What graduate recruiters are looking for - the graduate's perspective.

Abstract

This study explores the differences that may exist between the literature on perspectives of graduate recruiters and the opinions of the graduates themselves. The research looked at the opinions of graduates after attending university on the process of recruitment that they have personally experienced. There was an investigation into what the graduates perceive to be their most important aspect to depict within the application forms at the beginning of the recruitment process. Graduate participants were interviewed in a semi-formal manner to allow expansion of the participants' answers fully. Seven participants were interviewed through the research, all who had graduated within the last eight years over a wide selection of disciplines. Throughout this study, it has been seen that in some respects the literature is similar to the responses of the graduates, however in the respect of e-recruitment and graduate attributes, there are some inconsistencies within this area. Furthermore, the decisions graduates make when deciding which organisations to seek employment with shows that, in the majority of the responses from the participants of this research, there was no reasoning behind the decision other than the need for employment. The emergent conclusions have shown that there are interesting areas within this field of study regarding the consistencies between the literature that is available and the responses of the participants. It would seem that Universities have to take responsibility by providing direction and education for graduates. This would in turn mean a coalition between graduate recruiters and universities in developing strategies to do so.