Graduate Students' information-seeking behaviour: Job hunting in the UK

A study submitted in partial fulfilment

of the requirements for the degree of

Msc Information Management

at

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

by

Huang Xin

September 2016

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Abstract

The study aims to obtain insight into how university students find, select, and use job hunting information and

channels. It investigates various information searching channels, such as internet, job center, social network

and newspapers. Moreover, it identifies different motivational factors could influence students job hunting

behavior. This research focus on job hunting behaviour of graduate students in the University of Sheffield. In

addition, this study designed to use quantitative research method, and the questionnaire was used to collect a

sample of 125 participants in the University of Sheffield. The questionnaire included items to measure the

satisfaction of job hunting channel choosing and influential factors of job hunting behavior. The findings

highlighted the most attract searching method is Internet among the UK students. Using online search

channels could gain quantity employment information, however, security risk should be considered. Job

prospect is the most significant factor influence students job searching. The limitation is the sample size was

limited in the University of Sheffield, only received125 respondents, it should consider other cities in the UK.

The Implications is companies would better to consider more investment on these search channels rather than

others. In addition, company would better to provide more detailed information of job prospect and offer a

comfortable working environment for the applicants.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 6

1.1 Research background and justification ........................................................................................................ 6

1.2 Research Aim .......................................................................................................................................... 7

1.3 Research Questions and Objectives............................................................................................................. 7

1.4 Structure of the Dissertation....................................................................................................................... 7

Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 8

2.1 Information need and information seeking behaviour .................................................................................... 8

2.2 Information channels may influence students’ job seeking behaviour .............................................................. 9

2.2.1 Online search channels ....................................................................................................................... 9

2.2.2 Social network ................................................................................................................................. 11

2.2.3 Traditional search channels ............................................................................................................... 12

2.3 Different motivations influence job seekers behaviour ................................................................................ 12

2.3.1 Job prospect .................................................................................................................................... 13

2.3.2 Major-related and Major mismatch ..................................................................................................... 13

2.3.3 Location .......................................................................................................................................... 14

2.4 Difficulties in job hunting ....................................................................................................................... 14

2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 14

Chapter 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 15

3.1 Research Philosophy ............................................................................................................................... 15

3.2 Research design ..................................................................................................................................... 16

3.2.1 Sampling ......................................................................................................................................... 16

3.2.2 Instruments ...................................................................................................................................... 16

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3.3.3 Data Collection ................................................................................................................................ 18

3.3.4 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 18

3.3 Limitations ............................................................................................................................................ 19

3.4 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................................................. 19

Chapter 4 Finding ......................................................................................................................................... 19

4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 19

4.2 Job-hunting search method ...................................................................................................................... 21

4.3 Factors may influence online employment search ....................................................................................... 25

4.4 Motivation factors attract students job seeking behaviour ............................................................................ 28

4.5 Satisfaction level of different search channels ............................................................................................ 31

4.6 Potential problems towards job-seeking behaviour ..................................................................................... 32

Chapter 5 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 33

5.1 RQ1: What type of job-hunting channel most attract students to use? Why? .................................................. 33

5.2 RQ2: What factors influence students seeking jobs on the internet? .............................................................. 34

5.3 RQ3: What factors are the first consideration towards students job-hunting seeking behavior? Why? ............... 35

5.4 RQ4: How satisfied are these respondents with the information obtained from these information search

channels? .................................................................................................................................................... 36

5.5 RQ5: What issues do these information channels face while seeking employment information? ....................... 37

Chapter6 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 37

6.1 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 38

6.2 Implications and contributions ................................................................................................................. 39

6.3 Limitation and further research ................................................................................................................ 39

References ..................................................................................................................................................... 40

Appendix A Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................... 46

Appendix B Recommendations in job-hunting (External) ..................................................................................... 50

Appendix C Recommendations in job-hunting (Internal) ..................................................................................... 51

Appendix D Approved letter ............................................................................................................................. 52

Appendix E Access to Dissertation ................................................................................................................... 53

Appendix F Confirmation of Address after Completion Form........................................................................ 55

Appendix G Information Sheet ...................................................................................................................... 57

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background and Justification

With the highly development of higher educational industry in the United Kingdom, a large quantity of quality

universities are in this country. On the one hand, the number of graduate students has increased rapidly over

the last decade because of the reason (UKSICA ,2016).On the other hand, these top universities are attracting

not only domestic students but also EU or non-EU international students every year. According to the research

of UKSICA (2016), there are increasing number of international students who pursue a better education in the

UK. From 2014 to 2015, the full time higher education qualification international (EU students and non-EU)

gainer have achieved more than 6000 people in the UK. This phenomenon indicates that the composition of

UK higher education students might be various and have more diversity and complexity. The large group of

students and composition diversity directly resulted in large quantity of job hunting needs for graduating

students. At the same time, the job position requirement and job hunting channels is also changed by these

reasons.

Job-hunting has become a significant stressor for college students, a large number of college students will

prepare their careers at the beginning of college(Schwarzer & Taubert, 2002). Therefore, the various type of

university students in the UK intensified the severity of the job hunting competition (Peacock, 2012). Based

on the phenomenon, it is necessary for employer and university to pay more attention to these groups’ needs

with job hunting and to further understanding these behavior among UK university students. Information

seeking behavior is based on information needs. Wilson(1999) defines information seeking behavior: Those

activities a person may engage in when identifying his or her needs for information, searching for such

information in any way, and using or transferring that information (p.249). According to Case (2007),

information need and information seeking behavior are interrelated, it will change according to different

context and different specific problems.

In addition, job hunting is one of sub type of information searching behavior, it is a popular research topic in

this area. Although previous studies has investigated college students on the job seeking behavior

(Yates,1987; Kuilik and Rowland, 1989; Schmit, et al. 1993; Kanfer, Wanberg and Kantrowitz, 2001), these

studies are out-off date. Moreover, some articles focus on only job search intensity (Barber, Daly,

Giannantonio, & Phillips, 1994; Kopelman, Rovenpor, & Millsap, 1992), these researches investigated the

quantity people's job search behavior. Also previous stuies foucs on job satisfaction and the positions (Stumpf

and Hartman, 1984), effective job search behavior and job offers ((Saks and Ashforth, 2000). Less studies

mentioned about influential factors of job hunting behaviour. Although above articles have investigated

information channels could affect individuals job hunting behavior, these articles are not only focus on the UK

students, and some of above studies are outdated. Some new studies should be updated in this area.

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With this project it is hoped that these findings will not only help students understand their needs of job

hunting and find the relationship between employment search channels and job hunting behavior, identify

motivational factors influence students job hunting behavior, but also provide useful information to employers

to hire the best match employee. Understanding and investigating difference information sources, channels

and motivations will help researchers to find out the most significant factors may affect graduate students’

job-hunting behaviour in the UK.

1.2 Research Aim

This research aim is to obtain insight into how university students find, select, and use job hunting

information and channels. It investigates various information searching channels, such as internet, job center,

newspapers, magazines and social network. Moreover, it identifies different motivational factors could

influence students job hunting behavior. This research focus on job hunting behavior of graduate students in

the University of Sheffield and the factors may affect their behaviors.

1.3 Research Questions and Objectives

RQ1: What type of job-hunting channel most attract students to use? Why?

To find the favourite job hunting channel of students and the reason why they choose.

RQ2: What factors influence students seeking jobs on the internet?

To investigate factors could affect students online job-hunting.

RQ3: What factors are the first consideration towards students job-hunting

seeking behaviour? Why?

To find the most attract motivation towards job-hunting.

RQ4: How satisfied are these respondents with the information obtained from these information search

channels?

To compare these respond satisfactions by using different search channels

RQ5: What issues do these information channels face while seeking information?

To investigate potential issues on using different information channels.

1.4 Structure of the Dissertation

The dissertation is structured as follows:

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Chapter 1 introduces the introduction of the dissertation, highlighting on the background of this research;

providing a general overview of the research topic, the information seeking behaviour which focus on job

hunting; explaining the importance of conducting the research; and interpreting the research aims, research

questions and research objectives.

Chapter 2 is an extensive critical literature review on the concepts of information search channels and factors

which could influence job hunting behaviour. The literature review will emphasise on the information search

channels and motivational factors which effect job hunting behaviour.

Chapter 3 focuses on the research methodology. The design, framework and method of the methodology are

explained extensively together with the research participants, data collection and data analysis. Possible

limitations and ethic considerations are also mentioned.

Chapter 4 provides details on results and findings of the research by analysing the information from the

questionnaires. The data are calculated and reported in this chapter and then leads to the conclusion of the

research.

Chapter 5 discusses the results of the survey and use the findings to deeply answer the five research questions,

Chapter 6 represents the conclusions. Implications and contributions are also need to be address. Discussed

the limitations refers to questionnaire design include in the methodology and provided some recommendations

for further research.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

This study aims to research the students’ reaction towards job hunting behaviour and information channels,

and investigate the effect of different motivational factors with students job-hunting. There are some factors

may affect their information seeking behaviour. Previous articles are reviewed to highlight the factors that

may influence students’ seeking job behaviour. Conclusions will be drawn at the end of the literature review,

and show how the previous literature link to this study.

2.1 Information need and information seeking behaviour

According to Wilson (1981), information need refers to a secondary order need, which link to satisfy the

fundamental need, such as sustenance need. He defines information seeking behaviour: Those activities a

person may engage in when identifying his or her needs for information, searching for such information in any

way, and using or transferring that information (Wilson, 1999, p.249). In other words, information seeking

behaviour is a purpose search in order to satisfy some goals. Case (2007) agrees with these definitions.

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Moreover, Case (2007) claims that information need and information seeking behaviour are interrelated, they

should be defined in the different context towards specific problems.

Kanfer, Wanberg and Kantrowitz (2001) state job seeking is a significant aspect of individual’s work lives, it

determines how job seekers could get the potential job. Job-seeking identifies the potential jobs which are

available, has an important influence on whether the student becomes employed, and influences the quality of

that employment. It is quite significant for students to identify various job-hunting information. Because a

successful employed is due to sufficient employment information rather than a variety of relevant

qualifications (Bunch, 1982).

2.2 Information channels may influence students’ job seeking behaviour

According to Granovetter (1995), job search methods could be defined as two broad categories: informal

methods (search information with the help of acquaintances, family, relatives and friends), formal methods

(seeking information from employment agency or advert) and direct applications (job-seeker goes or writes

directly to a firm). Different information channels could reflect varied responses towards students’ job seeking

behaviour. Typically, there are two types of job search channels, new channel such as online search channels

(website, social media) ; and traditional channels (employment agency, paper-based media or university job

centre) (Zeng & Cui, 2008).

2.2.1 Online search channels

Internet as a significant resource is quite popular in the young generation towards job hunting. According to

Jansen and Pooch (2001), internet is the most popular searching channel for job seekers to select relevant

information, over 52 million Americans seeking job information by website, and it is suggesting 54 percent

are youth from age 18 to 29. There are many positive effect of online job hunting, such as cost effective

(money, time, resources), quantity employment information, user friendly and so on.

Save cost.

Firstly, compared to traditional job search channels, using website may help individuals save cost (Gallagher

& Sias, 2009). For example, when users seeking employment information online, they only need internet and

an available online tool, such as laptop, mobile phone. Individuals may seek information everywhere, not have

to go to companies or employment agencies, saving time and money (Feldman & Klaas, 2002). Gallagher and

Sias (2009) agree with this view. They also claim that individuals might avoid possible cost when seeking

information, which may change their original behaviours.

Quantity employment information.

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Website could provide a boarder scope for users to seek jobs. Web-based channels will be more useful when

seeking job nationwide or globally (Laabs,1998). Capelli (2001) reports that approximately 90% large

American companies use online recruiting. And Feldman and Klaas (2002) suggest that over 75 percent HR

employers use website to check online job-hunting applications. It shows that quantity employment

information could attract individuals to use website to seek jobs. For example, Bruce (2004) claims that

website could post job-hunting information longer and broader than paper-based channels (newspaper,

magazine, journals) with the same function, such as job advertisement, which may provide internet users a

more quantity relevant job-hunting information. Both active and passive job seeks may choose internet to

search employment information (Bruce,2004). In addition, job seekers preferred to visit an online site that

hosted a larger number of postings, so companies could post any employment needs on the job boards (such

as prospective hires, overtime pay) for current and future employees.

User-friendly.

Furthermore, user friendly is an important factor attract individuals to use online job-hunting. It is easy for

Individuals gain and access employment information on the internet (Feldman & Klaas, 2002). However, they

argue that using website request individuals have the ability in this respect to use internet fluency and select

relevant websites. In order to maximize the number of job seekers to find and use these job-hunting websites,

it is necessary for organizations to do a better specific design of their websites and attract job applicants to

search them (Hargittai and Litt, 2013). Job seekers could apply to locate detailed employment information and

positions on these websites.

Internet is not a perfect search method for job-hunting. There are some drawbacks of individuals seeking job

information online.

Low quality information.

Online job hunting could be inefficient (Feldman & Klaas, 2002). Martyn (2003) argues that seeking

employment information on the internet could receive a large number of poor quality information, individuals

have to identify mass of irrelevant employment information, such as too general and outdated information. It

requires job seekers have good discrimination ability to analyse the quantity employment information, and

find suitable occupation information for themselves.

Security issues.

When job seekers search information on the Internet, sometimes they need to fill personal information in the

relevant websites. This personal information may be disclosed by informal job boards, that could cause

unnecessary losses for job seekers. In addition, Hargittai and Litt (2013) claims that more and more employers

may use social media to search and check the potential employees, some inappropriate personal information

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which post on the internet may lead to fail of employment. So job seekers need learn to utilize and manage

these social media tools towards job-hunting.

All above authors agree that Internet is most significant job-hunting channel in most counties. Compared to

traditional job-hunting channel's, Internet has a lot of beneficial, cost effective, boarder range, user friendly,

respectively. However, Feldman and Klaas (2002) and Martyn (2003) study argue that website has drawbacks,

traditional job-hunting channels cannot be instead.

2.2.2 Social network

Although web-based job search is a major trend in the recent two decades, employment agency, traditional

paper-based and social network channels still play important roles in the individual's job-hunting. Previous

studies (Putnam, 2000; Aldridge et al., 2002; Halpern, 2005, Cingano and Rosolia, 2008; Green et al. 2011)

have researched social network plays a significant role of job-hunting. Wanberg et al. (2000) define job-

hunting network is “individual actions directed towards contacting friends, acquaintances, and other people to

whom the job seeker has been referred for the main purpose of getting information, leads, or advice on getting

a job” (p.492). Green et al. (2011) agree with this view, they extend as individuals could ask their relatives,

acquaintances, friends to provide relevant employment information and gain some employment opportunities

in the social world. According to Cingano and Rosolia (2008), individual employment has significant

influences on unemployment individuals, and social network as an employment searching channel may

influence the successful of job-hunting, and sometimes it might overcome job seekers' ability shortage. They

state social network has important effects on personal and professional information sources. Zeng & Cui

(2008) agree with their views, and they suggest social network as a job search channel may be more effective

in the Asian employment market. However, this channel has limited influence to the job-hunting groups,

whose human capital is low (Zeng & Cui, 2008).

Moreover, compare with other job search channels, social network will seek positions faster and higher

quality (Simon and Warner, 1992; Mortensen and Vishwanath, 1994; Galenianos, 2010). However, the studies

of Bentolila et al. (2010) and Horvath (2014) argues social network could cause occupational mismatch.

Bentolila et al. (2010) suggust job seekers use social network to seek employment information which may not

match individual employment skills and the position may be not the optimal. Horvath (2014) agree with the

opinion of Bentolila et al. (2010), it states use of personal contacts could be associated with weakly worse job

matches. Furthermore, Green et al. (2011) argues that young job seekers who have less skills may be not

appropriate to use social network to seek a better job. Because low-skilled employment may be more likely to

be filled using quick and informal recruitment method, however, high-skilled jobs maybe more suitable for a

large number of formal job search channels. Previous studies (Cingano and Rosolia, 2008; Zeng & Cui ,2008;

Bentolila et al. ,2010; Horvath ,2010) agree with social network could help unemployment individuals to seek

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a job more faster. However, Green et al. (2011) argue that young adults or unemployment maybe not suit for

job-hunting social network. Bentolila et al. (2010) and Horvath (2014) believe that social network could cause

occupational mismatch.

2.2.3 Traditional search channels

Normally, traditional search channels includes job centers and paper-based search channels(newspaper,

magazine, journals) and other search channels ( advertisement on the radio or TV). Job center could refer to

employment agency and campus recruitment. The findings of Robst and VanGilderb (2016) study suggest that

73 percent of job-seekers may choose employment agencies to search job hunting information. However,

employment agency are lack of free service. Campus recruitment maybe be more appropriate for students with

less working experiences (Green et al., 2011). In addition, paper-based search channels is popular with

unemployed to search information. According to Webber and Zhu (2007), newspaper and magazines could

help students to seek their current job and they recommend this search channel to their friends. Zeng & Cui

(2008) agree with this view, they find that compare with employed, unemployed prefer to use paper-based

media rather than search employment information online. In addition, approximately 47 percent of new job-

seekers could search useful employment information towards newspaper and magazines (Robst and

VanGilderb, 2016). Their study shows that traditional search channels plays an important role in the

individual's job hunting life. These channels will not be instead by online searching. However, Webber and

Zhu (2007) study focus on the Chinese young adults in Sheffield job-hunting behavior, it may not represent

other ethnic groups' opinion. Other search channels such as advertisement on the ration or TV, direct

application to the firm are still useful for job seekers.

2.3 Different motivations influence job seekers behaviour

Many previous articles have shown that job-hunting motivation has a significant correlation with seeking job

behaviours (Wanberg et al., 2005; Zikic & Saks, 2009; Fort et al., 2015). When a student search for job

information, the first step is to inventory individual's priorities. In other words, job-seekers need understand

their employment needs and occupation goal. In addition, job seekers always search for a higher quality

position. Schwarzer & Taubert (2002) suggest that job-hunting has become a significant stressor for college

students, a large number of college students will prepare their careers at the beginning of college. However,

the majority of students may seek for employment information after they graduated.

According to VanderAa, Bloemer and Henseler (2012), job quality refers to the relationship of employee’s

expectation of the job and the actual job level quality. If the actual ability is better than expected, evaluations

of job quality are positive; On the contrary, it is negative. It is important for researchers to understand

different motivations responds to students’ job-hunting behavior. Filtvedt (2015) claims that dividing factors

affecting motivation and job-hunting behavior made more sense back then, and these motivation factors could

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be defined and interpreted in different ways. In this study, the author may define these motivational factor as

job prospects, college major, personal interest, education level, location feasible and so on for job-hunting.

2.3.1 Job prospect

Individuals tend to gain work values through their work, job prospect as a motivational factor attract people

seeking relevant jobs (Vos and Buyens, Schalk 2005). According to Robsta and VanGilderb (2016), job

availability may be the siginificant factor could determine students' job prospects. Job prospect could be

general seem as job salary, work situation, company development and other factors. Job prospect is a

subjective factor, it depends on individuals’ personal attitude and intention. Some previous study has

highlighted the job prospects could change individuals’ seeking behaviour in many ways (Zeng & Cui, 2008;

Zikic & Saks, 2009; Lee and Sabharwal, 2014; Fort et al., 2015).

In addition, according to Lee and Sabharwal (2014), the salary levels have education–job match have a

significant and positive effect of job satisfaction. For example, if the expected salary has lower than the actual

salary that employees earned, they may have less satisfaction of the position and consider to seek for a new

job in the future. However, Fort et al. (2015) study focus on the French sample it may have different results if

the study builds in the UK. And the study of Lee and Sabharwal (2014) pay more attention to compare

differences between profit positions and non-profit positions towards students' job-hunting.

2.3.2 Major-related and Major mismatch

Major is another motivation factor that may influence students’ job-hunting behaviour. Robst (2007) suggests

that in the past two decades, 25 percent of workers’ job is not related to their college major. In his findings,

major mismatch will be within an efficient labour market, and individuals may change their major interest

overtime. Due to this situation, students job-hunting behaviour could respond in various ways. For example,

an information school student could seek job in retailing companies or commercial bank, not only focus IT

field. By using different search channels, students could gain a large scale employment information. However,

the study of Robst (2007) focus on gender differences in reasons of job mismatch. For the whole job-seeker

group, the result may be different. However, the study of Robst (2007) finds in some certain occupational

field, there is a large demand for graduates, such as health professions, computer science, engineering, and

engineering-related technologies. It is important for job seekers to have professional skills, that may determine

the non-replacement of employment. Moreover, a job-seeker’s qualities is perhaps the most important factor

in determining one’s suitability for a particular job. However, in some employment fields, there are no

specific professional skills requirements, these companies may pay more attention to the learning skills and

adaptability in the work. According to Robst and VanGilderb (2016), economics graduate students may prefer

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to accept a unrelated-major position in a short period, due to a less cost of job searching. These major

mismatch positions could offer employees a better treatment, such as higher salary.

2.3.3 Location

Previous studies has done a little about how location influences on job hunting. Flexible work place has

become more and more popular of job seekers, so many job seekers may not address the location when whey

job hunting. The study of Vejlin (2013) suggests workers might get a better job wage when they work far

away from the resident location. However, Vejlin (2013) investigates the workers in job-to-job transition, the

result may not explain how location influence graduate students' job hunting.

2.4 Difficulties in job hunting

Job-hunting is a complexity information seeking behaviour, it depends on personal tendencies, motivations,

information channels and social context (Yamkovenko & Hatala, 2014). Job hunting is an important aspect

throughout individual’s careers. According to Caska (1998), it is necessary for students to identify how to

search employment information efficiency. Various search methods could meet different job seekers' needs, it

is important for job seeker to choose an appropriate search channel to gain the quality employment

information, sometimes job seekers may choose more than one search channel to seek information. There are

lots of potential difficulties for online job hunting behaviour.

According to Feldman and Klaas (2002), it is difficult for job seekers to follow the online applications. And

they also find that lack of detailed and relevant job information of job description is the weakness of websites.

In addition, job search attitude has a great influence on whether job seekers could seek employment

successfully. Active job-seekers will pay more effort to search employment information, and could be more

easier to get a quality job (Van Hooft et al., 2006). Unemployed with the low-expectation of work may spend

less money and time to seek jobs, and if they face some difficulties with job hunting, they may give up with

job hunting (Van Hooft et al., 2006).

2.5 Conclusion

As can be seen from the above review, previous studies have identified website, job prospects, personal

interest and major are main factors may influence students’ job-hunting behavior. Although some authors

disagree with some research findings, all above authors agree that internet is the most important search

channel which could attract students to search employment information. In addition, motivations could

influence students job-hunting behavior, job prospect is the most significant motivational factor and major

could attract students search jobs in relevant field, however, major could not determine students’ seeking

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behavior, mismatch major employments has increased. In addition, compared to the passive job seekers,

active job seekers has a higher success rate of positions.

