Spotlight Online for Employment and Recruiting Professionals, June 9, 2010

Spotlight Online for Career Services Professionals, June 9, 2010

Although 91.3 percent of the seniors responding to NACE’s 2010 Student Survey have a profile on a social networking site and 36.9 percent say they use their profile as part of their job search, less than 6 percent have ever been contacted by an employer through that profile. 

Among the more than 13,000 seniors taking part in the survey, two-thirds expect employers to view their social networking profiles (up from 57 percent in 2009), but just under 30 percent think employers should do so (up just a few percentage points from 2009). Hence, although Class of 2010 graduates are more aware that employers might look at their profiles, their attitude regarding that behavior mirrors that of their 2009 counterparts. 

While 27.4 percent of respondents said they use social media to network with friends, alumni, and colleagues about their job search, the survey also found that students aren’t leveraging social networks much beyond that. Just under 19 percent said they used social networks to discuss job openings with friends, and 15 percent reported using it to research employers. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) said they don’t use social media at all in their job search. 

Students using social networking as a job-search resource preferred Facebook (61.5. percent) over MySpace (33.9 percent), LinkedIn (0.9 percent), and Twitter (3.6 percent). 

NACE’s 2010 Student Survey was conducted February 9, 2010, through April 30, 2010. More than 31,470 students representing more than 400 colleges and universities nationwide took part; more than 13,000 of those were graduating seniors. A final report on the study’s finding will be available later this year.