Brits love to work for US companies

S Kalyana Ramanathan / London July 22, 2010 Brits love Coke. Not just the beverage, but the company that makes it — Coca-Cola. A recent study by www.HireScores.com – a website that helps people looking for jobs find the right job websites – revealed that Coca-Cola ranked as the most desirable company to work for among Britons. The study further showed that among the top 10 dream jobs British workers aspire to be part of, eight are US companies and only two are British. The survey covered 1,326 respondents, a negligible sample considering the nearly 29 million population that go to work in the UK. The top dream jobs for Britons, apart from Coca-Cola, would be in Microsoft, Google, Apple, Vogue, Facebook, Disney and Kraft Foods (the American company that recently bought the UK’s leading confectioner, Cadbury). UK’s Virgin Atlantic and British Airways ranked as the fifth and 10th most desirable place to work. The study, however, reiterates Britain’s love for the US and anything American. While Britain has given a resounding thumbs up for American companies, Prime Minister David Cameron is touring the US in an attempt to further strengthen the country’s relationship with her once trans-Atlantic colony. In a special column in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday Cameron wrote, “As this is my first visit to America as prime minister, let me emphasise that I am unapologetically pro-America. I love this country and what it's done for the world.” In the WSJ column he wrote, “I am hard-headed and realistic about US-UK relations. I understand that we are the junior partner — just as we were in the 1940s and, indeed, in the 1980s.” According to UK Trade and Investment’s latest report, the US once again stood out as the biggest investor in the UK. In 2009-10, 484 new investments had been committed by American companies, providing employment to over 15,000 people. The second biggest investor, Japan, had invested in 107 new projects to create 2,293 new jobs in the UK in the same year. India is the fourth largest investor in the UK. The study that put Coca-Cola as the most desirable place to work for, however, also reveals that it is not the company’s nationality, but other factors that made it so. “The research found that 76 per cent of those polled, said their ‘dream job’ would be at Coca-Cola, with 23 per cent admitting it is for the ‘freebies’ and 42 per cent saying the ‘salary’ is the main reason for Coca-Cola being their dream job,” said the press release from www.HighScores.com. However, only 16 per cent of those polled believe that they will land in their dream job, while 38 per cent admitted it was just a fantasy and 21 per cent feel it is unachievable.