However, some previous research was conducted over ten years, since then, the role and data of these job

hunting channels has changed to some extent (Laabs,1998; Capelli, 2001; Feldman & Klaas, 2002; Martey

2003). New research need to be done in this research field. In addition, some previous articles have mentioned

the difficulties of online search channel, but a few studies mentioned the difficulties of use other search

channels. However, other search channels are still used by students nowadays. Based on this point of view, it

should be meaningful to further research in this area. Furthermore, the participants from above studies did not

all selected in the UK, their results cannot explain the UK students job-hunting behaviour. This study will

focus students’ job-hunting behaviour in the UK. All the sample will select in the University of Sheffield.

Chapter 3 Methodology

In this chapter, it will discusses the methodology used in conducting this research. The research will make use

of a deductive approach and the overall methodology used is a quantitative research method with the use of

questionnaire.

3.1 Research Philosophy

According to Gill and Johnson (2010), the research prefers to collect data as an observable reality and refers to

search regular and causal relationships to represent generalizations will be adopting by positivism philosophy.

There is a significant component of positivism is the research is untaken. This study aims to investigate

students’ reaction towards job hunting behavior and information channels, and research the effect of

motivational factors for students job-hunting. This research is suitable for positivism philosophy, and the

result will represent as a general view.

Moreover, it is quite significant for researchers to choose an appropriate approach before conducting the

research in order to achieve research aim and answer the research questions. Deductive approach means from

the general to the specific and data collection is used to measure the propositions (Saunders et al, 2012). In

addition, Gill and Johnson (2010) claim that the deduction possess refers to explain the causal relationships

between concepts and variables. In order to test the proposition, researchers need collect sufficient data. This

research is conducted as deductive approach.

Furthermore, according to Saunders et al (2012), quantitative research focus on use data to test theory, refers

to a highly structured data collection technique, however, data on opinions sometimes could be seemed as

“qualitative” numbers. Quantitative research study the relationships between different variables, these

variables could be analysed using a range of statistical techniques. In addition, the strengths of using

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quantitative research is that the author will obtain relatively sufficient data, and the findings upon numerical

data could represent a more general view to answer research questions. According to Bryman (1989),

quantitative research method refers to collect data from participants in order to produce a statistical analysis.

This study aims to investigate the students’ information seeking behaviour in the UK, it requires a large

number of data to be collected and analysed, so quantitative research may be more appropriate for this study.

3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Sampling

According to Patton (2002), sample size depend on the research question and objectives. In other words, it

refers to the researcher need decide what will be useful, what will be credibility and what can be done in the

available resources. The first technique is snowball sampling which used to the research have difficulties to

identify members of the target population. In this research, samples are are selected from the University of

Sheffield in the UK. The University of Sheffield as a world top100 university, has a large number of domestic

and foreign students. Their students could provide a variety of attitudes about job-hunting, it may reflect a

general view of job-hunting behavior. At the beginning, the researcher need contact with familiar students in

the University of Sheffield, and provide them the questionnaire to be surveyed. After these participants finish

the survey, they will ask more friends or classmates to take part in this survey. The benefit of the use

snowballing is the research could collect a large number of response by continued survey. However, using

snowballing may cause a huge bias, and these participants may only ask the potential participants who are

similar to themselves to join the survey(Lee, 1993). Moreover, self-selection sampling is another important

technique, it used to allow each participant to take part in the survey( Saunders et al,2012). Self-selection

sampling will first publicize the research survey to samples by social medias or asking them to join, then

collect the response. In this research, the researcher will use both snowball sampling and self-selection

sampling. Random samples could avoid subjective and bias, it might represent a general view of students' job-

hunting behavior (Feldman and Klaas,2002). The targeted participants in this study will be graduate students

in the University of Sheffield.

3.2.2 Instruments

According to Gill and Johnson (2010), questionnaire is useful to descriptive or explanatory research, it

includes two types: self-completed questionnaires and interviewer-completed questionnaires. Using

questionnaires could obtain responds more quick and easy get access from participants (Foddy, 1994).

However, questionnaire as a significant research tool have some drawbacks which should be noted. For

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example, It is difficulty for researchers to control participants to finish all questions in the survey. In addition,

online questionnaires may provide participants more confidentiality and anonymity (Gill and Johnson, 2010).

It is necessary to put the research purpose and benefit at the beginning to provide participants whether to take

part in this survey. All the questions should be designed in simple and clear language, and it is convenient for

participant to understand and finish the survey in a short term ( Saunders et al,2012).

In this research, the author design the questionnaire as 14 close-ended questions, and 4 open-ended questions.

Open-end and close-ended questions could meet different needs of answers. Open-ended questions allow

participants to answer the questions in an unlimited way, participants could explain the their opinions in various

way in the same question (Patton, 2002). On the other hand, closed-ended question could be more easier and

faster for participants to answer questions.

This questionnaire designed to followed the research questions. Firstly, in order to answer the research

question“RQ1: What type of job-hunting channel most attract students to use? Why?” The author will calculate

the percentage of the use of each search channel and rank these channels, then use results from the open-ended

question “What are reasons to choose the favorite search channel ?” to explain the possible reasons of

participants' choice. Due to the open-ended question, the author summarize all responses by main idea, and

draw a table (Table3) to find the important reasons.

Secondly, in order to answer the research question “RQ2: What factors influence students seeking jobs on the

internet?” The author divide possible factors as positive factors and negative factors two groups. Use SPSS to

draw table and calculate the percent of each effect factor and rank them, the result will show the majority

respondents' opinions about positive effect of online search job information. The results from the open-ended

question “What are reasons to choose the favorite search channel ?” may provide some reasons. Then analyze

negative factors in the similar way, but use the results of Q17 “What are the main difficulties when you seeking

job-hunting information?” to provide reasons of negative effect towards online search job information(Table 6).

In addition, in order to answer the research question “ RQ3: What factors are the first consideration towards

students job-hunting seeking behaviour?” The author will first calculate the usage of “all considered

motivational factors” and rank them, after that, compare with the results of “the first considered motivational

factor”, If the rank changed, the possible reasons will be provided by Q17 “What are the main difficulties when

you seeking job-hunting information?” Because individuals may avoid potential difficulties when seeking

information, which may change their original behaviors (Gallagher and Sias, 2009). Also the result of

undergraduate and postgraduate will be compared, to find the differences of these groups.

Furthermore, to answer “RQ4: How satisfied are these respondents with the information obtained from these

information search channels?” The author use SPSS to calculate the score of each search channel, 1=dissatisfied,

5=satisfied. Because the average score is 3, if the channel's score is higher than 3, it means participants satisfied

18

with the search channel, otherwise, respondents were dissatisfied with the search channel. Rank each channel

and compare with the rank of “considered search channel” to find whether is connection between the usage and

satisfaction level. Use the result of “difficulties of job-hunting” to explain the possible reason. Finally, in order

to answer the research question “RQ5: What issues do these information channels face while seeking

information?”, the author use the open-ended question “difficulties of job-hunting” to analyze. At the beginning,

the author classified respondents' answers into two groups: the internal factors and external factors. The internal

factors refers to individual ability, attitude, motivation and etc; the external factors means the effect of society,

family,or policy effect.

3.3.3 Data Collection

In order to collect data, this research used both online questionnaire collection platforms and paper-based

questionnaire for face-to-face collection. In order to ensure the data diversity, which conclude both Asian and

Western students, the author used Google Form to design and to sent online questionnaire to different social

medias. Firstly,since the author is one of students who from the University of Sheffield, the questionnaires

was sent out on Facebook, which is a popular social media platform in world wide. This is for collecting

western students data. Secondly, the Wechart was used in this collection,which is the most popular Chinese

social media for collecting Chinese students data. This is because Chinese counts as a relatively large

proportion in this university. The online collection was conducted from 16th of August from 20th of August. In

addition, the offline questionnaire collection as a compensation was conducted from 20th of August to 23rd of

August. These data were collected in front of the university libraries: Information Commments and the

Demand. This can ensure the quality of data since most of university students will use the libraries for study.

