LinkedIn Data: Every Canadian’s Dream Job is Working for a Bank

LinkedIn has just published its annual list of companies Canadians want to work at most.

I know which kind of jobs you’re probably imagining. Let me assure you that your fantasy is greatly misaligned with the reality of LinkedIn’s data-driven findings.

According to “billions of actions taken by LinkedIn members around the world,” Canadians really just want to work at a bank. The top five companies Canadians are looking to get hired are RBC, TD, ScotiaBank, CIBC, and BMO, respectively.

How is this possible? Well, the methodology is a little flawed: basically, if you’re a huge company, you’ll probably be near the top of the list (only companies with more than 500 employees were eligible). Desirability, in this case, is mostly a matter of quantity, not quality. That’s not to say that working at these companies, sucks, of course.

“LinkedIn ranks companies based on four pillars: interest in the company, engagement with employees, job demand and employee retention. Interest in the company is measured by unique, non-employee new follows of the company’s LinkedIn page,” explains LinkedIn.

Basically: a company’s desirability to calculated based on how many non-employees follow the company’s page, how many non-employees are viewing employees at the company, the rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, and how many employees are still at the company at least one year after their date of hire.

So, where else do Canadians want to work if not at one of the Big Five? Well, pretty much the Big 25. Here’s the full ranking: