Home Info-Graphs Amazon Hires More Alumni From Ivy League Universities Than Any Other Major Tech Company

Amazon Hires More Alumni From Ivy League Universities Than Any Other Major Tech Company

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  • According to our study, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has more employees (18,661) that graduated from a prestigious Ivy League university than any other of the most valuable tech companies in our analysis. Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) comes in second place, with 14,397 graduates from Ivy League universities working there.
  • Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Huawei ranked as two of the least elitist tech giants in their hiring practices with only 3,300 and 2,624 alumni from Ivy League colleges, respectively.

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Ranking Company Number of Ivy League alumni
1 Amazon 18,661
2 Accenture 14,397
3 IBM 12,471
4 Google 9,637
5 Apple 7,880
6 Oracle 5,160
7 SAP 3,576
8 Cisco 3,486
9 Microsoft 3,300
10 Huawei 2,624

The World's Biggest Tech Companies Are Most Likely To Hire University Of Washington Graduates

  • Graduates of the University of Washington are more likely than graduates from any other US university to work at one of the world's biggest tech companies. We counted 16,343 graduates on LinkedIn who are now working at one of the world's most valuable tech companies.
Ranking University Number of alumni
1 University of Washington 16,343
2 University of California, Berkeley 15,307
3 Stanford University 13,570
4 University of Southern California 11,240
5 University of Texas at Austin 11,220
6 Georgia Institute of Technology 10,295
7 University of California, Los Angeles 10,149
8 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 9,024
9 Carnegie Mellon University 8,885
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8,338

Which US Colleges The 'Big Five' Are Most Likely To Hire From

  • University of Washington graduates are the top choice for Amazon and Microsoft. In fact, University of Washington alumni have a 264% greater chance of being hired by Microsoft than the 2nd best university, Georgia Institute of Technology.
  • Stanford University alumni are the most likely to get hired by Google and Apple.
  • Facebook predominately hire University of California--Berkeley alumni (1,102 alumni).
  1. Amazon

Amazon is most likely to hire University of Washington graduates over any other US college with 4,540 alumni currently working there. University of Southern California alumni ranked as the 2nd most likely to get hired by Amazon (2,085 alumni), and the University of California - LA ranked in 3rd place (1,786 alumni).

Ranking College Number of alumni
1 University of Washington 4,540
2 University of Southern California 2,085
3 University of California-Los Angeles 1,786
4 Georgia Institute of Technology 1,681
5 University of California-Berkeley 1,573
  1. Apple

Stanford University alumni are Apple's top choice with 2,322 of Stanford's graduates now working for them. In close second with 2,216 alumni is the University of California - Berkeley and in 3rd place, the University of Texas - Austin (1,540 alumni).

Ranking College Number of alumni
1 Stanford University 2,322
2 University of California--Berkeley 2,216
3 University of Texas--Austin 1,540
4 University of California--Los Angeles 1,485
5 University of Southern California 1,433
  1. Facebook

Facebook is most likely to hire Berkeley alumni with 1,102 alumni now working for the tech giant. Stanford University graduates came in 2nd place (997 alumni) and Carnegie Mellon University in 3rd place (757).

Ranking College Number of alumni
1 University of California--Berkeley 1,102
2 Stanford University 997
3 Carnegie Mellon University 757
4 University of California--Los Angeles 651
5 University of Washington 630
  1. Google

Stanford University alumni are also most likely to get hired by Google than any other US college with an impressive 3,990 alumni now working at Google.

Ranking College Number of alumni
1 Stanford University 3,990
2 University of California--Berkeley 3,923
3 Carnegie Mellon University 2,668
4 University of California--Los Angeles 2,052
5 University of Southern California 2,031
  1. Microsoft

Microsoft is more like hire University of Washington alumni than any other US college graduates with a whopping 6,251 alumni now working for them. In fact, University of Washington alumni have a 264% greater chance of being hired by Microsoft than the 2nd best university, Georgia Institute of Technology which has 1,719 alumni now working for Microsoft.

Ranking College Number of alumni
1 University of Washington 6,251
2 Georgia Institute of Technology 1,719
3 University of Southern California 1,213
4 University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign 1,212
5 Washington State University 1,167

Which States Are Most Likely To Produce Alumni For The World's Biggest Tech Companies?

