Impossible wish of Euro-graduates

More than half of Europe's high-flying graduates want to work for a multinational company - but they do not want a foreign boss. The main attractions of multinationals include working in foreign languages and having colleagues of other nationalities, according to the European Graduate Survey 1995.

But just a fifth of the graduates and final-year students questioned at 36 European technical universities and business schools said they would want to report to a foreign manager.

The top five companies graduates wanted to work for were United States-based multinationals, led by Hewlett Packard, and followed by McKinsey & Co, Boston Consulting Group, IBM and Microsoft. However European multinationals did well in their home country.

Just over 7,000 students in 13 countries responded to questionnaires from Swedish company Universum, which publishes student magazines. The most favoured companies were mainly involved in computers, telecommunications, cars and consumer goods - but not heavy engineering, pharmaceuticals or insurance.