Universe Student Survey 2019
Prospective Engineers Want to Enter the Automotive Industry
The automotive industry has lost nothing of its popularity among young academics, on the contrary. According to a survey of 46,000 students, it is more attractive than ever.
For its Universum Student Survey 2019, the Stepstone subsidiary Universum asked students from IT, engineering, economics and natural sciences in particular about their ideas about starting a career. According to the survey, the automotive industry is by far the most popular industry among prospective engineers. Approximately half of them would like to work in this field - around 7 percentage points more than in 2017.
Vehicle manufacturers and suppliers are also more interested in the next generation of IT professionals than in previous years: Around one third of all IT students would like to start their careers there. Only the IT sector is even more popular among IT students. The automotive sector has also become more attractive to economists. After all, 35 percent would like to work there. This puts the industry in second place among the most attractive sectors, just behind management consultancies, which have slightly lost popularity.
The study also shows which characteristics are decisive for the attractiveness of an employer from the students' point of view. According to the study, prospective engineers attach particular importance to the innovative strength of a company. Prospective IT experts also find open-mindedness towards new technologies important. "The question of future mobility is one of the most important questions of our time," says Dr. Anastasia Hermann, Head of Research at StepStone. "Today, automotive companies are important designers of new mobile solutions. Being able to actively shape this change is obviously very attractive for young, highly qualified people."
According to the survey, a good salary is an important factor for the attractiveness of an employer. According to the Universum survey, students who prefer the automotive industry expect an annual salary of around 49,900 euros when starting their career. In fact, according to the latest StepStone salary report for graduates for whom the actual salaries were queried, career starters earn even more than two percent more. With 51,100 euro in the year occupation A RISERs in hardly another industry earn as well as in the auto industry - only banks and Pharmaunternehmen pay young specialists still more money.
"The automotive industry is and remains a magnet for top young talent because it offers important employer arguments all at once: the opportunity to participate in groundbreaking innovations, high salaries and successful companies with attractive products with which one can and would like to identify well," says Stefan Müller-Nedebock, Director Global Employer Branding at Universum. "Students find change and the dynamic environment exciting.
