When Apple employees leave the company, their next stop is most likely Google, according to a new study.
Switch on Business recently looked at LinkedIn data to determine which tech giants attract the most talent from competitors. The company analyzed the employee profiles for Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, Oracle, Netflix, Nvidia, Salesforce, Adobe, Intel, and Uber, paying special attention to employees who currently work at a tech giant that previously worked for one of the other companies on its list.
Through analyzing the employee profiles, the group found that 26.51% of Meta employees have previously worked at another tech giant, the highest proportion of any other company. Google, however, has the most talent by volume, with 38,316 (24.15%) of the company’s staff coming from other tech giants. Inversely, IBM had the fewest tech giant veterans on its staff, with just 2.28% of its workforce having previously been employed by another large tech company.
Apple comes in just a tiny bit higher, with 5.7% of its workforce having come from other tech giants. While that’s a small percentage, it’s still a pretty substantial number; 4,773 Apple employees, for instance, were previously employed by Intel. Apple previously used Intel chips in its computers and is now developing its own chips in-house, so that number isn’t entirely shocking. Apple also purchased Intel’s modem division, which came with 2,000 of its employees.
Potentially surprising is the fact that Apple employees are twice as likely to make the move to Google from Apple than the next biggest post-Apple destination, Amazon. After Amazon, Apple employees make the move to Meta, followed by Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, Salesforce, Adobe, Intel, and Oracle.
As for where Apple employees come from, new Apple employees are most likely to enter the company from Intel, followed by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle, Tesla, Nvidia, Adobe, and Meta.
While Apple employees are most often headed to Google, Google employees are most often headed to Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, with Apple only making it to fourth on the list.