  1. California's universities have the most alumni working at tech companies

California reigned in the number one position, with a colossal 73,617 alumni now working for a tech giant. New York ranks in second place with 43,162 alumni and Massachusetts in third place with 34,499 alumni.

Ranking State Number of alumni
1 California 73,617
2 New York 43,162
3 Massachusetts 34,499
4 Illinois 23,767
5 Texas 23,149
6 Washington 22,893
7 Pennsylvania 20,938
8 Georgia 14,572
9 Florida 13,608
10 Indiana 13,167
  1. The top university per state in the top list that has the most alumni working at tech giants

The university in California where graduates are most likely to get hired by a tech company is the University of California, Berkeley (15,307 alumni). Below you can find which university in each state in the top list has the most alumni working for tech companies.

Only 43 states are included in the table as our analysis only looked at the top 100 public and private colleges in the US.

State Top University Number of Alumni
Alabama Auburn University 1272
Arizona University of Arizona 4034
Arkansas University of Arkansas 806
California University of California--Berkeley 15307
Colorado University of Colorado--Boulder 3706
Connecticut Yale University 2217
Delaware University of Delaware 1298
District of Columbia George Washington University 2981
Florida University of Florida 5985
Georgia Georgia Institute of Technology 10295
Hawaii University of Hawaii--Manoa 893
Idaho University of Idaho 666
Illinois University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign 9024
Indiana Purdue University--West Lafayette 6611
Iowa Iowa State University 1728
Kansas University of Kansas 1483
Kentucky University of Kentucky 2160
Louisiana Tulane University 580
Maine University of Maine 295
Maryland University of Maryland--College Park 5528
Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8338
Michigan Michigan State University 3562
Minnesota University of Minnesota--Twin Cities 3687
Mississippi Mississippi State University 603
Missouri Washington University in St. Louis 1499
Nebraska University of Nebraska--Lincoln 1088
New Hampshire Dartmouth College 1434
New Jersey Princeton University 2267
New York Cornell University 8082
North Carolina Duke University 3396
Ohio Ohio State University--Columbus 4010
Oklahoma University of Oklahoma 1320
Oregon Oregon State University 2519
Pennsylvania Carnegie Mellon University 8885
Rhode Island Brown University 2139
South Carolina Clemson University 1434
Tennessee Vanderbilt University 1481
Texas University of Texas--Austin 11220
Utah Brigham Young University--Provo 3064
Vermont University of Vermont 670
Virginia Virginia Tech 3752
Washington University of Washington 16343
Wisconsin University of Wisconsin--Madison 4715

Q&A With Carrus.io

We spoke to Misha Yurchenko at Carrus.io to find out more about the hiring process at tech companies. Carrus.io is a platform that connects job seekers to career and interview coaches experienced in hiring for tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

Q: In the hiring process, is it likely that a Big Tech company would show a preference for a graduate of a prestigious university, for example those in the Russell Group or Ivy League, over an applicant that has attended a non-prestigious university?

A: This still happens, but your alma mater is a lot less of a priority than it was 10 years ago. There's a huge push for diversity and inclusion at most tech companies right now; they have quotas to meet.

Market research company Link Humans created this ranking and summary of some of the top tech companies and their diversity initiatives. There's still a long way to go, but I think we'll continue to see the floodgates opening for people from all sorts of different backgrounds.

Q: Is elitism more or less likely to exist in the hiring process or the career progression of big tech companies vs the most prestigious companies in other industries, such as finance or media?

A: It can go both ways and the lines aren't always so clear. We actually find a lot of elitism in traditional industries outside of tech that are ingrained in old ways of thinking (think Mad Men-esque workplaces).

I worked in the recruitment industry, for example, which isn't always the most welcoming towards women. Tech companies can definitely fall into their own traps and groupthink, too, but generally do a better job, partly because they face more external and internal pressure to be inclusive.

All that said, most companies nowadays are actually evolving to have a strong tech focus and pulling people from tech to join their companies. For example, the New York Times has more focus on digital and mobile than offline. Starbucks sells coffee, but they're actually turning into a huge data company.

Home Depot hired over 1,000 tech professionals with the goal to move most sales online and revamp their retail experience. There are tons of examples like this of ongoing digital transformation that will very likely bring a big shift in the culture of these companies!

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