At the beginning of questionnaire, the author provides an information page which includes basic information

about this research, such as research purpose. The information sheet is for participants. After participants

agree to take part in the research project, they could answer questions from the questionnaire. These

responses of the paper-based questionnaire will be inputted into the computer. After receiving responses from

participants, quantitative data will be classified and summarized.

3.3.4 Data Analysis

In this study, the author use SPSS software to analyze descriptive statistical data. SPSS is convenient for users

to use this software to analyze statistical data, such as simple data and complex data. Also SPSS could

provides data reporting and modeling service for users, excel data could be import into SPSS for more

complex data analysis. Therefore, this study used the frequency analysis in the SPSS system in order to find

the most influential factors. In addition, this also used mean of frequency for degree-analysis questions. The

19

numbers of frequency and percentage were both offed in the analysis. In order to clearly understand the

analysis results, all findings were presented as tables, graphs by various factors, and summarize the results

compare with different groups.

3.3 Limitations

This research has some limitations as it was conducted at one university only and the sample of this study was

just 125 students in the University of Sheffield. The findings of the study, therefore, cannot be generalized.

This research only use the quantity research method, so it could not understand the motivation of job hunting

deeply and completely. Although this research had provided the choices for the students, which based on the

previous research findings. However, it could have newly additional information from the students in recent

years. Thus, it would be better to conduct a qualitative or mixed research method as a compensation.

3.4 Ethical considerations

The ethical issues should be considered in this research. The ethical information was included on the first page

of the survey. Information sheet provided to inform all aspects of the research to participants, including research

aims, research methodology, benefits and so on. Informed consent form was followed by the information sheet

section, which participants then agreed to by clicking through to begin the survey. The ethics application and

approval documentation for this project can be seen in Appendix D. Data is stored in a personal computer with

encryption protection. Once the questionnaires are handed in, the original data will be destroyed. This

questionnaire will protect the privacy of respondents, is to respect the principle of voluntary. This in order to

protect the value of the entire paper, reduce the potential harm to the respondents, that's why ethical issues

should be considered in every social science research.

Chapter 4 Finding

As has been discussed in previous chapters, this study uses a quantitative approach. In order to answer the

research questions laid out in the introduction, the utilising a survey methodology. The survey consisted of

mainly quantitative data, but with the option for participants to contribute qualitative comments.

4.1 Introduction

In this survey, 125 participants completed the questionnaire, female respondents accounted for 60% and

63.2% of respondents are postgraduate students, is the highest. The respondent of undergraduate students

accounted for 27.2% of the whole respondents, 12 other degree respondents, accounting for 9.6%. Figure1

show the frequency of students’ job-seeking. Respondents who have searched employment information within

6 months demonstrated the highest proportion. 16.8% of participants search the employment information

every day. A minority of participants (10.4%) indicated they never search for employment information.

20

Table1shows the importance of respondents considered of job-hunting behavior. The majority of participants

which accounted of 96.8% report that searching employment information is quite important. Figure2 shows

the level of perceived difficulty for searching employment information. The highest percentage of 51.2%

shows seeking job information is an average level. Respondents who have difficulty in searching employment

information accounting for 15.2%.

Figure 1 Frequency of search employment information

Table 1 Importance of access employment information

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid very

important 61 48.8 48.8 48.8

important 60 48.0 48.0 96.8

21

not important 4 3.2 3.2 100.0

Total 125 100.0 100.0

Figure2 The level of perceived difficulty for searching employment information

4.2 Job-hunting search method

Table 2 shows the job searching channels will be considered for job-hunting. As can be seen in the Table 2,

Internet may be the most popular way for respondents searching employment information, accounting for

91.2%. And social network ranked the second consideration tool for respondents to search employment

information. Jon centre accounted for 49.6 percent of total responses ranked the third. Advertisement may be

the last considering way of search job-hunting information. In addition, Figure 3 shows the most favorite

method of searching job information. Internet ranked the first, this is the same as the result in Table2. Table 3

show the possible reasons of the favorite search method. Compare the data from Figure 3 and Table 3, 60% of

respondents choose internet as the most attractive employment search method. The possible reasons could be

ranked by order as: Convenient and fast (33.3%), Large number of job information (26.7%), Save cost (24%),

Detailed search way (16%). More findings will show in the next section (4.3). Moreover, job center

accounting for 19.2% of the total response, ranked the second (Figure 4). As can be seen in Table 3, faster

22

response is the most reason for participants to use job center, accounting for 37.5%; more interview

opportunities accounted for 29.2% as the second reason of using job center; university adviser help and

detailed poison information also effect responses. In addition, social network is third favorite search tool for

job-hunting, accounting for 14.4% (Figure3). The main reason of use social network to seek employment

information is more reliable (61.1% in Table3). High quality of position ranked the second reason of use

social network. Newspapers and Advertisement are not the preferred way of searching employment

information.

Table 2 The channel choices for job-hunting

Responses Percent of

Cases N Percent

Internet 114 34.7% 91.2%

Job center 62 18.8% 49.6%

Newspapers,

Magazines, Journals 48 14.6% 38.4%

Advertisement 33 10.0% 26.4%

Social network 72 21.9% 57.6%

Total 329 100.0% 263.2%

Figure 3 The favorite search channel for job-hunting

23

Table3 The reasons of choosing the favorite searching tool (Q8)

Number Percentage Example

Internet 75

Convenient and fast 25 33.3% post and updated their

CVs on job boards

website such as

FISH4JOBS

(http://www.fish4.co.uk/)

,

Monster(http://www.mon

ster.co.uk/), Workcircle

(http://www.workcircle.c

o.uk/);

exchange their

information with

employers or

employment

intermediaries via email;

check the offers in time

24

Various kinds of

information

20 26.7%

Save cost 18 24%

Detailed search way (eg,

keyword search)

12 16% specific information such

as major related position

or salary requirement

from job boards website.

Job center 24

Faster response 9 37.5%

More interview

opportunities

7 29.2%

University adviser help 5 20.8% CV design

Detailed poison

information

3 12.5%

Social network 18

More reliable 11 61.1%

High position 4 22.2%

Efficiency, save time,

fast

3 16.7%

Newspapers 5

Personal preference 4 80%

Easy to read 1 20%

25

Advertisement 3

No specific reason 2 66.7%

Personal preference 1 33.3%%

4.3 Factors may influence online employment search

Figure 4 shows 92.8% of responses have used Internet of job-hunting in the past, only 9 respondents (7.2%)

never used online service for job-hunting. As a popular job-seeking channel, online job seeking has both

positive effects and negative effects to job seekers. Table 4shows the positive effect factors which attract

participants use to internet. Cost- effective and quantity employment information are the most attract factors

of choosing internet to search job information, accounting for 79.2% in equal (Table4). User-friendly

accounting for 72.8%, ranked the third. Compare with the findings in 4.2, these agree with quantity

information is the most important factor influence participants’ choice. This will be deeply analyzed in the

discussion part.

In addition, Table 5 shows the negative factors may influence the use of online employment information

search. Information security risks ranked the first as the most significant negative effect of job-hunting online

search, accounting for 72% of the total responses. Poor quality information accounting for 61.6% of the total

responses, ranked the second. Low responses may be not the main negative effect of online search. Table 6

shows the possible difficulties towards job-hunting(Q17). Low quality of job information is still the most

significant drawback of online search, accounting for 52.5%. Mismatched information (19.7%) and security

consideration (13.1%), ranked the second, the third, respectively. The findings support the results in Table 5.

Figure 4 Use internet for job hunting

26

i

Table 4 Positive effects factors of online job search

Responses Percent of

Cases N Percent

Cost-effective

(money, time,

resources)

99 33.8% 79.2%

Quantity

employment

information

99 33.8% 79.2%

User-friendly 91 31.1% 72.8%

Other 4 1.4% 3.2%

Total 293 100.0% 234.4%

a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1.

