JANUARY 2009

PRINT & TEACH LESSON JUNE 2011

IDEAL EMPLOYER
advanced
Language Function: discussing issues, reading comprehension
upper-intermediate
Vocabulary/Topic: employer branding; career choices; jobs; collocations with intermediate
JOB & CARREER pre-intermediate

focus on talking Accenture Lufthansa

Activity 1. Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

Apple McKinsey & Company
Which company listed on the right would be an ideal
employer for graduates in these fields of studies? Why? Audi Microsoft

- BUSINESS: .............................................................................. Bayer Nestl

- ENGINEERING: ..............................................................................
BMW Novartis
- IT: ..............................................................................
- NATURAL SCIENCES .............................................................................. Boeing Nike
- HUMANITIES: ..............................................................................
Coca-Cola Company Nokia
How would you define an ideal employer?
EADS Boston Consulting Group

job interview Ferrari Oracle

time
In this job we need
someone who is GlaxoSmithKline Pfizer
responsible.
Goldman Sachs Porsche

Google Procter & Gamble

j
IBM PwC

o
IKEA Roche

I'm the one you want.

ke
Intel Sony Ericsson
On my last job, every
time anything went

tim
wrong, they said I was J.P. Morgan Siemens
responsible.
L'Oral The World Bank

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IDEAL EMPLOYER

focus on comprehension
Activity 2. Read the text below to find out:
- what attributes students from Europes top academic institutions associate with their favourite
employers
- if your choice of ideal employers from Activity 1 is similar to the

EUROPES IDEAL EMPLOYERS

Universum, a Swedish employer branding consultancy, has published its Pan-European
research on Europes most ambitious career-seekers. The report reflects the opinions of
19,890 students from the continents top academic institutions and presents their choice of
ideal Employers.
Based on the number of student nominations that a company receives as an ideal employer
across Europes most prestigious academic institutions, Universum produces its annual
ranking of employer attractiveness dubbed the Universum Top 100. What transpires from
this years survey is that Europes most exclusive group of university students associate
their favourite employers mostly with good reputation (72%), market success (70%) and
prestige (66%), and the least with CSR (33%) and high ethical standards (30%) a
confirmation that students are thinking strategically about their career and are focused on
building their personal brand foremost as opposed to concerns over responsible or
sustainable business per se.
The prestige and market success of an employer is important for todays young career-
seekers who are studying at Europes best universities; its all about vanity and ones
external image, the personal brand...how can I impress my peers? is the obsession for this
ambitious class of students. In fact, attractive employers have certain common attributes
for them. They are known to provide challenging work, a good reference to a future career,
and recruit only the best, but their general public reputation and market success clearly
puts them in the limelight, said Petter Nylander, Universums CEO.

Europes Top 10 Ideal Employers by field of study

Business: 1. Apple, 2. Google, 3. McKinsey & Company, 4. L'Oral, 5.The Boston Consulting Group, 6. Goldman Sachs,
7. The Coca-Cola Company, 8. Procter & Gamble, 9. PwC, 10. J.P. Morgan
Engineering: 1. Google, 2. Audi, 3. EADS, 4. BMW, 5. Apple, 6. Siemens, 7. Boeing, 8. Porsche, 9. Ferrari, 10. Lufthansa Group
IT: 1. Google, 2. Microsoft, 3. Apple, 4. IBM, 5. Intel, 6. Nokia, 7. Oracle, 8. Accenture, 9. BMW, 10. Sony Ericsson
Natural Sciences: 1. Google, 2. Apple, 3. GlaxoSmithKline, 4. Roche , 5. Novartis, 6. Bayer, 7. Microsoft, 8. Pfizer), 9. IBM, 10. Nestl
Humanities: 1. Google, 2. Apple, 3. L'Oral, 4. IKEA, 5. The Coca-Cola Company, 6. Microsoft, 7. The World Bank, 8. Lufthansa
Group, 9. Sony 10. Nike

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IDEAL EMPLOYER

Activity 3. Here are some additional findings presented in the Universum report. Match each paragraph with
its heading.

A. Boys like cars, girls - cosmetics ... everyone likes Apple

B. Female students expect less

C. Confident Germans and Pessimistic Spaniards

1. Women earn on average 17.5% less than men in
the European Union. They also expect to be paid
less than their male colleagues once they graduate.
Men expect a graduate starting salary of 10,898
while women are happy with just 8,600. Their
career aspirations differ too. Men generally place
more importance on being a leader or manager,
and want jobs with high levels of responsibility.
Women, on the other hand, want to work for a
company with high corporate social responsibility,
and give more importance to secure employment.
2. The research shows that the Fast Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is
generally perceived as being more attractive
for women, whereas men prefer the
automotive and banking sectors. Companies
like LOral, for example, are first choice for
female students studying business, whereas
their male counterparts, whose favourite
employer is Google, rank LOral at 39.
Interestingly, Apple (no. 2) is equally attractive
for both male and female business students.

3. With 135 nationalities represented in the Pan-European survey, the multicultural and diverse composition
of the top academic institutions in Europe is well reflected. Interestingly, having asked students about
their chances of getting a job with their favourite employer, i.e. within 6 months after graduation, the most
optimistic students were the Germans (57%), Norwegians (56%) and Ukrainians (54%) more than half of
each nationality were confident to very confident about landing a job with their ideal employer. At the
other end, the least positive students, as can be expected due to dismal economic conditions back
home, were the Italians (29%), Irish (27%), Greeks (26%), British (25%) and Spanish (18%) where less
than a third truly believed in arriving at their ultimate career destination.

focus on talking
Activity 4. Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.
How would you explain womens lower salary expectations?
The report shows that students favour employers that provide challenging work and a
good reference reference to a future career. Which factors would you consider most
important when choosing an employer?
Which is more important to you: high remuneration or job security?
What do you feel an employer owns an employee?

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IDEAL EMPLOYER

focus on vocabulary: collocations with job & career

Activity 5. Fill the gaps in the sentences using these words.

applied carve cut enter further

give hold landed looking took

1. I have just ........................... a good job with an accounting firm, and I can start paying back my debts.

2. One of my teachers encourages me to ........................... on a career of scientific research.

3. His career ........................... off in 2007 when he won a TV talent show.

4. My uncle has a serious drinking problem and is unable to ........................... down a job.

5. After a serious of clashes with her boss, my wife decided to ........................... up her job.

6. Although he was a great athlete, his career was ........................... short due to injury.

7. I ........................... for this job a couple of weeks ago, but I havent been invited for interview yet.

8. After years of trying to ........................... out for himself on stage, he finally became a teacher.

9. Getting a university degree will definitely help me to ........................... my career.

10. Im looking for a job as a teacher of Spanish.

Activity 6. Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the article.

1. pan-european research
............................................................................................................................................................
2. sustainable business
............................................................................................................................................................
3. pan-european research
............................................................................................................................................................
4. put someone in the limelight
............................................................................................................................................................
5. corporate social responsibility
............................................................................................................................................................
6. dismal economic conditions
............................................................................................................................................................

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