1. LEVERAGING LINKEDIN FOR GRADUATE
RECRUITMENT IN SINGAPORE
EMBRACING PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA TO ATTRACT STUDENTS
OCT 2013
Content
1. Students and Recent Graduates in Singapore
2. Why Students are turning to LinkedIn
3. Combine LinkedIn and Facebook for the best campus recruitment strategy
4. What do all these mean for employers?
5. How can you connect to and engage students on LinkedIn?

2. 1. Students and recent graduates in Singapore
Students are the fastest growing and highly engaged user group on LinkedIn. According to a recent global
survey, 35% of students plan to use LinkedIn as a primary source for their job hunt. There are 35,000 students
and recent graduates in Singapore. Below is a breakdown of students among the top represented schools:
NTU
3,770
NP
1,036
SP
1,170
Top Bachelor’s degree
B. Science
B. Engineering
B. Business Management
B. Accountancy
B. Arts
B. LLaw
Others
Total Bachelor’s Degree
NUS
3,766
SMU
1,710
TP
1,050
No. of students/recent graduates
3,278
2,271
1,598
227
1,427
199
4,700
13,700
2. Why students are turning to LinkedIn
Students, the next generation of leaders and professionals are Quick, Connected and Engaged. They realize
the importance of maintaining networks and establishing an online professional identity to start them off their
career path. And they’re quick at it since they’re tech savvy. Furthermore, schools such as NTU and SMU have
career modules that encourage students to setup LinkedIn profiles. Below are three main ways students use
LinkedIn:
2.1 Students establish their professional profile on LinkedIn. They understand this is a platform that working
professionals and recruiters network on, and is the best place to build a career profile. And LinkedIn allows
them to showcase their skills, test scores, awards and honours, internship experiences, passion, language etc.

3. 2.2 Students use LinkedIn to connect with peers, professors, internship colleagues/managers, alumni
seniors and mentors to achieve career goals. They can research career path of their dream profession, career
paths of working professionals in their choice companies, and where alumni members who took similar
courses are working now.

4. 2.3 Students use LinkedIn to do their homework around Jobs and Companies. They want to look for
companies that are progressive (sometimes that means being on social media), have a great culture and offer
great career path or learning opportunities. On LinkedIn, students can browse through career pages of
employers to find out more info about these, research on job openings and even find out who they’re
connected to within the company.
3. Combine LinkedIn and Facebook for the best campus recruitment strategy
LinkedIn and Facebook are the two most common social media platforms that students in Singapore use.
Students however use both platforms for very different purposes, hence it is crucial for employers to be on
both platforms. Below is a table comparing the differences:
Profile
Follow/Like
Search
Research
Mobile
LinkedIn
Showcase Internships, Professional
Interests and Skills, Test Scores, Courses,
and Languages
Follow Companies, Thought Leaders,
Influencers, Recruiters
People, Jobs, Companies, Groups
Research Schools, Alumni, Career Paths &
Top Employers for Students
Newsfeed, Professional Networking, Job
Search & Apply
Facebook
Showcase Personal Interests (Favorite quotes,
Movies, Books, TV shows)
Like Companies, Friends, and Family
People, Places, Things
Apps, Games, Pages
Newsfeed, Social Networking, & Places

5. 4. What do all these mean for employers?
These means that to attract and engage the new generation of students, we have to be on the platform –
LinkedIn - where they’re researching for their dream career opportunity. Using LinkedIn gives you an
advantage unique to LinkedIn:
4.1 Search and view professional details of students that matter to you. For example you can…
o Eg. you can find and contact accounting students who have interned at Big4
o View full professional details of students who are following your company
o Profile information is public unlike a CV, hence information are ‘policed’ by their
connections
4.2 Students are turning to LinkedIn to research on your company, your employees and relevant career paths.
This gives you a chance to create personalized content to influence them.
4.3 80% of LinkedIn members say they’d follow up to 6 companies only. Hence, you have a chance to appear
prominently on followers’ newsfeed and greater probability of capturing a greater mindshare.
4.4 Employer branding starts from your employees. Students are using LinkedIn to connect to your
employees, recruiters and and alumni members working for you.
4.5 LinkedIn jobs, company pages and various other features are accessible via mobile. Using LinkedIn for
campus recruitment means moving your recruitment efforts onto the mobile platform where students
increasingly spend time on.

6. 5. How can you connect to and engage students on LinkedIn?
5.1 Build a career page personalized to students
The starting career step is crucial to Students, hence they look for specific information that general career
pages may not address. Build a student page to show them the career path of a management associate,
testimonials of recent graduates and videos/slideshows to showcase the exciting and vibrant culture that
appeal to the new generation of students. Below is an example of Google’s student career page.

7. Below shows the student page for Standard Chartered Bank. It features the International Graduate
Programme and nails the top question on every student’s mind – ensuring you make the right choice now.

8. 5.2 Reach out to students
5.2.1 Targeted Status Updates
Engage students and recent graduates who’re following your company. You can now target your status
updates (eg. campus recruitment event photos, internship testimonials) at specific groups (eg. students).
Generate engagement, likes, comments and encourage students to spread the word.
5.2.2 Target ads at students
Social media is the best platform to reach out to students who’re tech savvy and connected online. Channel
your graduate recruitment ads on LinkedIn, you can target students in Singapore (and even by school). Engage
students with social ads or targeted inmails to get them to follow your company to gain a bigger mindshare
over time, and direct them to your careers page to find out more about starting a career with you.

9. 5.2.3 Post your graduate recruitment campaign as a job post on LinkedIn
Post your graduate jobs on LinkedIn as this is one of the main portals graduates look for career opportunities.
And furthermore, it personalizes your job information to the viewer. Students can see how they’re connected
to the company (via alumni seniors or other connections), and they can click through easily to your career
page.
5.3 Encourage more students to sign up at your campus event with an innovative cool app
Check[in] is a mobile app that radically simplifies how recruiters collect and manage candidate information
at events. Engage students with a cool signup app, and never miss a lead again. The main benefits are:
-
The sign-in interface is user-friendly and works on mobile devices that students often use
Never miss leads who can’t go to your event/booth. Their profile is saved in Recruiter when they check in
Manage and contact leads easily as all signed-up profiles are saved in a folder in LinkedIn Recruiter
Track interested students live in your pipeline. While CVs get outdated, LinkedIn profiles are updated live.