27

Table 5 Negative effect factors of online job search

Responses Percent of

Cases N Percent

Poor quality

information 77 32.5% 61.6%

Lower responses 60 25.3% 48.0%

Information security

risks 90 38.0% 72.0%

Other 10 4.2% 8.0%

Total 237 100.0% 189.6%

a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1.

Table 6 Possible difficulties of job-hunting (Q17)

Number Percentage

Low quality of job

information

32 52.5%

mismatched job

information

12 19.7%

Security consideration ,

personal information lose

8 13.1%

Less employment

institutes for Chinese

students

5 8.2%

Low response rate from

company

4 6.6%

Total 61

28

4.4 Motivation factors attract students job seeking behaviour

When participants search employment information, their seeking behavior may effect by various of factors.

Table 7 presents the result of motivational factors could influence participants. As can be seen from Table 7,

job prospect is the most important factor may effect participants seeking employment behavior accounting for

87.2% of the total response. Major (74.2%)and personal interest (64.8%) also has a high proportion as the

motivation factor, ranked the second and third, respectively. Location effect accounting for 56.8% of the total

response (Table 7). Education level, family suggestion and other(unidentifiable) have lower status.

Furthermore, Figure 5 shows the result of the first considered factor towards job-hunting. It suggests the same

ranking of job prospect, accounting for 52%. Personal interest rises to the second ranking of the first

consideration towards job-hunting, account for 27.2%. Only 8% of respondents may consider major related

position as their first consideration.

Table8 provides some potential difficulties towards job-hunting. Less major-related position (20.2%) is an

important issue could affect students' seeking behavior. 14.9% of response presents “hard to find an interest

job” is the third difficulty of students' job-hunting. Compare the findings from Figure 5 and Table 7, it may

explain some reasons of ranking change, and it will be analyzed in the discussion.

Undergraduate vs Graduate

Figure 6 shows the response of different degree group of the first consideration factor of job-hunting. Job

prospect and personal interest have the similar proportions (13.6%, 10.4%, respectively) of the undergraduate

students' response. Other factors such as location, major, education level, family suggestion are not the

significant motivation of job-hunting. However, in the survey of gradate group, the results are different.

36.2% response considered job prospect as their first considered factor when seeking jobs. Personal interest

has 14.4% of the total response, ranked the second. The biggest difference is location. Location ranked the

third of the most important motivation of gradates (Figure6). The possible reasons will be discussed in the

next section.

Table 7 Motivational factors for job-hunting

Responses Percent of

Cases N Percent

Job prospect 109 24.9% 87.2%

29

Major 88 20.1% 70.4%

Education level 49 11.2% 39.2%

Personal interest 81 18.5% 64.8%

Location 71 16.2% 56.8%

Family suggestions 36 8.2% 28.8%

Other 4 0.9% 3.2%

Total 438 100.0% 350.4%

a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1.

Figure 5 The first consideration for job-hunting

Table 8 Potential Difficulties of Job-hunting

Number Percentage

No working experience 57 30.3%

30

Less major-related

position

38 20.2%

Hard to find an interest job 28 14.9%

Salary and position

dissatisfaction

21 11.2%

Too many competitors for

hot positions

13 6.9%

Low Self-confident 12 6.4%

Family business 9 4.8%

Communication Language

barrier

6 3.2%

Limited time to search for

a job(Chinese visa)

4 2.1%

Total 188

Figure 6 The first consideration for job-hunting

31

4.5 Satisfaction level of different search channels

Figure 7 states that 84% of responses could satisfied their employment needs towards using various search

method. 20 participants(16%) argue that their employment need could not be satisfy by these search channels.

As mentioned in the section3.2.2, 1 score means the dissatisfied with the search channel to search employment

information, and 5 score means satisfied with the search channel. So the author considered 3 score as the level

to analyze whether the search channel has a good satisfaction level towards job-hunting. In addition, Table 10

shows the satisfaction level with the employment information obtained from various sources. As can be seen

from Table 10, internet has the highest score at 3.91, followed by Job center which has 3.57 score. It supports

the findings in 4.2, internet is the most popular search method and have high satisfaction towards job-hunting.

Job center has 3.57 score ranked second and social network gain 3.56 score ranked third. The score of

internet, Job center and social network is higher than3, it could be seen as these search channels has better

satisfaction degree for employment information search. Moreover, compare with the findings in 4.2, it could

be a positive association between the level of usage intensity and satisfaction of search channel. Above results

show that social network and job centre are popular for respondents to seek job information and participants

use job center and social network to search employment information has higher satisfaction than use paper-

based search channels and advisement. However, Newspapers, magazines, journals gain 2.99 scores and

Advertisement has 2.68 scores. Due to their scores is lower than 3, it may be be more dissatisfied of the

majority response.

Figure 7 Do you think the job-search channel could meet your information needs?

32

Table 9 The reason of job-search channel could not meet job seekers information needs

Number

Salary dissatisfied 9

Fake job information 5

Less personal interest job 3

Less Major-related work 3

Total 20

Table 10 Satisfaction level with the employment information obtained from various sources

Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Internet 125 1 5 3.91 1.024

Job center 125 1 5 3.57 .970

Newspapers, Magazines,

Journals 125 1 5 2.99 1.004

Advertisement 125 1 5 2.68 1.090

Social network 125 1 5 3.56 1.095

Other 125 1 5 2.74 1.101

Valid N (list wise) 125

4.6 Potential problems towards job-seeking behaviour

In the survey, the author design the last two questions as open-ended questions to ask for deeply explanation

of participants views on difficulties for job hunting . Due to the open-ended question, the explanations of

different respondents may interpret in many ways, and some answers could obtain more than one view. The

answers have been classified and summarized by key opinions into two groups, the outside influence and

inside influence. Table 6 shows the outside influence of job-hunting difficulties. Low quality of job

33

information is the most significant issue accounted for 52.5% and mismatched job information accounting for

19.7% of the total response and security consideration (eg. personal information loses) accounted of 13.1%.

In addition, Table 8 suggests that the possible difficulties of students themselves. As can be seen in Table 8,

30.3% of responses believes that no working experiences is the most difficult issue when they seek for

position. Applicants who have work experience more easy to find a suitable job than just graduated from

college. 38 participants claim that they have difficulty to find a major-related job (less major-related position

accounted of 20.2% (Table8). Personal interest is an important motivation factor could affect individuals'

seeking behavior. 28 responses (14.9%) suggest that they cannot find a personal favorite position, and they

state that they may not apply for jobs that are not of interest to themselves. Moreover, salary exception as a

part of job prospect could affect the seeking behavior. As can be seen in Table 8, 11.2% response shows

salary and position dissatisfaction is the issue that they faced towards job-hunting. 8 participants said the

expected salary will be far less than what actually the employer can give. And 5 respondents will accept

mismatch major position for a higher salary in the future. Furthermore, hot positions always have more

competitor, 6.9% response claims competitive pressures in hot jobs is the problem of job-hunting (Table 8).

six students who major in business said compared with other majors, economic major’s students faced more

pressure, however, the number of jobs is limited, and these positions could be replaced by other major

students.

Chapter 5 Discussion

In this chapter the results of the research and the implications are considered. The results are analysed and

discussed in reference to the research questions and explanations for the results are offered. The findings are

then compared and contrasted with current literature in order to highlight similarities and differences.

5.1 RQ1: What type of job-hunting channel most attract students to use? Why?

Prior studies that have noted the information channels could influence students' job-hunting behavior in many

ways. In this study, the author defined these search channels as online search channels, social network and

traditional search channels. The results of this study indicate that internet is the most attractive search method

for students seeking employment information. The finding corroborates the ideas of Capelli (2001) and Jansen

et al. (2005), who suggested that internet have been used as the first considered employment search channel.

