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Switzerland’s Top 5 IT employers and which universities they hire from

by Nastasia Whyte

At Experis, the world-leader in IT recruitment, we work with many of Switzerland’s top employers. Read on for our insights on the top 5 and their hiring strategies.

1.  Google

Not only does ETH rank as the number 1 university for future tech-savvy professionals in Switzerland, but it also comes in 8th place worldwide. This reflects within the hiring patterns of internet giant Google, Switzerland’s top IT employer. They hire the majority of their IT professionals from The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH).

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) follows in second place. While Google hires around half as many IT professionals from EPFL than from ETH, it is still a remarkable amount. EPFL ranks among the top 100 leading universities worldwide, whilst non-Swiss universities based in European cities such as Bucharest, Warsaw and Stanford follow closely. The University of St. Gallen doesn’t rank the highest but still comprises a notable amount of Google’s workforce.

2.  Microsoft

With software development mogul Microsoft, however, the University of St. Gallen ranks strongly, being their number 1 university hiring source. In general, Microsoft seems to focus mainly on Swiss universities with ETH Zürich, University of Zürich and EFPL following closely. Microsoft shows a diverse but mainly national hiring pattern when it comes to their Swiss university graduates, with many of them also stemming from the University of Applied Sciences Northwest Switzerland (FHNW), Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration (HWZ), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).

3.  CERN

CERN, a leader in scientific research based in Geneva, hires most its IT professionals from the University of Oviedo, Spain. EFPL and the University of Geneva follow closely.

Whilst these are both leading institutions, their proximity to CERN’s headquarters must be taken into account. In general, CERN seems to follow a diverse and international hiring pattern with many of their employees having graduated from different institutions all over Europe.

4.   SBB CFF FFS

Switzerland’s mobility provider SBB, whose headquarters are based in Switzerland’s capital, focuses its hiring strategy on local talent. Most their IT professionals are hired from the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), FHNW and the University of Bern, followed by a wide range of Swiss universities.

5.   UBS

As a leader in the financial services sector, UBS with its Swiss headquarters based in Zürich follows a similar hiring strategy as SBB. They hire most of their talent from Zürich’s local universities, e.g. University of Zürich, ETH and University of St. Gallen.

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