GRADUATE JOBSEARCH ONLINE: 2005

Transcription

1 University of Strathclyde Careers Service GRADUATE JOBSEARCH ONLINE: 2005 Project Team: Project Manager - Roma Thompson Research Assistant - Julie Scott Graphic Designer Scott O Donnell Internet Officer Duncan Ireland December 2005

2 Summary Graduate Jobsearch Online (previously known as Guide to Jobsearch on the Internet) is an invaluable graduate job search tool featuring evaluated web links to global job search resources. Due to increases in the number of international students attending the University of Strathclyde (and other UK higher education institutions), combined with an ever more global graduate job market open to UK students, there was a need to expand the sections of the site to incorporate areas beyond the UK. With generous funding from the Higher Education Career Services Unit s Practitioner Research Fund and the University of Strathclyde s Graduate Association, the Careers Service at the University of Strathclyde was able to undertake an extensive revision of the site. The upgrading of the site involved checking the validity of existing content combined with the identification, evaluation and incorporation of new websites which would be of value to UK and international graduate jobseekers. The outcome of this project has been a major expansion in the range and content of websites featured on the site and a complete overhaul of Graduate Jobsearch Online s graphical look and feel. i

3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks go to all the students, graduates and careers service practitioners who took the time to complete the online feedback form which provided such valuable information. I would like to thank, in particular, the following people for their invaluable help and support throughout this project: Barbara Graham Roma Thompson Scott O Donnell Duncan Ireland ii

4 Table of Contents SUMMARY... I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... II TABLE OF CONTENTS... III LIST OF FIGURES... IV 1 INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND METHODOLOGY EVALUATION AND VALIDATION OF EXISTING CONTENT USER FEEDBACK IDENTIFICATION, EVALUATION AND INCORPORATION OF NEW, ADDITIONAL WEBSITES RELEVANT TO GRADUATE JOBSEEKERS Sources of new content Evaluation of new content Incorporation/ Organisation of new sites IT LIAISON DISCUSSION AND OUTCOMES KEY FEATURES OF IMPROVED SITE Content Design and Layout Navigation iii

5 List of Figures FIGURE 3-1 SCREEN SHOT OF 2003/4 VERSION (GUIDE TO JOBSEARCH ON THE INTERNET) WEBSITES BY AREA FIGURE 3-2 SCREEN SHOT 2003/4 VERSION (GUIDE TO JOBSEARCH ON THE INTERNET) WEBSITES BY SUBJECT FIGURE 4-1 SCREEN SHOT OF NEW GRADUATE JOBSEARCH ONLINE HOMEPAGE FIGURE 4-2 SCREEN SHOT SHOWING FLOATING MENU BAR iv

6 1 Introduction The purpose of Graduate Jobsearch Online is to direct graduate jobseekers to appropriate career and job related websites. An electronic version of Graduate Jobsearch (previously known as Guide to Jobsearch on the Internet) was first created for academic contract research staff in 1997 and has proved to be a useful resource, not only for the original target group, but for graduate users worldwide. Each revision of Graduate Jobsearch since 1997 has incorporated users feedback and recommended favourite websites. Users can be assured that all websites linked to Graduate Jobsearch have been evaluated for relevance and regular updating practices. A number of career services throughout the UK and institutions with interests in graduate career development or services, including the Higher Education Staff Development Agency (HESDA) recognise the usefulness of Graduate Jobsearch and direct their users to it through links from their own websites. This report details the most recent upgrade of Graduate Jobsearch that was undertaken to ensure it continues to address the career information needs of all its client groups. In response to the large increase in international students in the UK, there has been substantial development work to incorporate job search websites from many overseas countries. Funding for the project was obtained from the Higher Education Career Services Unit s (HESCU) practitioner research fund and the University of Strathclyde s Graduate Association. Their support for this enhancement of Graduate Jobsearch is greatly appreciated. Project Objectives 1. Identification, evaluation and incorporation into Graduate Jobsearch of new websites relevant to graduate job seekers, primarily for countries most likely to be of interest to graduates from the main supplier countries to UK universities. Graduates and other job seekers can use the Graduate Jobsearch to access recommended websites for a specific career interest or recommended online resources to help identify vacancies in a particular location. The Graduate Jobsearch can never be an exhaustive or definitive career resource for every country in the world or a comprehensive listing of vacancy websites relating to all career interests. It can, however, be an evaluated online resource with content that reflects student and graduate demographics and trends at a given time. From 2002 to 2004 over 3,000 International (non-uk domiciled) students per year attended the University of Strathclyde. Recent figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reveal that the total number of UK higher education students domiciled outside of the UK in 2003/4 increased by 9 per cent from 275,270 1

