Graduate engineering students would emigrate for high income and good career prospects
We hear more and more often that many students, young workers, imagine their future abroad.
Telenor Hungary is constantly looking for talented engineers, so it tried to assess the employment preferences of young engineering students with informative research. A survey of graduate students of the Budapest University of Technology revealed that more than half of students planning to work abroad would still stay at home if they received a job offer from a multinational company operating in Hungary. In addition to attractive salaries, career prospects, opportunities for professional development, work-life balance and job security are also important for recent graduates.
The research found that 38% of respondents would prefer to work abroad than at home. 13% have already specifically organized their work abroad. Among the mentioned reasons, the higher salary and the related higher standard of living lead to a towering height, followed by the possibility of professional development. Most want to work in Germany, Britain, the US, Switzerland and Austria. The vast majority, on the other hand, would return sooner or later: 21% after 1-2 years, 39% after 3-5 years, and 31 percent after an even longer period. 10% of those who choose abroad want to settle permanently beyond the borders of Hungary.
First and foremost, high salaries would convince young engineers to put their knowledge to good use in Hungary. When choosing a job, the attractive salary and benefit package proved to be the most important aspect for the graduates, almost a third of the respondents ranked it in the first place, and almost three quarters of them chose it among the most important five. Another important aspect is the possibility of professional development, in addition to which the workplace must ensure a work-life balance and be reliable and stable. According to the respondents, the desired high income and career prospects can best be provided by the private sector, especially multinational companies. More than three quarters (78%) of the students considered it typical for these companies to offer an attractive salary and benefit package, while a quarter of the respondents consider it typical for large Hungarian companies, a fifth for SMEs and a tenth for the public sector. Professional development opportunities and incentive work tasks are expected almost equally by graduate engineers from multinational companies (57% and 55%) and small and medium-sized enterprises (56% and 52%). While work-life balance is most for SMEs; dynamism and the image of a developing company are associated with multinational firms (67%) by respondents.
Half of engineering students going abroad would change their plans and still stay at home if they received a job offer in their profession from a multinational company. They said that it would be difficult for them to break up: in addition to the lack of family and friends (75%), cultural attachment and the lack of a familiar language (40%) are also an unpleasant inherent part of working abroad.
Source: HOC
