that STEM (science, tech, engineering, maths) talent share a lot in common with their international peers, such as being highly attracted to employers who have a vibrant culture and who excel in training and developing their workforce,” said Dora Kuo, employer branding advisor for Universum APAC.
“Google is a great example of such an employer who’s been able to create and, importantly, communicate such a workplace culture. On the other hand, highly rated employers like TSMC leverage more on their prestigious reputation and the expectations this bring with things like pay and benefits,” Kuo added.
“These points of difference are why it’s so important for employers to truly understand their brand and hone their messaging – if not, they will soon struggle to attract the best and brightest in today’s ultra-competitive talent market.”
Annual salary expectations
Among those surveyed, natural sciences students have the highest salary expectation, with an expected annual salary of 551,018 TWD (HK$145,000), while business students expect just 456,930 TWD. Engineering and IT students expected, on average, around 548 824 TWD.
In other regional markets, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, business graduates expect to earn a similar salary to their STEM counterparts. The top 10 preferred employers for budding Taiwanese graduates are as follows:
Preferred industries
In terms of the preferred sectors for employment, 40% of business and commerce students chose marketing, advertising and PR as their preferred industry after graduation. While 42% of natural sciences students selected pharmaceutical and biotechnology as their choice of employment.
Interestingly, unlike most other regional and global markets, the banking industry was not within the top five preferred industries among Taiwanese graduates – with many perceiving a career in banking to be highly stressful and low on work/life balance.
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