7 to 300,055. International students are consequently vital to the UK higher education system and are an important client group for career services throughout the UK. Appropriate career advice and information resources should be available whether it is the intention of an international student to secure employment in the UK or return home. In an increasingly competitive market UK students are also looking for opportunities abroad as well as trying to secure graduate employment back in the UK. Tailoring the Graduate Jobsearch to meet the needs of students also requires a look at trends in the subject of study chosen by students and graduates. This information may be used as a useful indicator of intended career choice and future employment trends. Statistics collected for the year 2003/2004 show that courses under the business and administration umbrella are the most popular in UK higher education; in 2003/ ,065 students were taking business and administrative based studies which incorporates business studies, management, finance, human resource management and accounting. Subjects allied to medicine were the next most popular with HE students taking subjects such as anatomy, pharmacology, nursing and medical technology. These patterns and trends in student demographics compel a review and expansion of sections of the Graduate Jobsearch to represent areas beyond the UK and give it a more international perspective. New subject specific or career specific sections would have to be incorporated and existing ones updated. 2. Checking validity of the current content of Graduate Jobsearch Online and amending it appropriately. The content of Graduate Jobsearch Online had not been updated since 2004 and updates prior to that had been done on an ad hoc basis when external funding could be secured. Validating the content is crucial and requires testing all featured web links within each section to establish that they are still live and to make certain that text descriptions attributed to them are correct, up to date and adequately explain the purpose of a specific website. 3. Additional links to websites advising on CV styles in countries included in the Graduate Jobsearch. The Graduate Jobsearch has to be able to adapt to the demands of its users and this will mean the inclusion of new features or the removal or development of existing ones. In previous research into the career information needs of international students 2

8 conducted by the University of Strathclyde s Career Service, careers advisers and students had expressed a wish to be able to access CV examples from a range of countries around the world. Including more website links to examples of international CVs, resumes and application formats would also benefit UK students looking to work abroad. 4. Improving the navigation, format and design of Graduate Jobsearch to facilitate easy identification of appropriate resources. The look, design and navigation of Graduate Jobsearch were rather dated and rudimentary. Users now expect a more structured and sophisticated site that is easy to navigate but also aesthetically pleasing. The upgrade of Graduate Jobsearch builds upon the existing layout, including an HTML text navigation bar to the left of each page, but it also needs to incorporate more sophisticated navigational tools such as floating and drop down menus to manage the increased website content to be added. 5. Improve publicity for Graduate Jobsearch Online. Publicity is important to bring Graduate Jobsearch to the attention of those student and graduate jobseekers and those careers service professionals working with them. 3

9 2 Background The first version of Graduate Jobsearch Online was originally in print format entitled A guide to job search on the Internet: a researcher s guide to academic and non-academic job resources on the World Wide Web and was published by the Scottish Graduate Careers Partnership. An electronic version of Graduate Jobsearch was first developed in 1997 and was produced with the help of funding from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council as part of the Scottish Contract Research Staff Initiative of Universities UK. This initiative was set up to encourage good practice in the management and career development of contract research staff. The electronic Guide to Job Search, as a portal of websites relating to vacancies and research opportunities within and beyond the academic sphere, provided contract researchers with valuable customised careers information. The first minor update was carried out in 1999 with a small grant from the Association of Graduate Career Advisory Services (AGCAS). A more extensive review of the site was undertaken in 2000 and again in 2003 with funding from the Office of Science and Technology (OST). These versions incorporated feedback from researchers and other jobseekers via an facility from the websites. The aim of the review in 2000 was to evaluate the online content of Graduate Jobsearch that had been in place for a number of years and was largely based on the original hard copy. The specific objectives were: to validate existing links included in Graduate Jobsearch, to survey researchers about potentially useful websites to be added to Graduate Jobsearch, to identify other appropriate websites from a more extensive internet search and to improve publicity for Graduate Jobsearch through print and electronic methods. A further upgrade took place in 2003/4 with a similar scope and range of objectives as the 2000 upgrade. This most recent review of Graduate Jobsearch in 2005 effectively builds on those foundations. 4