This is unsurprising given the ease of collecting information in the digital age. In addition, internet is a board

range of search method, it includes different search tools such as website, social media, and so on. Website is

the most useful search tool could be used to search job information. The findings of section 4.2 shows that job

boards website have been recommended by students to seek jobs. There are several possible explanations for

this result. Firstly, some students may consider it is easy for them to search both quantity employment

34

information and specific information such as major related position or salary requirement from job boards

website (FISH4JOBS, http://www.fish4.co.uk/; Monster,http://www.monster.co.uk/; Workcircle

http://www.workcircle.co.uk/). Secondly, it is convenient for students to exchange their information with

employers or employment intermediaries via email and check their offers any time anywhere. These findings

support the study of Green et al. (2011).

Furthermore, traditional job-hunting channels cannot be instead. The findings of section 4.2 shows that job

center ranked as the second of search channels which support the previous studies (Feldman and Klaas ,2002

and Martey,2003). However, in this survey all samples are selected as students in the University of Sheffield,

lots of participants considered job center as the school career center. Local job center and business job center

may not be considered or less considered by participants.

Moreover, the current study found that social network could provide job seekers more reliable employment

information and quality of positions. These results differ from the study of Bentolila et al. (2010) and Horvath

(2014), which state that social network could cause occupational mismatch. These differences can be

explained in the part by the proximity of the sample group differences. Bentolila et al. (2010) and Horvath

(2014) 's study focus on the whole job seeker group (employed and unemployed). In this study, the author

only investigates graduate students' search behavior of job-hunting in the UK. Another possible explanation

for this is that in the data collection stage, the author found that the sample has a large number of Asian

students (especially Chinese students). Culture difference may cause this result, which agree with the study of

Zeng & Cui (2008). However, with a small size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be

transferable to the whole graduate group's opinion in the UK.

5.2 RQ2: What factors influence students seeking jobs on the internet?

Perhaps the most attractive part of online search is that students could gain a large number of employment

information (both quality and poor quality information). As discussed in section 4.3, positive factors which

attract students to choose online search is cost-effective and quantity employment information. The findings

of section 4.5 shows internet have the highest satisfaction level compare with other search channels. The

findings of the current study are consistent with those of Bruce (2004) who claims compared to traditional job

search channels, using website may help individuals save cost and gain boarder scope of job information. This

consistency may be due to in the digital age, efficiency is very important, which requires individuals to use the

appropriate way to search for a wide range of and accurate employment information. For student groups, their

daily life cannot be separated from the network, which also affected the way they will give priority to the

Internet as an information search method.

35

Surprisingly, Information security risks was found as the most significant negative factor could influence

students online job-hunting in the current study. Martey (2003) suggests that low quality information

identification is one of the most important negative factors that influence the use of Internet for job seekers. A

possible explanation for this might be that Martey (2003)'s study was conducted over ten years, the data and

role of job-hunting channels has changed. In the information society, people pay more attention to the security

and privacy of personal information. Students are accustomed to using a variety of social software to search

for work information, and their personal information will be uploaded to the Internet. Informal job boards

websites will disclose personal information. Another possible reason of information security consideration

may be due to more and more employers might choose social medias to search and check their potential

employees. If the inappropriate personal information posted by social media, that may lead to a failure of job-

hunting (Hargittai and Litt, 2013). Moreover, poor quality information is still a significant factor could

influence students to seek employment information online. As discussed in the section 4.3 & 4.5, the quality

of employment information may affect the efficiency of job-hunting, which requires students have the ability

of identify the useful and low quality information. This result corroborates the ideas of Martey (2003) and

Feldman & Klaas (2002).

5.3 RQ3: What factors are the first consideration towards students job-hunting

seeking behavior? Why?

Firstly, the results indicate that there are many motivations for students' job-hunting behavior and that there is

a high level of agreement with job prospect is the most significance motivation which influence students' job-

hunting behavior. This finding is consistent with previous research (Fort et al.,2015) which states job prospect

is the first considered factor that influence individuals' job-hunting. Job prospect could be defined in different

meanings. In this study, job prospect refers to salary, work situation, company development, and other effect

factors (Lee and Sabharwal, 2014). Graduates now face difficulties in job-hunting mainly come from the

expectations of the job prospects are far higher than the actual job treatments. Salary is an important

motivation factor could affect students job hunting, however, it is not the only decisive factor, personal

interests and major-related could also affect students' job hunting behavior. It may be that these students

benefited from the satisfaction of personal interest rather than salary requirements. In this survey, 6

participants suggested that compared to a short-term high paying job, they prefer to accept a permanent job

with lower payment. Moreover, personal interest could affect students pay more effort to seek a personal

preferred job. The findings of section 4.4 shows personal interest overcome major is the second considered

motivational factor with job-hunting. A possible reason for this result may be students could pay more efforts

for the personal interest work, especially for the long-term work. This finding further support the study of

Hooft et al.(2006). Furthermore, as analyzed in section 4.4, major-related is not the first consideration of the

36

majority students' job-hunting. More and more students are not limited to the major-related work of job-

hunting. This finding corroborates the ideas of Robst (2007), who suggested that major mismatch will be

within an efficient labor market. In addition, previous studies suggest that major has more effect on the

students with higher education level than undergraduates, however, the findings of the current study do not

support that statement. There is no significant difference of motivation influence between undergraduate and

graduates in this survey. One possible explanation for this is that international students has a large proportion

of participants in this study, especially Chinese students. These students may not consider major as the reason

for higher education, so major-related is not the main consideration when job hunting. Surprisingly, location

as a motivational factor has a greater impact on graduate students. A possible explanation of the result may be

highly educated students may have more specific requirements on their own work, the location will affect

their choice. In this survey, one medical school student said he was only willing to work in a hospital in

London to get more experience, so he would not consider other areas when he was seeking a job. Also,

international students could consider location more, compare with other motivational factors.

Furthermore, family pressure has little influence on the students' job hunting. As discussed in section 4.4, only

8.2% of responses will consider family suggestion to seek jobs. However, family stress still have a greater

impact on the students of a particular group which have family business. For example, in the survey, three

Chinese students explained they would not consider to search job as their personal interest, because they have

to seek job as their parents' suggestions, and plan to work in the family business after they graduate.

Although the findings of the current study show that job prospect is the first consideration of the majority

students with job hunting, personal interest and major-related could affect students' job hunting in some way.

Location and family suggestion are not the main consideration for students job hunting, they may only have a

strong impact on the particular group students.

5.4 RQ4: How satisfied are these respondents with the information obtained from

these information search channels?

The results indicate that Internet is the best way to search employment information for the highest satisfaction

level. The finding is consistent with the previous study (Capelli, 2001). As discussed in section 5.2, cost-

effective and quantity information are the main reasons of students prefer to use this search channel with job

hunting. The findings were in line with the study of Feldman and Klaas (2002). This means that the cost of

money and the time are the important considerations for students. In addition, social network and job center

both have better satisfaction level with obtained employment information than paper-based search channels

and advertisements.

37

As discussed in section5.1, social network could provide more opportunities with graduates (with no work

experience) to obtain a suitable job. However, Green et al. (2011) argues that young job seekers who have less

skills may be not appropriate to use social network to seek a better job due to less skills. It is difficult to

explain this result, but it might be related to education level differences. One possible reason is because the

respondents of this research are from the University of Sheffield who received higher education. That means

this group of people might have more professional skills rather than other young job seekers.

Moreover,this study found that compare with internet and social network, paper-based search channels has

lower satisfaction towards students' job-hunting. As discussed in section 4.2, paper-based search channels

(14.6%) and advertisements (10%) are not the main search method for students job-hunting. Although, these

results differ from some published studies (Webber and Zhu, 2007; Zeng & Cui ,2008) , they are broadly

consistent with earlier studies (Capelli, 2001; and Jansen et al., 2005). The possible explanation for this might

be that these newspapers and magazines have gradually been replaced by internet and social network.

Previous research investigates less skilled and elderly people, they are familiar to use newspaper to find a job.

