Analysis of On-Line Job sites for Student Career Prospects
The top
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Social media and promoting
job sites!
What does the career department have to say?
What makes a successful job site?
What is in it For you? NLP Publication
1/21/2011
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Our Very First Issue !
P A T R I C K
N I C O L A
L A U R E N
Message from the Editors Hi guys! We are currently second year students attending Buckinghamshire New University. As part of our course, Business and Advertising Management, we take part in Digital Technologies for Marketing as one of our modules. As required, we needed to produce a website report.
Due to our high interest in graduates and unemployment, we had decided to look into the issues with online job sites and how students use and market themselves on them. Thus concluding to a title of ‘The Role of Online and Web Opportunities for Student Career Development’. Hopefully reading through, you will find our publication interesting and enjoyable to read. Feel free to follow us on Twitter via username ‘@studentcareer’ and tell us what you think! Looking forward to hearing from you! Patrick, Lauren and Nicola
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2 1/21/2011 NLP Publication
Contents Background
pg 3
Evidence of Graduate Unemployment Pg 4 Available Job sites
pg
5-6
Web Design & Student Engagement pg 7 What Contributes to a Successful Job Site? pg 8-14
Website Comparison pg 15
Online Questionnaires -Results Pg 17-18 Conclusion pg 19
Careers Department interview Social Media and Promoting What do Students Think?
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pg 20-21
pg 22-24
Pg 25
Background On-line job sites have been a popular form for career help. Unlike venturing out to high street job centres, it is quick, simple and hassle-free. However , although lot of help is available out there during this economic crisis; many questions still remain. Why is there still a rising number of unemployed graduates? Are these job-sites actually as useful as they should be? And are they even being used by graduates? All of these questions will be addressed. Research will be carried out in order to point out the issues with online Job sites and how they can improve.
First hand research will be carried out including one-on-one interviews along with questionnaires and surveys; as well as secondary research including article analysis and comparing websites. Following this, data will be processed thus revealing the truth behind graduates and the use of online career opportunities.
Students will reveal their opinion on the situation and how they, themselves would promote themselves with the use of the web.
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Evidence of Graduate Unemployment Since students are not interested in looking through printed media, job sites can take advantage of this engagement and target the students within their preferences around the recruitment sites.
Graduate unemployment.
According to the daily mail, one in three graduates is still claiming some sort of benefits as graduate unemployment had reached a high rate of up to 20,000 in 2009.
Through online applications, it is easier to filter candidates and conduct online testing from an employer‟s perspective just as easy as it is for applicants to select their
“A further 50,000 failed to land graduate-level posts and resorted to roles for which they are likely to be over-qualified, working as secretaries, waiters, bar staff and factory employees.” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk) The guardian.co.uk also states that students who graduated with IT related degrees were suffering worse within the job market. 16.3% faced unemployment six months after their graduation from a comparison of 13.7% same period in the previous year. ( http://www.guardian.co.uk ) The issue and figures shown above give a more reason for students to spend their free time online searching for graduate jobs. They can do this at home or using their smart phones. HRMagazine.co.uk suggests that recruitment sites are the first place 70% of students will be looking to find work.
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preferred job sectors. The ease of administrative process provided by online job applications is beneficial. It helps save time and reduces costs since users are filling in their own details rather than hiring administrators, not forgetting the fact that this also helps the sites to collect and gather a significant amount of information for future marketing prospects. Another way students are finding to look for work is through social media site which are using web 2.0 technology. Sites such as Facebook, and Linkedin allow users to provide publicly viewable profiles. Employers can use this web 2.0 sites to headhunt prospective candidates. By finding candidates interests and portfolio, creative head-hunters can gather information for relevant fields or groups in chosen career sectors. These social networking sites can have a great impact, for students both negatively and positively. Businessweek.com states that employers may use this information illegally by discriminating some candidates by perceiving a difference in organisation‟s culture.
Available Job Sites Most on-line job sites are aimed at the non-student, working class population, which is understandable. However, it could be helpful for job sites to focus on graduates and students. This means more opportunities for job placements, internships or even parttime. Sites aimed at students will attract more studentfriendly businesses. This means that they are able and willing to help train and guide students whilst they are doing their placements. It also backs up the fact that not all students/graduates will know everything as they are just starting their career. Job sites aimed at the established working population can be confusing to a graduate as job roles and titles can be too specific. However, with student based websites; job titles can be slightly more broad and/or job descriptions can sound less intimidating.
