The financial sector is still a firm favourite among graduates despite its involvement in the recession.
Recent surveys undertaken by Universum, a Swedish research firm, found that banks, insurance companies and management consultants were still desirable employers with five such firms making it into the students' top 20 preferences.
The first survey questioned 11,000 students who were not in the jobs market, while the second looked at 4,000 graduate professionals from Britain who had been in employment between one to 10 years. The latter were asked a number of questions about 130 top employers.
When comparing the two surveys it found that while students supported the financial sector, the professionals gave a largely negative response. This was despite the fact that both were carried out during the recession.
In the answers collected from the professionals not one financial sector employer came in the top 20.
Among the working graduates PricewaterhouseCoopers only ranked 32nd, but came ninth in the student's responses.
While the bank and financial management firm JP Morgan made it into 16th place among the students, but scraped in at 60th in the professional's answers.
Universum's global communications co-ordinator, Christopher Van Mossevelde, thinks the results are partly caused by the high-level wooing operation mounted by financial firms in students' final years.
The survey also found that retail giants were favoured by students and had moved into the top slot as a result.
