Financial sector, high-tech find favor with grads

The finance sector is the top job option for new graduates, according to a survey released yesterday by magazine publisher Career Consulting.

Finance is popular not only with business graduates but those with science and engineering degrees as well, the survey showed.

Three financial-holding companies entered the list of the top 10 most desired firms, but interestingly enough, so did Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店) and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (奧美廣告), according to the survey.

"These two companies represent `fashion' to the younger generation," Christina Ongg (翁靜玉), chairman of Career Consulting, said at a Taipei press conference.

"More graduates want to enter industries that specialized in originality and culture," she said.

The semiconductor industry remains attractive to science and engineering students, though the optoelectronics industry is gradually catching up with it. Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) was ranked first in the survey as the company most graduates wanted to join, replacing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), which had lead the rankings for the past five years.

The survey results are similar to those of the 104 job bank released last Sunday.

Meanwhile, traditional manufacturing companies such as China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) are less popular.

"Despite the traditional manufacturing sector's regular growth and profits, it doesn't receive much interest," Ongg said.

Since the economy has started to grow this year, graduates should have an easier time finding jobs than they may have anticipated, said said Kevin Zang (臧聲遠), editor-in-chief of Career Consulting.

The survey was conducted online during May 25 to June 15.