Because most graduates would rather work in a safe job at one of those large companies than do anything actually challenging at a more risky place. I know engineers who work at several of those companies, and it's the same kind of of overly bureaucratic, conservative corporate culture that is dominated by middle managers who are primarily preoccupied by not making any mistakes they could be held accountable for everywhere.

Furthermore, there are a lot of jobs that are being filled with engineers that don't really require an engineer. A good friend of mine is currently working for one of those companies, and his job mainly consists of building spreadsheets with risk models that are then passed on to, and mostly ignored by, the sales force. Needless to say, he's probably going to switch careers in the next few months.

For some people that is enough as long as they get paid at the end of the month, but if you actually want to do something, these companies are not the place for that.

> As engineer coming from university it is clear where you want to work in Germany: Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi, great places to start a career.

meh, working with embedded hard-heads on experimental features for a car segment driven by oligarchs, CEOs, and mafiosos.

Please have look at that ranking:

https://www.ingenieur.de/karriere/arbeitsleben/arbeitgeber/d...

I don't buy the German automotive dream and it doesn't impress me, sorry.

Sure, but my comment was not about you. I’m just pointing to some stats to substantiate my point