Technology major IBM and software exporter Infosys have emerged as the most preferred employers for engineering and non-engineering graduates, respectively, says a survey.

"IBM and Infosys have emerged as the most preferred employers by both engineering (BE/BTech) as well as non engineering graduate (BSc/BBA, BA, BCA) students," said the survey conducted by job portal Firstnaukri.com, focused on entry level hiring.

According to the portal, both the companies are topping the employer preference charts for the second year in a row.

Among non-engineering graduates, Infosys was the most preferred company for 41.1 per cent of the respondents. At the second spot was Wipro (39.4 per cent), followed by IBM (33.1 per cent), HCL (27.1 per cent) and TCS (24 per cent) at the fifth spot.

In case of engineering students, 43.7 per cent of them ranked IBM as their most preferred employer. Infosys (43.1 per cent) and TCS (40.6 per cent) share the second and third position followed by Wipro (28 per cent) and Accenture (27.8 per cent).

The findings are based on an e mail survey of about 2,000 engineering and non-engineering graduate students.

Firstnaukri.com is a group entity of leading job portal naukri.com.

Meanwhile, Firstnaukri.com's Business Head Deepali Singh said that defence has emerged as a preferred sector among engineers from non-IT stream with most of them looking at DRDO as the first option.

"This shows a tilt towards working in government and PSU's sectors have started getting traction," Singh noted.

When it comes to decide on appearing for a company interview, 33 per cent of the respondents said their priority would be job profile.

About 27 per cent felt that growth prospect within the firm as well as brand image of the company are key factors in deciding on appearing for placement interviews.

As per the survey, 31 per cent of the respondents felt that seniors are the biggest influence during campus interviews. "About 23 per cent of them said parents and 19 per cent opted for batch mates," it noted.