Graduates now accept the internet as the norm for jobhunting

Graduates now accept the internet as the norm for jobhunting and are open to new technology, say our experts, but some things never change they say... recruiters still want to hire the best quality graduates, and how they differentiate will be the key to their success.

Allan Brown, Sales director at Graduate Prospects demonstrates just how popular online recruitment is: ìThe number of unique users for Prospects.ac.uk more than doubling since 2003 (most recent audit 579,537 by ABCe, October 2006). Many current students and recent graduates have grown up with the PC and the Internet and see them as natural tools for their career planning process. To gain a deeper understanding of job-seeking habits, Prospects participates in the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS). This yearís findings highlight that 83% of Prospects.ac.uk users use the Internet everyday or most days with 68% having broadband access. Over 70% of respondents have applied for a job online by completing an online application form or emailing a CV.î

Obi Okwuadigbo, from thefutureworks, Coventry Universityís commercial recruitment agency says: ìAs companies look to move towards the ëpaperless officeí and the global power of the internet is at itís highest peak, I believe todayís graduate will look to the internet as their preferred option for applying for jobs or job seeking. It is less time consuming and more cost effective for graduates to apply for jobs using this process. However, it also means there is more competition as jobs are available for everyone to see on a national and global scale as opposed to the old fashioned local advertisement in the local newspaper.î

People speak of the move towards online and away from print; however, Malgorzata Kitowski, from The Graduate believes that graduatesí sourcing methods and recruitersí attraction strategies have become more sophisticated than this binary split: ìLast year, we saw recruiters using more innovative elements in their online Microsites (blogs, podcasts, Flash film) and several website redesigns. As well as job postings and training programme information pages, there was a trend for highly specific targeting, for example, sending Emailshots to exactly the desired demographic (e.g. candidates who live within 10 miles of London, possess an Physics degree, and can speak Japanese), and for more detailed filtering to avoid applications from unqualified candidates, or those without a work permit in Kazakhstan.

James Meachin, occupational psychologist at Pearn Kandola: ìIncreasingly, many large private and public organisations accept only online applications for graduate schemes. Examples include PricewaterhouseCoopers, the NHS, Accenture, and Diageo. While online recruitment is time and cost efficient, recent innovations have shown other benefits. One major change recently has been the high level of interactivity and media rich content available to graduates. For example, Accenture posts employee blogs on its graduate site, and Bain & Company has interactive cases where real-life client problems can be investigated by prospective applicants.

These services differentiate organisations while allowing them to develop a strong psychological bond with their prospective applicants. Aside from attracting candidates, this interactive, media rich approach, is beneficial as it increases graduates' understanding of the organisation. Candidates with more realistic expectations are more likely to perform well within an organisation, and less likely to leave early.vTo date, the main challenge for organisations has been setting-up online recruitment systems. To the visiting candidate, the online experience has been much the same from recruiter to recruiter. In the future organisations will increasingly focus on creating distinctive online experiences. In particular, this could involve streaming video and 'podcast' technology which will allow graduates to enter further into the organisation.î

Jocelyn Astle believes graduates are using joboards more: ìGraduate positions are increasingly being advertised and applied for through job-boards. 13% LondonCareers.net users are now graduate job-seekers searching its site for the ever-important first step into their career. Graduate job-seekers are serious job-hunters, and apply for positions online rather than just browsing for their next move. In the last 3 months, LondonCareers.net has had a very impressive graduate conversion of 34%. I.e., 34% of all those who searched for a graduate position on LondonCareers.net applied for a job on this site. Annual trends mean this is expected to increase further still in the run up to the end of the academic year.î

Many graduates are using job-boards, not only as a way of seeing what jobs are available, but also as a way of introducing themselves to multiple employers at the same time. By posting their CV on LondonCareers.net, a graduate is able to be effectively head-hunted for their very first job, by recruiters searching the database for their skills. This is a valuable feature that is exclusive to online job-boards, something that press is unable to offer. The CV Posting facility is now one of the most popular features on LondonCareers.net, and carries many graduate CVs. This service has grown in popularity both with job-seekers uploading their CVs and recruiters wishing to search the database for candidates with skill-sets that match their requirements.

Milkround Online spokesman Mike Barnard says that in 2006 they confidently increased their services to graduates by formally launching their Second Post and Diversity Milkround sites following the success of their initial phases. News Internationalís purchase of Milkround late last year has also opened the door for links with Times Online to further their offering to users.î

Great Expectations from Graduates
These internet savvy graduates have more sophisticated expectations from websites- not just information about jobs, but want to access the information in different ways & apply online.

Allan Brown says online habits are evolving: ì16% use 3G mobiles, PDAs or Smartphones to access the Internet which means that Prospects has to be aware of how content is displayed and accessed. Convenience is also key with many users now subscribing to the job search RSS feeds available on Prospects.ac.uk.