10 3 Methodology 3.1 Evaluation and validation of existing content The first phase of the project was to check and validate Graduate Jobsearch s existing content. Over 200 websites had to be reviewed which required: Manually checking, deleting, maintaining or updating website links as appropriate; Rewriting text descriptions where necessary; Re-locating website links to new or more appropriate sections within Graduate Jobsearch. Website details, links and associated text descriptions within separate categories of Graduate Jobsearch were copied and pasted directly from the website into new Word documents for easier manipulation and evaluation purposes. Data could then be altered or removed where necessary while retaining any content that was still valid and accurate. Each website was evaluated in terms of how suitable it was for a graduate job seeker s purpose. For a website link to remain part of Graduate Jobsearch the website had to feature graduate or professional level vacancies; it had to be easy for a user to navigate and its content had to be complete and authoritative, well organised and up to date. Consideration was also given to any websites that featured useful graduate careers related advice particularly with relation to graduates seeking employment outside of the UK. 3.2 User Feedback User feedback has always been an important tool in the continual development of Graduate Jobsearch and users register their comments via an online feedback form accessible from a static menu bar. Any feedback received since the completion of the review in 2003/4 had been collated by the Graduate Jobsearch administrator and this was forwarded to the project researcher to be reviewed as part of the current upgrade. Each comment was allocated to one of the following categories depending upon which aspect of the Graduate Jobsearch it referred to: Design of Graduate Jobsearch Existing content of Graduate Jobsearch Navigation New information to be added to Graduate Jobsearch Recommended new links Other 5

11 This allowed the project researcher to monitor those areas that users had responded to as well as identify areas of Graduate Jobsearch that users had suggested needed improvement. Generating additional feedback was also important and for the purpose of this project the online feedback form was altered slightly to inform users that Graduate Jobsearch was undergoing an extensive upgrade: it was hoped that this would encourage more in-depth feedback. A drop down menu was added to the Feedback page so that users could select the subject or nature of their comment. The options given to them on this menu were: Comment about: Existing site content Site design (e.g. graphics, layout etc.) Navigation Suggesting a new link, website or resource Information I would like to see on the site Other Respondents were then asked to write their comment in a text box and leave their details if they wished. Details of the upgrade and requests for feedback were disseminated, via , to careers service practitioners throughout the UK and other useful contacts asking them to browse the site and register their comments via the online form. Those contacted included: Internal Contacts - University of Strathclyde Careers service staff Jim Wilson International and Graduate Office Ian Jones Alumni Office Rose-Marie Barbeau Communications and Marketing Office (Prism Magazine) Strathclyde University Staff (including academic heads and staff) Saskia Hansen member of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) Secretariat International students who had participated in previous research conducted by the University of Strathclyde careers service. External Contacts Jane Artess Research Manager, HECSU 6

12 Gillian Cappuccini, James Williams, Lee Harvey, T Bowers-Brown Careers Advisory Services and International Students (CASIS) researchers Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) o Chris Jackson Arena (AGCAS online journal) o Rachel Roberts Phoenix (AGCAS Journal) o Terry Jones AGCAS Employability Forum o UK Careers Service staff via AGCAS Serviceline o Careers Information Officers via AGCAS CIO. Those contacted were also invited to distribute details of Graduate Jobsearch and the project to other groups or individuals who may be interested in Graduate Jobsearch s development. Any subsequent feedback comments submitted by respondents were then automatically relayed to the project researcher s account for review. 3.3 Identification, evaluation and incorporation of new, additional websites relevant to graduate jobseekers Sourcing new websites that would qualify for inclusion into Graduate Jobsearch was a crucial aspect of the project and the first step of this phase was to establish the agreed criteria for potential new websites. Initial meetings between the project researcher, project manager and the Careers Service director stipulated that: New websites featured on Graduate Jobsearch should reflect the national origin and disciplines of the student, graduate and contract research staff population. Additional sites should include graduate/professional level job vacancies or useful graduate careers related information. New websites should be assessed as to their currency in terms of being frequently updated and ease of use. Potential websites should be tested by random dummy graduate job searches relevant to the website s stated aims Sources of new content Careers Service Resource Centre The resource centre in the University of Strathclyde s own careers service was the obvious starting place for useful material. It stocks careers information in both print and electronic formats across a wide range of topics including job seeking skills, occupation specific information, employment overseas, as well as a dedicated resource section for international students. 7