However, in this study, respondents are university students with high skills, these people are more accustomed

to using the Internet and social networks. Newspapers for these students might have less attraction.

5.5 RQ5: What issues do these information channels face while seeking

employment information?

There are two aspects of difficulty with students job-hunting. Firstly, the influence of personal factors on

students may cause difficulties in job hunting. As discussed in section 4.5, no working experiences is the most

significant issue for job hunting. This finding is consistent with previous research (Fort et al., 2015) which

suggests companies prefer to hire the the job seeker with post-experience rather than graduates with no

experience. The possible explanation is that compare to experienced workers, graduates have less practical

skills and they may not have relevant knowledge of the practical work. So employers need to train new

recruits, which will increase the training cost (Costen and Salazar, 2011). In addition, another difficulty of job

hunting is that major-related position is hard to search. This finding corroborates the ideas of Robst (2007),

who suggested that in the efficient labor market, major mismatch will exit. This has been disused in the

section 5.3. However, major-related position is still attract students to pay more effort. In addition, lack of

detailed description of job information is an important problem for job-hunting.

Chapter6 Conclusions

In the chapter 6, it concludes main findings from primary data.

38

6.1 Summary

Internet is the most attractive search method for students seeking employment information. Website as a

significant search tool is widely used in students job hunting. Quantity information and specific information

could be search on the internet. It is convenient for students to update and exchange their information and

check offers any time anywhere. In addition, social network could provide students more reliable positions.

The young group of people might have less interest in using paper-based search channels (newspapers,

magazines, journal) and advertisement to seek employment information.

Moreover, the most attractive reasons drive university students to use online search channels are a large

number of employment information (both quality and poor quality information). On the contrary, the most

concerned potential disadvantage of this channels was found as personal information security risks, which

could influence the online job-hunting channel choice. In the modern society of information exploration, job

seekers tend to pay more attention on the security and privacy problems. For example, the social medias were

increasingly used by employers for seeking their potential employees, which has the potential risk for

exposure personal information of these job seekers.

In terms of the motivation of job hunting behavior, the job prospect is the most influential factor that be

emphasized by university students in the UK. When comparing to relatively high paying job with short-term

working and uncertainty, a lower income but permanent job tend to be more accepted by the students.

Personal interest also drives students to invest searching effort for a personal preferred job as well as the

working location. However, there is a trend that more and more students are less consideration of major

related. They are tend to be open-minded to various types of job. Specifically to Chinese students in the UK,

their parents’ suggestions on job types are also important to these people, which suggest family stress is also a

influential factor for job hunting behavior.

Furthermore, for the job hunting channel choice, internet is the most popular channel to achieve large quantity

of employment information. UK students are mainly consider the cost efficiency of this choice. Social

network as an relatively new channel based on internet for searching job also provide a higher satisfaction

with students. On the contrary, the offline methods are gradually not emphasized by students who have higher

education experience, which in consist with a relatively low satisfaction. It shows a online platform trending

of job hunting channel choice in the UK. In addition, no working experiences is the most significant issue for

job hunting. Compare to experienced workers, graduates have less practical skills and they may not have

relevant knowledge of the practical work. So employers need to train new recruits, will increase the training

cost. major-related position is hard to search.

39

6.2 Implications and contributions

This research contributed to further understanding the behavior of job hunting in general among the UK

university student, providing a up-to-date primary data in this area. For practical implication, given the

findings of job hunting channel choice of students. Internet, social network and job center are the most

popular search channels of these group. If the recruitment company want to hire appropriate employers, these

companies would better to consider more investment on these search channels rather than others.

Secondly, in other to attract more higher educational students to apply the position of the certain company, the

company would better to provide more detailed information of job prospect and offer a comfortable working

environment for the applicants. In specific, the stability of employment.

6.3 Limitation and further research

There are some limitations of this quantitative study would be better to be improved in further research. First

of all, the relatively small sample of respondents may influence the effectiveness of this research. In this

research, only 125 people have participant in the questionnaire survey. However, the targeted research group

of people is the students in the UK who have obtained higher education. Thus, these 125 people could not

effectively represent the whole group of potential investigation respondents. In addition, this research only

conducted in the University of Sheffield. Based on this limitation, it would be better to collect various data

from different cities of UK, such as London, Liverpool, and Edinburgh and so on to increase the

representativeness of sample.

The second limitation is about the influential factors. This study had focused on the findings of different

potential influential factors of job-hunting behavior, such as motivation of using different information

searching channel or the most important consideration when finding a job position. However, it lacks of the

relationship studies of each influential aspect, which did not discuss the correlation, positive or negative

influence between each variable. For example, whether it is exit any potential association between usage

intensity and user satisfaction with job searching channel. Therefore, the relationship studies of correlation

and impact that based on the UK students could be a potential direction for further research.

In addition, this research was directly provided the choices for participants, which are based on previous

studies’ findings. Thus, it cannot explore the potential new influential factors from students’ perspectives that

have not found in previous research. For further research, this may require a further exploring study to

investigate in this area.

40

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46

Appendix A Questionnaire

Students’ Information Seeking Behavior. A Case Study of Job-­Hunting in the University of Sheffield

in the UK.

1. What is your Gender?

Male

Female

2. What level degree are you studying for now?

Undergraduate

Postgraduate

Other _________________

3. How often do you search for employment information ?

Everyday

Within 6 months

Within 1 year

Never search for employment information

4. How easy do you find to obtain employment information?

very easy

easy

average

difficult

Very difficult

5. How important do you think to access employment information?

Very important

important

Average

Not important

Never look for a job

47

6. What job-search channels do you use? (multiple choice answers)

Internet

Job centre

Newspapers, Magazines, Journals

Advertisement

Social network

Other _________________

7. Which job-search channel is your favorite?

Internet

Job centre

Newspapers, Magazines, Journals

Advertisement

Social network

Other _________________

8. Why you choose that job-search channel as your favorite?

_________________________________

9. How much are you satisfied with the information obtained from these job-search channels?

1=Disdissatisfie

d 2 3 4 5=Satisfied

Internet

Job centre

Newspapers,

Magazines,

Journals

Advertisement

Social network

Other

10. Do you use the Internet to search job information?

48

YES

NO

11. What feathers attract you to use online search for job-hunting? (multiple choice answers)

Cost-effective (money, time, resources)

Quantity employment information

User-friendly

Other _________________

12. What are negative effects of online search for job-hunting? (multiple choice answers)

Poor quality information

Lower responses

Information security risks

Other _________________

13. What factors do you consider for job-hunting? (multiple choice answers)

Job prospect

Major

Education level

Personal interest

Location

Family suggestions

Other _________________

14. What is the most important factor to consider when you are looking for a job?

Job prospect

Major

Education level

Personal interest

Location

Family suggestions

Other _________________

15. Do you think the job-search channel could meet your employment information needs?

YES

NO

49

16. If your answer is no, please enter the reason.

_________________________________

17. What are the main difficulties when you seeking jobs ?

_________________________________

18. Could you provide some recommendations for effective job-hunting?

_________________________________

50

Appendix B Recommendations in job-hunting (External)

External factor Number

Internet supervise 26

Detailed description of job

information

15

Updated job information

regular and modify errors

13

Invite more companies to

provides internship for

students

10

Local job center provide

more help for citizen

3

Total 67

51

Appendix C Recommendations in job-hunting (Internal)

Internal factors Number Examples

Improve professional skills 23

identify the quality job

information

18

Understand personal goals

and needs

14 6 participants suggested

that compared to a short-

term high paying job, they

prefer to accept a

permanent job with lower

payment.

Use all resources to seek a

job

10

Accept not perfect job for

short time, continue to

search

5

Not only focus major-

ralated job

4

Attend more social

interview practice work

4

Active not passive 3

Use social network 2

widen interest 2

Total 85

52

Appendix D Approved letter

53

Appendix E Access to Dissertation

54

57

Appendix G Information Sheet

58

59