Rusty Weston, the guy behind the new My Global Career 500 list of top global employers, had some feedback to my comments here last week about the usefulness of his new list. His response doesn’t change anything that I wrote, but he does deserve an opportunity to have his say:

Hi John,

Thank you for writing about My Global Career 500. If I were able to post a comment in reply to your blog item I would seek to clarify several points.

In your post you write that “The My Global Career 500 doesn’t list any companies in China.” The list includes two Chinese employers: Hutchison Whampoa with 200,000 employees and China Mobile Ltd. with 88,127 employees. (Editor’s note: For the purposes of the blog, I was comparing Weston’s list of Top 10 global employers with the Fortune Top 10. Weston’s list had no Chinese companies in the top 10 largest global employers, while Fortune had four.)

On to your larger point: In stark contrast to Fortune’s rankings, My Global Career 500 is a useful list for job seekers. Wise men might disagree about what’s useful, but of the two lists, only My Global Career 500 passes this litmus test:

The list is actionable because it includes links to the employers’ job sites (and there are vacancies).

Among these employers, there is a possibility that anyone, even from outside the country, can apply for work.

In the case of U.S. federal jobs, there is no outright ban on foreign citizens, but if you read the fine print, the hoops are enormous—including U.S. ID cards and pre-employment tests offered in the U.S. only.

However, the hoops are arguably even higher for foreigners seeking employment in organizations such as the million-strong U.K.-based National Health Service. In India, where they have had as many as 7.5 million people apply for 38,000 openings with India Railways, it would be interesting to know how many of those positions went to foreigners. For this reason, I believe government employers belong on a separate list.

One area where we are in agreement is this: I will do a better job going forward of underscoring the differences between the two lists. For instance: We intend to update My Global Career 500 on a regular basis as mergers and acquisitions occur, etc., rather than annually, as we see with most lists. My goal isn’t to usurp Fortune magazine, it’s to provide job seekers with a useful directory of global, corporate employers.

Cheers,

Rusty Weston,
Chief blogger
My Global Career