13 Information available within the resource centre is updated on a regular basis and has been assessed and evaluated by careers service information staff and/or careers advisers. Details of any new print or electronic resources (including lists of useful websites) that have been added to the resource centre are communicated to careers service staff via a weekly electronic bulletin called the Information Update. Back copies of these updates were reviewed in order to quickly identify any relevant resources which could be added to corresponding sections of the new Guide. Creating a complete online replica of the resource centre was beyond the scope of this project but those websites directly relevant to the purpose of Graduate Jobsearch, namely resources relating to major donor countries and most popular subject/occupation areas, were included. Previous Research Projects Recent research carried out by the careers service into the career information needs of international students also provided a source of relevant graduate vacancy or career resources. Most resources were the result of specific online searches but a number of websites had been recommended by international students or graduates who had found a particular resource helpful. Feedback As stated earlier, feedback from users also included their personal recommendations for sites to be added to Graduate Jobsearch. Online searching To locate comprehensive and high-quality material for Graduate Jobsearch it was necessary to undertake extensive searching and browsing of other online graduate career portals combined with tailored internet search queries using a variety of search engines. Graduate careers services throughout the UK and abroad have varying online resources to cater for the demands of their diverse client groups and a search of their websites, particularly those with working overseas or occupation specific sections produced a range of useful links. Links to UK graduate careers service websites were obtained from the AGCAS website which also provided links to AGCAS equivalent organisations around the world including the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) (United States), Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers and Graduate Careers Australia. Popular internet search engines including Google and Alta Vista (UK versions) were used to search the web for largely UK graduate career resources. Foreign websites were sourced using meta-search engines (which search through a number of search engines simultaneously) and international versions of search engines e.g. Google Français 8

14 ( The online translation service Alta Vista Babel Fish allowed for the construction of search queries in a number of different languages for use with these search engines and it was also used to translate sections of foreign vacancy and career websites into English to enable evaluation by the project researcher Evaluation of new content Any website being considered for inclusion into Graduate Jobsearch was marked against the criteria agreed by the project team and was subject to a usability test. The majority of websites identified as a result of online searching or recommended via feedback were vacancy or job database driven websites which featured some kind of search facility. A dummy search query was therefore carried out on these websites. The searches were used to: Ascertain whether the search facilities were appropriate, i.e. allowed users to conduct basic or advanced searches Check that search results contained up to date and pertinent content relevant to the needs of graduate job seekers Monitor how often site was updated Check that any external links were live Incorporation/ Organisation of new sites The number of new websites being added warranted a rethink of how content should be organised within the site. Previously, lists of websites under each particular category were organised into alphabetical order on the webpage (see Figure 3-1 and Figure 3-2). 9

15 Figure 3-1 Screen shot of 2003/4 version (Guide to Jobsearch on the Internet) websites by area Figure 3-2 Screen shot 2003/4 version (Guide to Jobsearch on the Internet) websites by subject 10

16 Effective organisation of the web content was important to help users identify those websites relevant to them from the hundreds listed. Consequently, recurring, standard sub-categories were introduced to organise the website lists as follows: Function: Search by Location Sub-Categories: Vacancy Sources CV help/careers Guidance Newspapers Other useful links. Search by Job Sector Vacancy Sources Professional Associations Research and funding opportunities Other useful links. Each evaluated website is allocated to the most appropriate sub-section and then organised alphabetically within it. 3.4 IT Liaison Web designers and the web team from the University of Strathclyde were approached to help with the technical aspects of improving and updating the site. We contacted Scott O Donnell, Graphic Designer, at Learning Services and Duncan Ireland, Internet Officer, from the University web team to help with the project. After consultation with the Project manager and project researcher about the requirements of the site, Scott was charged with identifying the most appropriate templates to use and to help develop the general look and design of the site. He was also responsible for ensuring that all pages of the new site were CSS and xhtml compliant, and that accessibility issues were taken into consideration e.g. using appropriate screen readers to ensure that users with visual impairments could access and use the site easily (the site is using LIFT software). The navigation of the site also needed to be addressed and Scott was able to recommend templates that allowed better access to the content as well as ensuring the site followed University regulations as to the use of logos etc. Duncan was involved at a later stage of the project and was responsible for making structural alterations to try and ease maintenance of the site. He also uploaded the new site to the University of Strathclyde s Careers Service main website. 11