The experience that users demand from websites is also changing with many now seeking more bespoke, individual and interactive services. Prospects has introduced Prospects Professional in response to this demand, giving graduates access to a tailored, paid for careers advice service. We have also developed a digital magazine, Prospects Graduate, to replace a paper one in addition to digital versions of some annual paper products. These are all examples of how students and graduates are engaging with more electronic services in more diverse ways.

One thing about students and graduates remains the same though; each job hunting/career planning experience is individual. As a provider of information and opportunities we need to engage with our users in ways that work for and them. This still includes printed media which is integrated with all of our digital services. Taking a media independent approach allows us to continue to deliver relevant services to an audience with increasingly diverse needs. Like all marketing, messages from recruiters are absorbed in different ways, meaning recruiters need to consider and manage many possible touch-points. This is particularly important in graduate recruitment as the development of a brand has a big impact on the attraction of talent.î

Mike Barnard hopes that Milkround will be able to use brand loyalty in the future as its users seek to take their next steps on the career ladder. He says: ìThere is a clear need to appeal to a wider audience otherwise our current users will move on to other recruitment sites. The innovation brought by Web 2.0 has opened the door to more Internet community interaction than ever before and Milkround intends to utilise it in unique ways.î

Allan Brown says that old and new media are popular: ìIronically we have and continue to experience the amazing growth of our digital services whilst demand for paper products, like the Prospects Directory, continues to grow. As for the future, there is no doubt the growth and development of digital media as a career planning/job hunting tool will continue. Our future success also depends on recognising the way students and clients use all media, to research, engage and be inspired by potential employers. Malgorzata Kitowski says The Graduate this year is launching e-magazines to beam directly to candidates: online versions of our Graduate Handbooks with a black line pretend-spine down the middle of the screen, so they can have the best of both worlds!

She continues: ìMost applicants now have necklaces of As at A-Level and a 2:1 degree, so the problem for employers is being able to differentiate an exceptional candidate from a good one. Many recruiters have started going into more Universities and attending more Fairs to meet graduates in person. The onus has changed markedly from candidate quantity to candidate quality. There has also been a lot of ìcrossing overî in recent years. For example, most people who used to go into Law had a Law degree; these days there is a 50:50 split between applicants who have studied Law and non-Law (e.g. Chemistry!). Also, many companies have started to advertise ìacrossî departments, for example, a company well-known for Engineering will not advertise its Engineering graduate programme, but its lesser-known Management programme; a company well know for Consultancy will not advertise that scheme, but instead its IT programme. There is a lot of sector-fluity, although many candidates still donít appear to be aware of all the various departments within a given company, and the opportunities available.î

Obi Okwuadigbo agrees that today the majority of companies no longer mark an emphasis on the type of degree the student does but the fact that they have performed well in their chosen degree. He says that this shift in thought process combined with the willing acceptance of graduates into trainee roles means that there is a good demand for graduates and this is set to increase.

Obi Okwuadigbo continues: ìWeíve noticed that more and more graduates are requesting help with preparing their CV and on interview techniques. They are also asking for career guidance as a high volume of students do not give serious thought to what they will do when they graduate until they do just that, graduate! Recruiters want more help vetting graduates to ensure they are getting high calibre candidates. However, they want to pay less for this service than they would if they were looking to recruit to a non-graduate role. From a recruitment agency perspective I believe all graduates are of a similar ilk and what one must learn to do well is gain a greater understanding of their work ethic and commitment as this may be the difference between a good graduate and an excellent one.î He also feels that more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have opened up to the idea of taking on a graduate than previously seen and companies of all sizes are readily prepared to invest time and effort into training a graduate, and that graduatesí salary expectations are becoming more realistic, although there are still a high percentage of graduates who believe they will command an unrealistic starting salary outside of London ranging between 20k to 25k.

Future issues
Allan Brown has some interesting points to be addressed in the future: ìAs for the future we do envisage a couple of issues requiring real consideration. Firstly, the growth in student/graduate numbers has implications for all recruiters, but SME recruiters in particular will need to start competing with the blue chips for the talent they need. The development of regional markets for talent will become important in this area and links with careers services will become more valuable than ever. We are developing a national network of careers services, allowing direct job posting to few or many services online. This allows recruiters to choose where they need to focus there efforts, posting jobs ads or building those all important relationships.

Secondly, the development of more dynamic approaches to search on the web. After all, if you are not quite sure what you are looking for (and many students and recent graduates are not) how do you find it on the web? The Internet has yet to deliver a serious alternative to browsing through a thick paper directory with 400 of the UK's top employers in it and being inspired by opportunities presented with a complex but dynamic advertisement. Until this is found, publications will still be medium of choice for students and graduates.

Graduates of the future can therefore fulfil all their jobhunting needs on the web ( as long as they know what they want!), and will be able to access it in an ever increasing number of ways. Recruiters still show a strong demand for graduates, and to get the best they will have to be ahead of the competition.