Marriott International jumped from 45^th to sixth place on Business Week’s annual list of the Best Places to Launch a Career. The rankings and accompanying story appear in the Sept. 15 issue of the magazine. Wynn Las Vegas is the only other pure hospitality company on the list. It placed 119^th.

The rankings are based on three surveys: career-services directors at U.S. colleges rank top employers; those companies complete a survey of pay, benefit and training programs; and a questionnaire sent to college undergraduates asks for the five employers they believe are most desirable. The company survey counts for half of the final ranking, while the other two each contribute 25 percent.

Even though Marriott’s average starting pay for grads ($35,000-$40,000) is considerably lower than other firms in the top 10 ($50,000-$55,000 for top-ranked Ernst & Young), the company ranked first in the employer survey.

Despite not having a formal management training program, unlike all but two other firms in the top 10, the authors of the study cited Marriott for its training culture. “Marriott takes training seriously,” says the article. “Employees attend 10,000 classes each year.”

According to an accompanying online profile, Marriott hired 275 college grads in 2007, up 2.2 percent over the previous year. It claims a retention rate of 50 percent and says a third of the newly hired are minorities and 58 percent are female. About eight percent of entry-level hires at Marriott received signing bonuses, averaging $2,000. Marriott promises a career path: the company says 43.7 percent of top executives have been with the company 20 years or longer.