However no matter how many job sites there are out there, the issue still remains of the economic climate. The fact that there are a reduced number of jobs on the market means that it is harder for job sites to find their members a job. This could be why more people are getting frustrated and loosing trust in them.
Take a look at this article which gives an idea of the job market. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/uni versityeducation/7904955/Graduatesgamble-on-a-dwindling-job-market.html
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Web Design and Student Engagement First, What are the Objectives.
The Online Value Proposition
The site will have to deliver relevant, high quality and regularly updated content to the target audience without confusing users while they browse, keeping a good rank on search engines, not forgetting quick loading pages that still deliver the brand online value proposition.
An Online Value Proposition (OVP) is how a site differentiates itself from competitors. An OVP could also be what a site is promising to deliver to its members or potential visitors/ Users.
This should be done by adhering to web standards and legal requirements such as accessibility.
For example, Prospects.ac.uk is dedicated to delivering a great deal of information for students and graduates concerning work placements, internships and other graduate schemes and linking to the relevant contact details or sites.
What about Customer Orientation? All the compared sites have taken user orientation into consideration. Customer orientation is catering to a vast choice of job sectors and information making widely available to those interested in those sectors. The main visitors of the sites are students and graduates. Colours and usability has been geared towards younger people but also incorporating a professional appeal. It would be easy to assume that because graduates know how to use the internet the can figure out where to find information, but this may not be the case unless they understand the structure of the site.
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Prospects.ac.uk and Targetjobs.co.uk are run buy a professional body and deliver more information within a users preferred sector, pointing them to the right links of employers directly ,with an option to apply within these sites.
What contributes to a successful Job Site? How much effect does Integrated Design have in getting the students attention? Having an integrated design means that the site has a familiar feel. This follows through to all other types of communications they offer showing a standard theme throughout. This is so that regular or potential visitors recognise the brand.
Having an integrated design is very useful in order to handle information and communications effectively. The information held on these sites includes names, preferences, and demographic data when a user signs up and the options to upload CVs, set preference, opt in/out for email once they have joined and are signed in.
Prospects.ac.uk and targetjobs.co.uk both have regular booklets for students and graduates, highlighting what new information is available on their website. The printed material has the same elements which show consistency within the brand.
With the use of databases, these sites allow the ability to hold user information and preferences.
Adeccoâ€&#x;s members of staff also regularly hand out business cards which incorporate the companyâ€&#x;s logo and a member of staff who deals with the specific job sector. Monsters personalised emails for users who are signed up to the sites have a similar structure to their website and the same feel of interactivity even though the user is redirected to monster.co.uk
The above information can then be useful in future communications for marketing both online and offline depending on the users preferences, building a picture of the users so they can be targeted effectively and also providing a more personalised service as promised by the Online Value propositions of the sites. Addeco.co.uk however does not gather as much information as the other more targeted towards students/Graduate sites such as Prospects.ac.uk and Targetjobs.co.uk. This is due to the fact that addeco.co.uk is a recruitment agency which gains profits mainly through the commissioning of job seeking individuals to other businesses.
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Studentgems.com is a great example of how branding can have an impact. Studentgems.com has the same layout theme colour as its logo. The brand stands out through out the site
Personalise interactivity with the site
Emails received by moster.co.uk are always targeted to the userâ€&#x;s preferences. The users log in and alter their preferences depending on their level of education, experiences and preferred job sectors. Once the email is received, the users are easily directed to the main monster.co.uk site and they can read more about the suggested roles from the email.
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What Contributes to a Successful Job Site? Dynamic Design and Personalisation offered by the sites. The sites are all data driven, They serve the users by holding information about their preferences so they donâ€&#x;t have to key in their needs every time they sign in. This personalisation helps the site with delivering their users with relevant information by creating a targeted relationship.
The personalisation on the sites without, holding personal information is handled by cookies. This gives visitors a good experience without having to key in preferences such as locations, or names. The whole purpose of personalisation is to sell, serve, speak, sizzle and save.
Dynamic design and personalisation would not be possible without the help of a database that organises the collected data.
Sell, Serve, Speak, Sizzle and Save.
