Journal Infonaut's Journal: Apple moves up the "ideal employer" list 1
The Economist ran an article in the August 20th edition revealing that when looking for a corporate employer, undergrad students are "heavily influenced by their perception of that employer's products and services."
Apparently this accounts at least in part for Apple moving up the totem pole from 41st to 13th most popular employer. The iPod Phenomenon seems to be creating an even bigger "halo effect" than the pundits are now proclaiming (after the fact, per usual).
Side note: The FBI moved from 138th to 10th on the same list, perhaps because years of X-Files reruns have finally taken effect. Or maybe for some other reason, related to geopolitics. I'm not sure.
Perceptions of Apple (Score:1)
The folklore about Apple for a long time was that they were in terrible trouble. The AAPL permabears didn't look quite so ridiculous a few years ago. About the beginning of last year, the stock began to take off [washingtonpost.com] and is now up about fourfold. So, the perception is that they have a future ( I think they do, too). This has got to contribute to their desirability as an employer.
Of course, the iPod has contributed to the financial success as well.