8 out of 10 Graduates only search for jobs
online
- Just 3% scour newspaper advertisements for jobs
- 57% spend less than an hour researching companies before interview
- 9% of graduates don't do any research prior to interviews
UK businesses who are investing in newspaper advertising to recruit graduate
talent may be wasting their money according to new research from Reed
Employment of almost 400 graduates registered on www.reed.co.uk. 89% of
graduates claimed that they only ever search for jobs online; 18% use
specialist recruitment agencies; 8% apply in person and just 3% regularly
check newspaper job sections. 80% of respondents also claim to be avid users
of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.
It seems that speed is the name of the game for graduate jobseekers, with 57%
stating they spend less than an hour researching for jobs; 18% spending
between one and two hours; just 15% spending over two hours and 9% claiming
they just turn up at interviews, without having researched the company at all.
Whilst this could be down to laziness; it does appear that graduate jobseekers
want more information provided in job descriptions and from recruitment
consultants.
A half claimed they were not given enough information before their interviews.
The kinds of information most in demand were details about training and
development opportunities (40%); the office location and surrounding amenities
(17%); the office culture (15%), and the salary on offer (12%).
Stephen Harrison, Operations Manager at Reed Graduates stated, "The
Facebook generation of graduates clearly is more receptive to receiving
information online than in print format. To attract top graduates, businesses
will need to rethink the ways in which they recruit ensuring that online
recruitment and perhaps even social networking sites are included. Equally,
they may wish to introduce innovative new mediums such as video recruitment as
part of their strategy."
"It is however, worrying that even with so much information about
companies available on the Internet, many graduates are not spending enough
time preparing and researching for job interviews. Companies expect interview
candidates to have done their homework and any graduate looking for their
first step on the career ladder should realise this. However, the onus is also
on companies to ensure their websites are up to date; their job descriptions
are as detailed as possible and for recruitment consultants to ensure that
jobseekers are as prepared as possible for their interviews," he
concluded.
www.reed.co.uk
Source: onrec.com
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