Curtin Careers Newsletter Blog

Posted by David Jenkins

GradConnection

Technology - shaping the way students research careers, but how is it connecting careers officers with students?

It may be obvious but graduates and students rely on today’s technology to research their potential career outcomes. Technology advances that are now relied on by students in their career search that didn’t exist even a few years ago are listed below. What was once a pipedream is now the expectation of today’s students.

Search engines – Imagine taking away your ability to do a quick Google search on a potential employer. The level of transparency Google offers is now part of every application.

Social media – Even 5 years ago unless you knew someone on the inside getting a third party perspective on an employer was near impossible. Now with the inclusion of social media in the job hunting process all organisations need to monitor and address any issues to avoid a bad name in the market.

Mobile web browsing – Sometimes the ability to do a Google search just isn’t enough, you need to do it now before you get back to your desktop and have forgotten what you wanted to search. Now that every phone’s got a built in web browser you can find out information in an instant.

4G mobile network – Mobile web browsing was once expensive and slow. Now with 4G it can have speeds faster than a desktop connection and for a fraction of the price.

Today’s graduates are connected everywhere.

All of the above is probably stating the obvious to the average careers officer or advisor, you talk to students everyday so will be well aware of their reliance on technology. However the question that I want to ask you is; how do you as a careers officer go outside of the channels within your University to reach your own students and graduates?

While you’re asking yourself this question think about the technological advances mentioned above and how your students use each. Now put yourself in your student’s shoes and consider their experience when they use all of the above technologies and ask yourself how big a role you and your careers centre play in that experience for each.

What we’ve learnt at GradConnection is how to use the above technologies to make sure that we play a part in the career search when students do use the latest iPhone or Samsung when searching careers. In fact we’re pretty good at this an average over 100,000 students using our online services every month.

One problem that we do have is that in the past the site has been a Student to Employer or Student to Student communication tool. We’ve not had a great platform for careers services who would be able to answer questions that students and employers can not.

That’s why we’re developing an account on the site for Careers Services. This account will allow you and your team to manage your students who are using our site!

You will be able to:

  • See all your students’ posts in our discussion forums
  • See who from your university has applied to which employer
  • Invite students to your careers centre
  • See data on which employers your students are applying to that will give you great info to take to employers to be more involved with your campus.

Currently the Institution Account is being built and we’re hoping to release it shortly. If you would like more information please sign up for an account here and we’ll let you know when you can use the service: http://www.gradconnection.com.au/universities/

Once you have an account you can comment on this article on our blog, let us know what you think here: http://www.gradconnection.com.au/blog/

Dave Jenkins
Director @ GradConnection
[email protected]


Search

Enter an employer or university you want to find in our search bar.