17 4 Discussion and Outcomes As stated in an earlier section of this report user feedback has always been an important tool for developing the Graduate Jobsearch so that it can address the diverse career information needs of its wide user base. Many of the changes carried out in this project have been carried out as a direct response to that feedback. 4.1 Key Features of Improved Site Content Comments regarding the original content of the site included: Initially confused as to what the site could give me on the home page. Needs clearer signposting. Websites by area/subject good but listings very spread out. Web sites by area section. I know this is in alpha order but is this most logical in this situation? May be UK, then Europe then rest of world may be more appropriate given the audience? What about adding a Northern Irish section to the area pages as many of our students go to Scottish Universities but want to come home to work? As a result of this project the range and scope of the online content has increased vastly. Earlier versions featured websites relating to only a few countries which did not adequately reflect the needs of our client groups. The countries previously featured were America and Canada, Australia, Europe, Ireland, United Kingdom and International Organisations. Websites listed for each of these countries were generally job vacancy sites organised alphabetically with no further classification. The new version of the Graduate Jobsearch Online has extended the number of countries to reflect the major donor countries of international (non-uk) students. Web pages relating to each of these countries incorporate links to vacancy sites, sites giving advice on job seeking, and popular online newspaper sites. Countries now represented by Graduate Jobsearch are: UK General England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland Europe General Belgium Denmark Finland France 12

18 Germany Greece Ireland Italy Netherlands Norway Spain Switzerland Canada US Australia Africa Asia o China o India o Japan o Korea o Malaysia o Singapore Middle East There is also a web-page featuring useful links regarding international organisations included in the Country section. Earlier versions of Graduate Jobsearch also featured a limited list of occupations and subject areas which was picked up by some users: I notice that there is presently no subject specific info for arts students. If possible, this would be a useful addition. Before this update was carried out, the occupations and subjects featured on Graduate Jobsearch were: Business and Law, Engineering and IT, Environmental Science, Medical Science, Social Science, Maths, Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry. With the increase in new sites to Graduate Jobsearch some of these categories were re-classed as individual sections, while completely new subjects were also added. The revised subjects/occupational areas featured are: Art and Creative Industries Computing and IT Education Engineering Environmental Science Finance HR Law Life Sciences Management Consultancy Marketing Maths 13

19 Physical Sciences Astronomy Chemistry Physics Social Science Voluntary Of the 200 websites that had previously been featured on Graduate Jobsearch approximately 40 had defunct links; in some cases the actual website was still available, however, the URL was invalid and needed to be updated. A number of websites and their associated links were completely obsolete; they either no longer existed or the domain had been taken over by another organisation. Other websites were live with appropriate links but with insufficient and/or out of date text descriptions. Text therefore had to be re-written to adequately illustrate the scope and extent of each particular website. A percentage of previously featured websites needed no action and could remain as they were. At the end of this project the number of websites featured on Graduate Jobsearch Online has increased from 228 websites (across all sections) to over Design and Layout Feedback from users was on the whole was very positive especially with regard to content but they did find the design and layout of the old site unsophisticated and unappealing. A couple of comments about the design are listed below: stylistically - the design of the site looks clunky to me in just one respect -for me your text is too tightly aligned to the edges of the tabulations - I can see you are using a stylesheet for positioning - but if you had been using tables - it would be a matter of adjusting the cell padding in main content and menu bar. More can be improved in terms of blending neutral colour background with the appropriate wordings. The new version of Graduate Jobsearch Online now has a more clean and modern appearance with the predominant red background of the previous version being replaced by blue and white which is also more in keeping with the overall style of the University of Strathclyde s own website. A main title bar appears on each page throughout the site which is simple and clear with a subtle graphic behind the main text which enhances the site visually but does not detract from the content (sees Fig. 4.1). The text font has been kept as it was in previous versions. 14

20 The site still retains a fairly simple layout which will assist users when they come to using it for their job search purposes. The new site still features some of the main elements that were popular in the previous site including the online feedback form which is simple and easy to use for the user, whilst also a useful evaluation and development tool for the project team and future site administrators. Figure 4-1 Screen shot of new Graduate Jobsearch Online homepage Navigation One area that has been improved dramatically is site navigation through the adoption of more sophisticated navigational tools. A static menu bar appears on the left hand side of the home page (and all subsequent pages) enabling users to switch easily between pages. Visitors to the site can access the content in two ways; using either the new floating navigation bars (see Figure 4-2) or by using an alphabetical list which is accessible by clicking on the relevant Search by tab on the main menu bar. A breadcrumb trail, visible along the top of the page under the main title, has also been introduced to help users recognize where they are in the site e.g. how many levels they are away from the homepage. 15

21 Figure 4-2 Screen shot showing floating menu bar The main benefits of the new site are: UK and international graduate job-seekers have online access to a free, global job search facility which has been evaluated and updated with relevant websites; Careers services throughout the UK will have another online resource to recommend to their students and graduates, especially international students; The new site features improved content, navigation and has a new, modern look that will appeal to its users; As an online resource, Graduate Jobsearch Online can be easily referenced on other organisations websites as a Useful Link. Julie Scott December