Fifty-five percent of Vietnamese students wish to work for foreign-invested companies, according to an annual survey by a local human resource consulting firm. (Illustration photo)

The survey, done in August and November, covered more than 900 students of IT, business administration, financial and banking, electrical and electronics engineering, foreign trade, foreign languages and several other disciplines in Hanoi and HCM City.

Results of the survey, released last week, also show that the preferred foreign companies maintain programmes to help boost student talents.

Students in HCM City showed the higher preference for employment with foreign-invested companies (65%), compared to 44% in Hanoi.

The State-owned sector ranked second in the choice of employers, with 35% of respondents in the capital preferring public sector jobs, compared to nine per cent in HCM City. The combined rate stood at 20%.

Sharing the second position were private and limited companies with 20%, 17% in Hanoi and 24% in HCM City.

Family companies and non-governmental organisations were the choice of a meagre 2% of the respondents.

Up to 77% said they would start their career as an employee, with no respondent revealing plans to start their own businesses. Three per cent wanted to continue studies while 18% were not clear about their first jobs.

Jobs in administration and human resources were the most favoured by 27% of respondents (35 per cent in Hanoi and 21 per cent in HCM City), followed by marketing with 22% (17 and 27% respectively in the two cities).

The financial/banking sector came in the third position with 19% (15 and 25%respectively)

Around 57% (43% and 68% respectively in Hanoi and HCM City) were willing to begin their career at the lowest position in a company if the job matched their qualifications and they liked it.

Meanwhile, 32% (41% Hanoi and 25% in HCM City) accepted to start their career at lower or middle level management positions in jobs that they liked and academically qualified for.