Work-life balance, development and reputation: the keys for university talent when it comes to choosing where to work
23/04/2025
This Wednesday Merco and Recruiting Erasmus have released the results of Merco University Talent Spain 2024/25, whose ranking, in this 8th edition, brings together the 200 best companies to work for in 2024 according to the assessment of university students and higher vocational training students.
In this seventh edition, the ranking is headed by Apple (1st), Google (2nd) and Inditex (3rd). The top 10 are completed by Santander (4th), Microsoft (5th), Mercadona (6th), Amazon (7th), BBVA (8th), Mercedes-Benz (9th) and Coca-Cola (10th).
The objective of Merco University Talent is also to provide information on the evaluations of students in their final and penultimate year of undergraduate studies and of the university's employment services (factors that led them to choose it, degree of satisfaction with it...), their preferences for work (sector, type of company, salary expectations...) and aspects related to the job search (how and where they look for information about companies, what factors they value most when choosing a company as a place to work...).
Main conclusions
The overall satisfaction level of university students with the university increased to 7.92 compared to 7.53 in 2023/24, surpassing the results obtained in all previous editions.
According to this study, university students prefer to work in large and multinational companies (regardless of whether they are from Spain or abroad) and with variable salaries and high possibilities. They are also slightly inclined towards a job that requires them to travel, but with a large majority preferring a fixed residence only in Spain.
Regarding the type of work, they choose above all stable positions in which autonomy and independence are a priority, and mainly in manufacturing or service companies. In addition, about half of those surveyed say they prefer a stable and secure job to future professional development, albeit more insecure. And they see an average salary of 1,702 euros net per month as soon as they enter the job market, a difference of 45 euros more than in 2023/2024.