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Aesthetics
Visual design
Web site aesthetics include colour, graphics and the site personality. At a glance, the characteristics of the student gems website are an important element for its personality. Student gems seems more for students where as Prospects and Targetjobs are more for graduates.
Prospectus.ac.uk seems more of a professional organisation and may appeal to a more feeling of trust when it comes to read information. Student gems also accompanies the right visuals with more, larger images in which case are showcasing success, differentiating the student section and the employers section with the images, but the colours seem to be playful and not demonstrate a professional environment.
Screen resolutions
Typography
Addecco and Student gems do not have a fluid design for their templates and this leaves a lot of white spaces on the web pages. This could in effect reduce loading times for those with slow connections.
The sites have stuck to the principle of using consistent types on the web pages. However as mentioned, the font size on prospectus could be much improved on.
Another important aspect in the new age of online browsing is being able to open the site in different mediums such as phones, games consoles and televisions; that are now capable of browsing the internet using built in apps.
Prospectus.ac.uk has smaller text which would be more difficult to read for those with restricted eye sight, student gems text is better and bolder making it easier to read and also showcasing as a quick read.
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What Contributes to a Successful Job Site?
Page Design The pages of a successful job site need to be consistent and have a neat layout. The sites mentioned in this report all have some form of Content Management System (CMS). A CMS allows easy implementation of page designs such as the use of templates. A good layout can be easily updated and highlight different elements of the site. For example different sections, offers, affiliate banners, etc.
Prospectus.ac.uk has the logo on the left, as does student gems. Student gems however, also have an affiliate banner near the logo. This diverts traffic away from the site to external resources as it is easier to see the banner. This can make them money and at the same time keeping internal content recognisable.
Both sites also have placed affiliate banners on the right hand side of the user screen.
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Navigation and Structure A well organised site is more likely to attract repeated visitors. Ease of use can reduce confusion and bounce rates as users canâ€&#x;t find the information they are looking for. The structure can be organised into sections and then categories to improve flow control. Sitemaps are also a key feature on websites. They help visitors to navigate the different sections and categories as well as help search engine robots link together the sites contents which in turn helps in traffic building.
Targetjobs.co.uk has a navigations bar which at a glance it seems neatly structured. Reality shows that it is not. Some of the tabs have larger widths to others as well.
The design has however, tried to differentiate external links. This has been achieved by colour coding differently to the links of their external specialist sector sites.
Menu has been expanded but no content is loaded. Prospects.ac.uk has been let down by the fact that itâ€&#x;s sitemap links to an empty
On the prospectus website, the text on the navigation bar is too small and there are too many links on the drop down menu. The student gems website seems easier to navigate from the home page.
landing page.
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What Contributes to a Successful Job Site? Traffic Advice Website owners spend more than some may be aware of, in terms of design, branding and advertising their sites. Sites need to be ranking higher than their competitors within search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) helps search robots crawl into the content, recognise the websites and link them to search engine databases. One way of doing this is working on effective keywords. Keywords and META data are important within the site structure. These keywords are meant to relate with what a user might be searching for on a search engine.
Another component that improves ranking is using analysis tools such as Google analytics. This allows the owners to figure out: •where the traffic comes from •Bounce rates ( identifies
which landing pages are not effective) •No. of Unique Visitors •Which pages are popular •Time that was spent on specific pages
Feedback from Sinead McGovern a representative from Prospects.ac.uk, commented that their strategies for awareness and better ranking include, •Google Search •Other search engines •Incoming links •Word of mouth •Emails •Advertising.
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Website
Comparison Questionnaires were handed out with a mix of telephone interviews with students requiring them to compare three on-line Job sites: www.studentgems.com www.targetjobs.co.uk www.prospects.ac.uk Looking through each website, they needed to give us their view on their feeling of it, what they think about the layout, whether it was easy to use etc.
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Results A telephone survey was conducted with six graduates from different Universities. To find out the popularity and Usability ratings. Were you aware of these sites before?
StudentGems, 4 Prospects, 6
StudentGems
Studentgems was less known than the more common prospects and targetjobs.
