When it comes to campus recruitment, CACEE says that Social Recruiting is taking over

Ironically, I first heard about this press release via Twitter – ‘Social Recruiting’ Jumps by 11 Percent as Cost-Conscious Employers Pursue Top Graduates Online

Here’s what it says:

“[students] will also need to be ready to engage with employers on-line, as cost-conscious recruiters turn to peer networks to reach hyper-connected graduates. “Canadian recruiters will visit fewer campuses this year, as they increasingly turn to popular social media websites, like Linked In, Facebook and You Tube to find their hires.” says CACEE Executive Director, Paul D. Smith, “Surprisingly, it’s the professional recruiters who are changing how they reach out to graduates – not the other way around.”

The release further points out that 34% of employers turned to social media to recruit students in 2009/2010.

A few questions that come to mind for me: For one, what kind of employers are represented in this survey? While we don’t formally poll employers, the team at TalentEgg engages with hundreds of employers every week. While there are surely many employers leveraging social media, a vast majority favour the tried and true methods of on-campus relationships (with career centres, department heads, etc).

Secondly, what does ‘social media’ mean? Is it Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? If yes, and in the case that employers like Mobilicity (quoted in the article) are using these tools exclusive of other means, then they are certainly missing Canada’s top young talent.

I speak and interact with current students all the time, and the team at TalentEgg is actively engaged with Gen-Yers every day through our website. We know a thing or two about top young talent. And how does that talent find their jobs?

Through trusted resources. Referrals from friends, referrals from trusted media (like google).

We’ve been running a poll on the TalentEgg.ca homepage for the past month asking our audience how they heard about TalentEgg. 30% come from google,30% from referrals from trusted influencers (parents, teachers, etc), and 15% from career centres. All of these referrers are contextually aligned – and this is why employers that use TalentEgg have so much success.

If you ask me, instead of focussing on interrupting students through out-of-context advertising and placement on social media networks designed for SOCIALIZING, and which are not actively used yet by students, employers should focus on being visible and accessible where it really counts – among key influencers and trusted media.