LEVERAGING LINKEDIN FOR GRADUATE

RECRUITMENT IN SINGAPORE

EMBRACING PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA TO ATTRACT STUDENTS OCT 2013

Content

1. Students and Recent Graduates in Singapore

2. Why Students are turning to LinkedIn

3. Combine LinkedIn and Facebook for the best campus recruitment strategy

4. What do all these mean for employers?

5. How can you connect to and engage students on LinkedIn?

1. Students and recent graduates in Singapore

Students are the fastest growing and highly engaged user group on LinkedIn. According to a recent global

survey, 35% of students plan to use LinkedIn as a primary source for their job hunt. There are 35,000 students

and recent graduates in Singapore. Below is a breakdown of students among the top represented schools:

Top Bachelor’s degree No. of students/recent graduates

B. Science 3,278 B. Engineering 2,271 B. Business Management 1,598 B. Accountancy 227 B. Arts 1,427 B. LLaw 199 Others 4,700 Total Bachelor’s Degree 13,700

2. Why students are turning to LinkedIn

Students, the next generation of leaders and professionals are Quick, Connected and Engaged. They realize

the importance of maintaining networks and establishing an online professional identity to start them off their

career path. And they’re quick at it since they’re tech savvy. Furthermore, schools such as NTU and SMU have

career modules that encourage students to setup LinkedIn profiles. Below are three main ways students use

LinkedIn:

2.1 Students establish their professional profile on LinkedIn. They understand this is a platform that working

professionals and recruiters network on, and is the best place to build a career profile. And LinkedIn allows

them to showcase their skills, test scores, awards and honours, internship experiences, passion, language etc.

NTU

3,770

SMU

1,710

SP

1,170

TP

1,050

NP

1,036

NUS

3,766

2.2 Students use LinkedIn to connect with peers, professors, internship colleagues/managers, alumni

seniors and mentors to achieve career goals. They can research career path of their dream profession, career

paths of working professionals in their choice companies, and where alumni members who took similar

courses are working now.

2.3 Students use LinkedIn to do their homework around Jobs and Companies. They want to look for

companies that are progressive (sometimes that means being on social media), have a great culture and offer

great career path or learning opportunities. On LinkedIn, students can browse through career pages of

employers to find out more info about these, research on job openings and even find out who they’re

connected to within the company.

3. Combine LinkedIn and Facebook for the best campus recruitment strategy

LinkedIn and Facebook are the two most common social media platforms that students in Singapore use.

Students however use both platforms for very different purposes, hence it is crucial for employers to be on

both platforms. Below is a table comparing the differences:

LinkedIn Facebook

Profile Showcase Internships, Professional Interests and Skills, Test Scores, Courses, and Languages

Showcase Personal Interests (Favorite quotes, Movies, Books, TV shows)

Follow/Like Follow Companies, Thought Leaders, Influencers, Recruiters

Like Companies, Friends, and Family

Search People, Jobs, Companies, Groups People, Places, Things

Research Research Schools, Alumni, Career Paths & Top Employers for Students

Apps, Games, Pages

Mobile Newsfeed, Professional Networking, Job Search & Apply

Newsfeed, Social Networking, & Places

4. What do all these mean for employers?

These means that to attract and engage the new generation of students, we have to be on the platform –

LinkedIn - where they’re researching for their dream career opportunity. Using LinkedIn gives you an

advantage unique to LinkedIn:

4.1 Search and view professional details of students that matter to you. For example you can…

o Eg. you can find and contact accounting students who have interned at Big4

o View full professional details of students who are following your company

o Profile information is public unlike a CV, hence information are ‘policed’ by their

connections

4.2 Students are turning to LinkedIn to research on your company, your employees and relevant career paths.

This gives you a chance to create personalized content to influence them.

4.3 80% of LinkedIn members say they’d follow up to 6 companies only. Hence, you have a chance to appear

prominently on followers’ newsfeed and greater probability of capturing a greater mindshare.

4.4 Employer branding starts from your employees. Students are using LinkedIn to connect to your

employees, recruiters and and alumni members working for you.

4.5 LinkedIn jobs, company pages and various other features are accessible via mobile. Using LinkedIn for

campus recruitment means moving your recruitment efforts onto the mobile platform where students

increasingly spend time on.

5. How can you connect to and engage students on LinkedIn?

5.1 Build a career page personalized to students

The starting career step is crucial to Students, hence they look for specific information that general career

pages may not address. Build a student page to show them the career path of a management associate,

testimonials of recent graduates and videos/slideshows to showcase the exciting and vibrant culture that

appeal to the new generation of students. Below is an example of Google’s student career page.

Below shows the student page for Standard Chartered Bank. It features the International Graduate

Programme and nails the top question on every student’s mind – ensuring you make the right choice now.

5.2 Reach out to students

5.2.1 Targeted Status Updates

Engage students and recent graduates who’re following your company. You can now target your status

updates (eg. campus recruitment event photos, internship testimonials) at specific groups (eg. students).

Generate engagement, likes, comments and encourage students to spread the word.

5.2.2 Target ads at students

Social media is the best platform to reach out to students who’re tech savvy and connected online. Channel

your graduate recruitment ads on LinkedIn, you can target students in Singapore (and even by school). Engage

students with social ads or targeted inmails to get them to follow your company to gain a bigger mindshare

over time, and direct them to your careers page to find out more about starting a career with you.

5.2.3 Post your graduate recruitment campaign as a job post on LinkedIn

Post your graduate jobs on LinkedIn as this is one of the main portals graduates look for career opportunities.

And furthermore, it personalizes your job information to the viewer. Students can see how they’re connected

to the company (via alumni seniors or other connections), and they can click through easily to your career

page.

5.3 Encourage more students to sign up at your campus event with an innovative cool app

Check[in] is a mobile app that radically simplifies how recruiters collect and manage candidate information

at events. Engage students with a cool signup app, and never miss a lead again. The main benefits are:

- The sign-in interface is user-friendly and works on mobile devices that students often use

- Never miss leads who can’t go to your event/booth. Their profile is saved in Recruiter when they check in

- Manage and contact leads easily as all signed-up profiles are saved in a folder in LinkedIn Recruiter

- Track interested students live in your pipeline. While CVs get outdated, LinkedIn profiles are updated live.