TargetJobs Prospects
TargetJobs, 6
Is the site easy to navigate 7
Prospects and targetjobs scored higher for ease of navigation
6 5 4
Yes
3
No
2 1 0 StudentGems
TargetJobs
Prospects
Overall rating out of 10
Prospects and targetjobs were also more favourable than the less known studentgems
StudentGems, 4 Prospects, 8
StudentGems TargetJobs Prospects TargetJobs, 8
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Online
Questionnaires To make our research more valid we conducted an online survey. This was made on the SurveyMonkey website which produced a link which was then was given out on Facebook to as many students as we could. As Facebook is the biggest on-line social networking site, this made the chances of students answering our survey higher. We made the survey quick and easy, with only 10 simple questions. This was a fast and easy way to ask our target market the questions we wanted in the amount of time we had.
Here is the link to our survey, check it out and fill it in if you have time! :
http://www.surveymonkey.c om/s/G9C9RPF
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Results These are just a few of the main questions we asked.
Q. 1. Have you/do you use on-line job sites? As you can see from this graph the majority of students we asked do use on-line job sites.
No Yes 0
10
20
Q. 2. Have you successfully acquired a job/placement through an on-line job site? No Series1
Yes
0
10
Most people have not found any job from an on-line job site.
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Q4. If yes, which sites?
Secs
You can see from this pie chart, how popular some job-sites are. These were the ones that were picked out by the students that were questioned.
Reed Monster Career works Office Angels Jobsite
NHS Adecco Target Jobs Student Gems
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Conclusion Most students do use on-line job sites, however they do struggle to trust them and as fewer and fewer people believe they can be successful. This survey also shows that many students would not pay to be part of a job site as they lack trust. This is one of the main issues with students. With some on-line job sites requiring monthly payments to be a part of them some students do wonder if this is a good idea. From our survey 95.8% of students have not already signed up to such a site. However 29.2% said that they would and another 29.2% said maybe if the site was successful for them and trustworthy.
Most of the answers included the internet being quick and easy to use, having more information and being confidential. Although some people did mention that human interaction is still necessary. On a whole the students we have surveyed do not trust online job sites. This is the main issue that these sites would need to address to gain more customers and keep their existing customers loyalty.
Other questions asked were about how easy the sites were to use as many students do believe this play an important role. With the question: How easy do you find on-line job sites to use? 8.3% said difficult, 66.7% said neutral and 25% said easy. Then our final question being do you prefer on-line job sites to high street job centres 54.2% said yes and 45.8% said no.
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Careers Department Interview
On the 13th of January 2011, The Buckinghamshire New University Careers Help & Advice Department kindly welcomed us for an interview. Nicola Hayes discussed the issues regarding graduates and unemployment alongside Nicola Lappage, Bucks New Uni Careers Advisor. Here is how the interview went: NH: Are you aware of the increase in unemployed graduates in recent years? NL: Indeed (nods head) NH: What services and advice do you offer to help graduates and students prior to putting themselves into the workplace? NL: It starts in their first year of university. We market the service to students about what we offer and our support. Each year is treated differently. Throughout the first year they focus more on getting their CV right and looking for part-time work. In their 2nd year, it is all about looking for work experience/part-time work. 3rd year we focus on the market they would like to go into where a career guidance preparation interview takes place. We too help with the application information. NH: Are you aware of any job sites available? Which ones would you recommend?
NL: We use our own Vacancy database website so we do not usually suggest other online job sites. We focus more on the studentâ€&#x;s skills and leave the job hunting to the students themselves. Mainly, this is because we have not got the resources. We concentrate on employability skills and sustainable employability in which will allow them to have a career for life and the changes in jobs throughout life.
Personally, I do not support payment job sites. It is not our policy to advise students to join them. I recommend studentgems.com as they have a good structure to the site and their purpose is genuine. Prospects is one of the sites I do recommend as this is managed and structured by professional career staff. It is updated regularly and it is direct to students. Targetjobs.co.uk also does this. However, it is not part of our policy to recommend any job sites to students.
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Careers Department Interview NH: What advice would you give students looking for a job? NL: We give them the message in their first year that work experience is essential. A degree on its own is essentially a licence to look for a job. The only way to get to the next stage is through work experience. This could even be part-time or not course related as these still give employability skills. NH: Do you feel students are well educated and prepared when applying for jobs? NL: The responsibility is shared. The university ensure that the courses have employability awareness embedded in. However, students have to contribute to the other half to ensure they have work experience and skills in the sector they are willing to work in.
