I often hear employers struggle with how much time, effort, energy, budget etc. they should spend on building their brand. In the Gen Y space, we asked candidates what they thought.

91% of Gen Y told us they believe a company’s brand is important when applying for job and internship opportunities. They also believe recognizable brands convey growth, potential and stability. When asked why they want to work for an established brand, Gen Y responded:

• 76% said an established brand offers growth potential
• 74% said it will build my resume
• 73% said it will provide greater job security

Fortunately, only a small fraction (8%) of respondents said they wanted to work for an established brand simply because “my friends will think it’s cool.” Any higher and I would begin to worry about this generation.

We also heard 42% of Gen Y prefers to apply to companies which they / their friends / their families have heard of before, signifying that brand awareness is critical for employers. Take a quick pulse and if many Gen Y haven’t heard of you, which could be the case if your company is in business-to-business markets, then you have some work to do.

Taking brand loyalty even further, 39% said they would take a job with a well-known company solely to have the name of the employer on their resume. Now that says a lot about the power of brand.

So if you find yourself wondering about whether to invest in your employer brand, refer to these stats and remember that your brand drives the hiring results and the preference that you seek.

Continuing on the Career Influences survey from last post, I also wanted to share what the 1100 students and grads said about what had the most influence on their majors and careers.

• 37% said the information they were exposed to (specifically industry info) had the most impact on their choice of majors
• 41% said school, work or other experiences (specifically internships) had the most impact on their choice of careers

I also found out that 60% of students believe they have majors that are directly aligned with their preferred career (good for them!).

32% (the largest group) want to learn about possible career paths from employers through experiences - project work, competitions and internships. They want to “experience” what it is like to work for a particular employer - even if it is just sampling the kind of work that the company does. We do some of this with employers through our Exclusive Experiences program, but there are so many ways this can be done, from mini-competitions to problem-solving challenges.

Perhaps even more importantly, 51% of respondents want to be inspired (people, goals and challenges associated with career paths) AND be informed about careers (information about growth opportunities and career paths). Employers, listen up: remember to keep both in mind (e.g. marry the eloquent speaker with some interesting facts) when creating career outreach programs to maximize the appeal of your career opportunities.

Many employers are starting to reach out to students as early as high school. Others like NASA have educational programs in place for kindergarteners on up. This got me wondering when do students make decisions about majors and careers. And what inspires them? To address these questions and many more, I fielded a survey, received over 1100 responses from college students and grads, and this is what I learned.

• 54% decided their major in college
• 46% decided in high school or earlier

Of the 54% who decided their major in college, 68% proceeded to change their major. Of the 46% who decided their major in high school or earlier, only 19% went on to change majors. That’s pretty amazing, that means ~37% of all respondents knew what they wanted to major in before college and stuck to it.

Even more incredible, for those employers who are worrying about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), 61% of respondents in the engineering, sciences and technology career paths, decided their major in high school or earlier, and 89% of them stayed with the same major.

Those are pretty compelling facts to cultivate talent as early as you can - for some employers, reaching freshmen may be sufficient; for others, you may need a high (or even middle) school strategy as well. Clearly, waiting for senior year is too late!

(stay tuned, the next post will cover key influences on majors and careers)

After looking at industries that had the most jobs a few weeks ago, I wanted to know how certain industries stacked up in terms of applicant preference and interest. So I polled 6700+ Gen Y and asked how 9 industries compared in terms of overall appeal. Why these nine? I wanted to present industries that hired a wide spectrum of students and grads (healthcare and education tend to hire for specific skills sets and certifications).

As expected, technology and new media topped the list with 40% or more citing these industries as most attractive. Interestingly, liberal arts majors were just as interested in these industries as business and engineering majors, which signals the broad appeal of these types of companies.

I attribute their interest to the engagement that Gen Y has had with web 2.0 and social media and the fact that tech firms haven’t been mired in the recent Wall Street bank collapses and mortgage housing crisis that we have all been watching for the past 6+ months. I expect that these firms will have the “pick of the litter” this year in terms of talent.

On the other end of the spectrum are the least attractive industries - insurance and manufacturing. Two older industries with perceived slower growth and therefore less opportunity for Gen Y. The survey data clearly suggests that companies at the bottom of the list have a brand perception issue that they need to combat, because there are fast growing, exciting opportunities to be found in these sectors.

I can’t help but think that students and recent grads are overlooking companies in these areas simply because of an overall industry perception issue, rather than what one prospective firm can offer. A perfect example of this is GEICO, the fastest growing auto insurer in the nation who continues to take market share and win awards for best customer service. And I know for a fact that they continue to hire all types of majors to grow their business. Or if you look at the Inc. 500/5000, there are 400 manufacturing companies that make the list as the fastest growing private companies in America.

Of course, all companies need to put their best foot forward when recruiting, visiting campus etc. The challenge that these less attractive companies face is finding the right aspects of their business and company culture that appeal to Gen Y (stability, training, CEO that started at the bottom rung) that allows them to compete effectively with those in the top industries.

With company layoffs announcements in the news every day, I decided to take a closer look into our jobs database, which at any time has around 200k postings, to see what industries are still hiring.  Not surprisingly, there are healthcare jobs to be found - over 30k across the U.S. Right after healthcare is engineering, finance/banking, education and technology. Given how hard the Wall Street finance sector has been hit, one might not expect to see finance/banking ranking third, but smaller banks, insurance companies and some financial services companies are still looking for entry-level talent.  Education is another bright spot with K-12 and universities looking for teachers, instructors and trainers.

I also compared industries by their relative competitiveness. The finance/banking sector, one area significantly impacted by bankruptcies and rescue mergers, has the highest applies per job, indicating many candidates chasing the positions that exist. On the other hand, healthcare with plenty of jobs is the least competitive, highlighting that there is still a tight labor market in that sector.

What we won’t know for a while is how President Obama’s stimulus package will impact certain industries (education, energy, healthcare etc.) and spur job growth. In the meantime, know that some of the industries that Gen Y is interested in are the same ones that are still hiring.

On a related note, we recently published a whitepaper entitled “Y Gen Y: Maintaining Access to Top Talent” to inform employers about the importance of the Gen Y generation to the future success of their business. Even in a downturn, it really does pay to think about the long-term. Watch the video, download the tips and share your advice with other employers.