Connecting talent with employers
From a career guidance publication, Graduan has transitioned into a digital talent recruitment resource, writes Balqis Lim
FINDING a job can be a depressing and long-drawn endeavour. Graduan, a local career resource for Malaysian talent, has come out with an app to help students and graduates land that dream job. With helpful features, Graduan puts the latest vacancies on users’ phones, highlighting those that are nearer to their home.
Graduan business development director, Nabil Marie, says the app is a part of the company’s initiatives in driving digital transformation.
BACKGROUND
Graduan started out in 1994 as a career guidance publication that compiled all available career opportunities into a single comprehensive resource.
Back then, over 200,000 copies of Graduan were distributed to more than 250 leading universities and colleges in Malaysia, United Kingdom, Australia, US, Canada and New Zealand annually.
Through quality content and relationship-building with universities and industry players, Graduan grew to become a major force in talent recruitment; eventually expanding into on-ground activation like career fairs.
“In 2005, we partnered with student societies in the UK where they brought in students and we introduced companies to them. At that time we got six companies to join our first career fair.
“Why UK? Its graduates have always been in demand by multinational companies.
“After the success of the fair, we did another two in Australia, in Melbourne and Sydney. We had up to 15 CEOs and senior management from Malaysia’s top companies speaking at the events,” says Nabil.
Since then, career fairs have been a part of its annual events besides publishing the
Graduan magazine every year.
Graduan launched its first career fair in Kuala Lumpur in 2011.
While it was well-received by the students, Graduan started enountering problems when almost every applicant sent in their resume by email.
DIGITAL JOURNEY
Although Graduan had its first website up in 1997, online was not its main platform because the magazine had a strong foundation and was making good revenue.
It was just a few years ago that Graduan started its digital transformation and extracting business outcomes, leveraging digital technologies such as data analytics, cloud, mobile and social media.
“To cater to this generation’s digitalfirst graduates, we revamped our website so that when we go to overseas fairs, all students have to do is just drop in their CVs on our website.
“On the back end, when companies access our database, they can filter the candidates based on their criteria and contact the students themselves,” says Nabil.
GRADUAN 2.0
The revamped Graduan.com is a one-stop online platform that connects talent with employers through interactive features, articles, videos, listings, targeted content and more.
Graduates can find the latest hiring information as well as articles, tips and trends to help them with their job search.
The Graduan app, which was launched early this year, aims at becoming a preferred digital resource for students.
All the features on its website are available in the Graduan app. Additionally, the Graduan app has developed a locationbased job search.
“Some people want to work close to their home or near a train station. So location is an important part of searching for jobs. So now we have the feature in the Graduan app.”
The app also helps job seekers plan their route via Waze or Google Maps so they will not be late for interviews.
WHAT’S NEXT
Till today, people still ask for the magazine but its role has changed over time — it’s a means to invite people to visit the website.
“Graduan magazine has become an annual publication and more of a brand awareness product. These days, going digital is vital in assisting our clients. In short, our digital platform caters to their hiring schedule.”
Graduan is working on a personalised QR code for each individual who registers at Graduan.com.
“With the code, they gain easy entry to our career fairs by ditching the registration process.
“At career fairs, a lot of resumes are stacked at every booth, and the company will not remember each and every student who drops by.
“With the QR code, students can just scan their profile for the companies without the need to key in details in the computer at booths. It’s much more efficient,” says Nabil.
Graduates can find the latest hiring information as well as articles, tips and trends to help them with their job search.
Nabil Marie