OPEN

Online Presence, Employability, NetworkZachary Hickman, University of Aberdeen

OPEN is a resource that aims to ensure tomorrow’s graduates are keeping up to date with ‘digital employability’ methods. Through OPEN’s toolkit, students will become practitioners of online networking, marketing and effective job searching, whilst understanding employer’s online recruitment methods, and social media legal issues.

The changing landscape

• Increasing requests for careers adviser input to novel application processes

• A move away from ‘traditional’ CVs• Requests for input to developing personal

branding and self promotion via social media• Recruiters vetting of applicants• Researching companies• Understanding how employers use social media in

recruitment

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4478

Rationale of OPEN• Students are all internet and social media users, but not necessarily

effective users of social media for professional purposes • Professional use is not fully appreciated, and universities also need

to understand and utilise• Recruiters increasingly use social media for recruitment, the

landscape is changing• Not just students but academics and careers services need to adapt

and change• This project is developed on the basis of being an adaptable toolkit

used by careers staff, academics or self-taught• Developed as a support mechanism, not a set of rules

Project development

• A generic toolkit/package that is adaptable and transferable across requirements and subject areas

• Need to ensure that material can be adapted to lectures, seminars, workshops.

• Need to ensure it is relevant, accessible, and is engaging• Key: Engage students, practitioners, academics and recruiters in the

development of this package via focus groups, direct input, events and pilot runs, this directs content and need.

Outcomes

• Raise professional profile and reputation• Enhance employment opportunities• Encourage ingenuity • Network with potential recruiters and organisations• Understand the digital recruitment landscape and prepare for it• An understanding of how to use social media platforms• Professional use, avoiding negative or disastrous profiles• Privacy issues• How employers use social media• How to network effectively• Do’s and don’ts, and what to avoid • Case studies, examples of use (good and bad)

Content

• Introduction and rationale• Teaching notes• Case studies/stories• Relevant published material• Personal branding• Social media platforms• Recruitment strategies

• Employer insights• Legal and privacy• Protecting yourself• Do’s & Don'ts/hints & tips• Signposting• Networking

Content: Teaching notes

• Teaching notes for each section, informing how to adapt each to use for taught session, workshop, seminar etc. Details questions to be asked, tasks to be achieved.

• Suggestions for use and how to adapt for specific subject areas• View teaching notes as an intro to how to use, and the framework

of that section• Highlights where you would ideally bring in external speakers

Content: Common Sense/Do’s and Don’ts, and why

• Because recruiters are looking at your profile• Because you will be judged on your profile• Keep it professional, clean, and up to date• This topic forms a hub for all others:

– Privacy– Online presence– Awareness

Content: Platforms

• Facebook• Twitter• LinkedIn• Blogs• Infographics• Google+• Pinterest• About.me• Vizify

Content: Online Presence

Content: Recruitment strategies and how recruiters are using social media

• Digital/visual/infographic/video CVs• Associated interview techniques• Vetting of applicants• Advertising, networking, and using

LinkedIn as assessment

Project use

Feedback and the future• Students ask for LinkedIn sessions, privacy issue information, and

electronic/novel CV information• Recruiters suggest privacy, common sense, and professional profiles• Focus groups to run, trialling within taught sessions, and adapting

to subject areas• Staff – need to be trained and able to run themselves• Still have material to insert and that is being developed• On behalf of the sector: upload to online repository with access for

relevant end-users. Use as required and adapt for own use, use as template or framework, but also upload material to also be freely available for others.

Toolkit use

Introduction: Teaching notes

Facebook (examples of use, case studies, how to use effectively)

Twitter (examples of use, case studies, how to use effectively)

Interactive LinkedIn session

Employer case studies

Relevant references and online resources Workshop: understanding online profile

Challenges

• Getting students to engage• Getting academics to engage• Lack of perceived confidence and ability to deliver • Lack of availability of external speakers• Therefore used pointers, signposting where possible, not

ideal…• Employers not using effectively, properly

Conclusion

• Social media can be a real benefit if used properly• Universities and careers services need to be engaged

and use this within taught sessions, and offered as sessions

• Must be aware of do’s and don’ts, etiquette and privacy

• At UoA, a variety of uses• OPEN simply represents another resource

Employer Case Study• We have found individuals we need with very specific skills via social media. For example, 3D builders were

recruited through the virtual world / social networking site Second Life. Seeing who was actively building already within the social platform gave us a far better and faster picture of their ability than if we had assessed their skills via a traditional recruitment process. Recruitment through Second Life also helps us to find individuals with other specialised skills sets such as machinima.

• We have also recruited individuals via twitter, e.g. connecting with individuals with shared connections to work as part of our IT team. Again, seeing what individuals are actually doing and making online is a great opportunity for us to assess their abilities before we offer them an interview for a technical role.

• We also plan to use social media in the future to recruit English teachers. For example, we own an active Linkedin group called 'English language in the aviation industry‘., where we have over 200 members so far, many of whom are freelance Aviation English teachers. When we need to recruit more Aviation English teachers in the future it is likely that we will advertise the role in the group.

• Recruitment through non-traditional media allows us to connect directly with individuals with the right expertise. The benefit of using Linkedin is being able to see individual's CVs immediately, so we can contact them directly about a job if their skills are relevant. Therefore I would recommend that students add the key points of their CV to their Linkedin profiles, particularly skills relevant to the industry they would like to work in.