Middle East Technical University has been contributing to the world of science and business with its nearly 150 thousand alumni since its first graduates in 1960. According to the data obtained from approximately 125 thousand METU alumni who are members of LinkedIn, a professional social media platform, one out of every five METU graduates lives abroad. METU alumni are heavily involved in a majority of the most sought-after professions, as well as the world’s most admired global companies.
North America and Europe Come First
Looking at the METU graduates living abroad, North America ranks first, with approximately 8 thousand alumni in the United States and around 1,500 graduates in Canada. Among the companies with the highest number of METU alumni working in the United States are Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and Apple. Those who continue their professional careers in Canada, on the other hand, mostly work at universities. The Canadian universities with the highest number of METU graduate staff are the University of Alberta, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, and the University of Toronto.
Looking at the METU alumni working in European countries other than Turkey, it is seen that there are approximately 10 thousand alumni living in Europe. Among these, more than 3,000 METU graduates live in Germany, and more than 2,000 reside in the UK and the Netherlands. METU alumni in Europe continue working in organizations in different fields, varying from electronics to production, energy to e-commerce, and banking to academia. The Netherlands-based global chip manufacturer ASML ranks first among the organizations that METU alumni work at most in Europe, followed by Philips, Booking.com, Bosch, and Amazon. When METU alumni working at various European universities are considered, the Eindhoven University of Technology, Technische Universiteit Delft (Delft University of Technology), RWTH Aachen University, Technical University of Munich, and the University of Bath stand out. When the institutions in Turkey where METU alumni work most are listed, Aselsan ranks first, followed by Turkish Aerospace Industries, Roketsan, and Arçelik Global. METU students who continue their academic path in our country mostly work at the Middle East Technical University, although there are METU alumni academics working at each and every university across the nation.
METU Alumni Work in Global Companies
Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Google, General Electric, Intel, Apple, and Meta are the global companies that METU alumni mostly work at. On the other hand, METU alumni are employed in 6 of the top 10 companies on the “Best companies to work for in 2022” list made by Fortune Magazine. These companies are as follows: Accenture, Cisco Systems, Salesforce, American Express, Nvidia, and Capital One Financial. It is noteworthy that the number of METU graduates working at the offices of these companies abroad is more than twice that of graduates working in their offices operating in Turkey.
According to the ranking prepared by the same magazine, all of the top ten companies on the “World’s Most Admired Companies” list employ METU alumni. When these companies are ranked according to the number of METU alumni employees, the ranking is as follows: Microsoft, Amazon, Pfizer, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, Walt Disney, Starbucks, Netflix, Berkshire Hathaway, and Alphabet.
METU Alumni in the Professions in High Demand
Many METU alumni work in nine of the top ten professions in high demand as of 2022, according to Business Insider. According to LinkedIn data, while no METU alumni are employed in the field of “Behavioral Health Technician” that is related to the field of health, 842 are Data Scientists, 440 are Robotics Engineers, 396 are Software Engineers (Full Stack) and Cyber Security Specialists working in both the backend and frontend, and 365 are Sales Development Representatives.There are also METU alumni employed in each of the other professions on the list, namely Cloud engineers, JavaScript Developers, Customer Success Specialists, and Artificial Intelligence Specialists.