NL: At the moment in the current economic climate, both is best. Get in contact by letter, telephone, email, etc as much as you can. But the CV is the most important. NH: What are the biggest mistakes students make whilst applying for a job? NL: What isnâ€&#x;t the biggest mistake? (laughs) Students tend to market themselves to their full potential. The culture is not talking about yourself so much however this is essential when acquiring a job. It is also important to talk about experiences and achievements.
NH: How do you feel about students promoting themselves in a digital format? Do you find this works and helps them? NL: It depends on the course. NH: Which would you advise? Traditional methods of finding a job or new digital methods?
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Social Media & Promoting
Twitter has now become a very popular way in which businesses and people can market themselves. Most bit universities and education establishments have a twitter account in which they are able to keep their stakeholders up to date. Some of the examples below are of popular and not so popular job-related twitter accounts. Prospects .ac.uk is one of the more commonly used job sites for students in the UK. As mentioned in the „Careers Department Interview‟, it is the only job site they would recommend to a student if they had to. Clearly, Prospects has grasped the fact that social networking is the new move. Almost all students and graduates around the world have some sort of social networking profile. Although Prospects are doing well on Twitter, they however, do not have a Facebook page or group. Does that really matter thought? We will find out.
Graduate-Jobs on the other hand, do have a Facebook „Like‟ page with 577 Likes. The page includes 35 links, 1 past event and a wall filled with job vacancy descriptions. Targetjobs in which too is a fairly common jobsite has 3 Facebook like pages with a total of 10 Likes. Evidence here indicates that for Job-sites and students in particular, a Twitter account would be of more benefit to a Facebook one. This is probably also due to the fact that more businesses are based around Twitter.
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Social Media & Promoting
As twitter and Facebook are new trend, we decided to follow the crowd make a twitter account! While facebook is still the most popular, it is not the fastest, growing ,according to comScore, Twitterâ€&#x;s total internet audience growth was 41 times that of facebook (Mintel 2009)
So get on twitter to follow us and to see our tweets on our new digital magazines coming out, interesting news about students and jobs as well as advice on what to do, what not to do and the best and worst places to find a job! TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!
Mintel – Social Networking 2010
Research also shows that social networks appeal to a wide range of age-groups from children as young as 6 to adults over 55.
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Some useful secondary data •
Two in ten respondents surveyed for this report access an online job site once a week or more.
•
The most technologically sophisticated, younger age group are the heaviest users of job sites.
•
Most popular sites according to Mintel %
Mainstream sites such as Monster are the most popular destinations for job seekers.
Frequency of recruitment site usage, October 2010 Base: 1,028 adults aged 16-64
Once a week or more Every day Once a week
Jobcentre Plus search database
46
Monster.co.uk
40
Jobsite.co.uk
33
Totaljobs.com
30
Reed.co.uk
30
Fish4jobs
30
%
Gumtree.com Jobs
19 19
20
NHS Careers – Job Search
7 13
Hays.com
8
Trovit UK Jobs
4
MichaelPage.co.uk
4
Once a month
8
Indeed.com
2
Every couple of months
8
Careerbuilder.co.u k
2
Couple of times a year
7
Yahoo! HotJobs
2
Used, but not in the last year
19
The Recruitment Network
1
Never used
37
Simplyhired.com
1
Other website
22
Mintel – Digital Trends 2010
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What Do Students Think?
Roaming around the Bucks New University Campus, we asked what you, the students think about online-jobs sites.
I use them, but I don‟t Trust them. They are rubbish! Omid Lalfam, 22
They‟re alright, I don‟t know. I know fish4.co.uk Charlotte Rawlings, 19
Never been on one, I would never go on one. Katie Smith, 19
I think they are helpful, but I‟m not 100% with all job sites and not too keen on some of them George Mccann, 21
Never Heard of them. Don‟t know any. Andrew Wiles, 19
I think they are alright. I like studentgems.com Rami Fetyani, 20
I haven‟t really used them very much, but from my experience, they are okay. Chris Brydon, 22
I do not use them but I would if I needed a job. Rhiannon Fender, 20
I‟ve never used them, but if I needed a job I would. Rebecca Greenwood, 19
I haven‟t used any and don‟t know if I would really use them. Kerry Cottingham, 20
I do not really use them, they are not relevant to people without degrees. Phil Tapsell, 19
They are rubbish. They don‟t send you relevant or personal information. They are a waste of time. It is better to just email the companies directly that you want to work for and see what happens there
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Patrick Zinga, 20