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