Want To Work For Amazon Or Google? The Welsh Universities Whose Graduates Are Most Likely To Get Hired By A Tech Giant

TonerGiant analysed the path from education to employment to find out which universities are more likely to set you up for a career at the world’s biggest and most valuable tech companies.

Using LinkedIn, we discovered where more than 500,000 employees of the world’s most valuable tech companies studied at university to find out which universities are more likely to get you hired by a tech giant. Our analysis looked at 26 of the biggest tech companies including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft.

We also teamed up with tech recruitment expert, Misha Yurchenko at Carrus.io, to find out more about the hiring process at tech companies. ​You can find the full Q&A at the bottom of this email which you are free to use as you see fit. 

Key findings: 

• Cardiff University has the most alumni (822 alumni) that will go on to work for one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
• Alumni from the Wrexham Glyndwr University are the least likely in Wales to get hired by a tech giant (58 alumni). 
• Cardiff University alumni are the most likely to get hired from Amazon (158), Accenture (117), and IBM (92).
• Cardiff Metropolitan University alumni are the most likely to go on to work for Dell Technologies (26), Uber (14), and Instagram (6). 
• YouTube and Netflix hire from the University of South Wales the most with 29 and 16 alumni now working there. 

If you use this information, credit TonerGiant with a link to the project page: https://www.tonergiant.co.uk/insights/big-tech-blueprints/#home ​

The Welsh universities where you’re least likely to get hired by a tech giant 

According to our analysis, Cardiff University has the most alumni (822) that will go on to work for one of the world’s biggest tech companies. Swansea University came in second place with 519 alumni and third place is the University of South Wales (379). 

Alumni from the Wrexham Glyndwr University are the least likely to get hired by a tech giant with only 58 alumni now working for one of the world’s biggest tech companies. 

Ranking	Name of University	Number of Alumni
1	Cardiff University	822
2	Swansea University	519
3	University of South Wales	379
4	University of Wales	331
5	Cardiff Metropolitan University	290
6	University of Wales Trinity Saint David	284
7	Aberystwyth University	216
8	Bangor University	161
9	Wrexham Glyndwr University	58

Which Welsh universities do the tech giants hire from? 

Our study revealed Cardiff University alumni are the most likely to get hired from Amazon (158), Accenture (117), and IBM (92). Swansea University graduates are most likely to get hired by SAP (48), Cisco (23), and Alibaba Group (4) and Cardiff Metropolitan University alumni are the most likely to go on to work for Dell Technologies (26), Uber (14), and Instagram (6). 

YouTube and Netflix hire from the University of South Wales the most with 29 and 16 alumni now working there. 

Tech Giant	University in Wales	Number of Alumni
Amazon	Cardiff University	158
Accenture	Cardiff University	117
IBM	Cardiff University	92
Google	Cardiff University	75
Apple	Cardiff University	66
Oracle	Cardiff University	58
SAP	Swansea University	48
Huawei	Cardiff University	38
Microsoft	University of Wales	36
YouTube	University of South Wales	29
Dell Technologies	Cardiff Metropolitan University	26
Cisco	Swansea University	23
Samsung Electronics	Cardiff University	21
Intel Corporation	Cardiff University	18
Netflix	University of South Wales	16
Uber	Cardiff Metropolitan University	14
Facebook	Cardiff University	13
Sony	Cardiff University	12
Tencent	Cardiff University	10
Instagram	Cardiff Metropolitan University	6
LG Electronics	Cardiff University	4
Alibaba Group	Swansea University	4

Q&A with Carrus.io

2​TonerGiant spoke to Misha Yurchenko at Carrus.io to find out more about the hiring process at tech companies. Carrus.io is a platform that connects job seekers to career and interview coaches experienced in hiring for tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google.Q: In the hiring process, is it likely that a Big Tech company would show a preference for a graduate of a prestigious university, for example, those in the Russell Group or Ivy League, over an applicant that has attended a non-prestigious university?A: This still happens, but your alma mater is a lot less of a priority than it was 10 years ago. There’s a huge push for diversity and inclusion at most tech companies right now; they have quotas to meet. Market research company Link Humans created this ranking and summary of some of the top tech companies and their diversity initiatives. There’s still a long way to go, but I think we’ll continue to see the floodgates opening for people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Q: Is elitism more or less likely to exist in the hiring process or the career progression of big tech companies vs the most prestigious companies in other industries, such as finance or media?A: It can go both ways and the lines aren’t always so clear. We find a lot of elitism in traditional industries outside of tech that is ingrained in old ways of thinking (think Mad Men-esque workplaces). I worked in the recruitment industry, for example, which isn’t always the most welcoming towards women. Tech companies can definitely fall into their own traps and groupthink, too, but generally do a better job, partly because they face more external and internal pressure to be inclusive.

All that said, most companies nowadays are actually evolving to have a strong tech focus and pulling people from tech to join their companies. For example, the New York Times has more focus on digital and mobile than offline. Starbucks sells coffee, but they’re actually turning into a huge data company. Home Depot hired over 1,000 tech professionals to move most sales online and revamp their retail experience. There are tons of examples like this of ongoing digital transformation that will very likely bring a big shift in the culture of these companies!

Methodology

• Researchers at TonerGiant analysed the LinkedIn profiles of 501,006 employees at the world’s 26 most valuable tech companies which we sourced fromhttps://brandirectory.com.
• For each employee, they identified which university they graduated from at various degree levels.
• Some companies in our analysis (e.g. YouTube) were considered independently of their parent companies.
• Our analysis includes every university in the UK and the top 100 public and top 100 private universities in the USA.
• All educational blueprints are sourced from LinkedIn’s company and university profile pages and are correct as of January 2022.