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

• 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

2. 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!