Employers want talent. Travis Railsback, executive director of The University of Alabama Career Center, said employers want a talent pool they can continue to pull from to grow a successful company.

The University has that talent, and it continues to draw big-name companies in the Southeast like Ernst and Young, Schlumberger and Boeing back to campus every year to hire recent UA graduates.

“Initially, companies might engage us because, maybe an alumni connection, but ultimately companies will continue to hire our students only if they have success hiring our students,” Railsback said.

The Career Center gathers data through a six-month survey after each graduation. They use the survey to determine where students are working, what states they are working in and what their average starting salaries are. Current data only exists for Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration and the College of Engineering, but existing statistics show high placement for UA graduates.

The top employers of Culverhouse College graduates were Ernst and Young, Regions, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sellers Richardson Holman & West LLC and BBVA Compass, all which are either headquartered or have an office in Birmingham. The list also includes Hewlett-Packard, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. According to First Destination Reports from the Career Center, Culverhouse graduates from spring 2012 had an 81 percent placement rate and an average starting salary of $54,117.

The top employers of College of Engineering graduates were Boeing, which has an office in Huntsville; Georgia Pacific, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.; International Paper, which is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.; Schlumberger, which is headquarted in Houston, Tex.; Alabama Power; Exxon Mobil, which is headquarted in Irving, Texas; and Mercedes-Benz, which has a plant outside of Tuscaloosa. First Destination Reports from the Career Center indicated that College of Engineering graduates had an 83 percent placement rate and an average starting salary of $62,898.

The question “Where am I going to work?” is asked by students as early as freshman year. Because of high competition in their fields, recruiters from large companies have started forming their company brand on campus when students are still freshmen and sophomores, Railsback said.

“A recruiter’s best friend is really a past student who’s gone to work, had success at a company and talks to other students about it,” Railsback said.

According to the recent survey, most graduates are accepting jobs in the Southeast. The top states employing UA graduates are Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi – states which also tend to send the most students to the University.

“Traditionally, students are going to go back to their home regions if employment opportunities exist there,” Railsback said. “So when given an option, students will often choose to go back to home regions.”

Recruiters reach students through career fairs, on-campus information sessions and by serving as guest speakers. Their ultimate goal is to form concrete relationships with the students, and for the students to form relationships with them.

Andrea Olson, a UA alumna who graduated last year, now works for Ernst and Young in Nashville, Tenn. Olson majored in management information systems and said she was offered a job in August of her senior year after interning with the company.

Ernst and Young, with offices in Birmingham and Nashville, is one of the top employers for students coming out of the business school. With recruiters on campus each year, the company is able to form the essential relationships needed to continue hiring UA graduates.

Olson began working in August after graduating last May.

“The biggest thing about getting a job: Just prepare for a really big transition,” Olson said, as advice to current students. “I know a lot of my friends, no matter where they are working, whether its retailing or a consulting firm, or a smaller startup company, all of them have a difficult time transitioning from being a student to working a typical 9-to-5 and having a lot more responsibilities than they did in college.”

Willie Grace, another May 2013 graduate and Montgomery native, said he was able to find employment after graduation easily. He was offered his current position with International Paper in Memphis during November of his senior year. Grace, who majored in management information systems, said he was never worried about finding employment and places high value in his UA degree.

“After talking to a lot of other people who graduated with a lot of other majors, I would say after graduating from the University of Alabama, you are prepared,” Grace said. “The reputation speaks for itself.”