New Recruitment Channels: Exploration of College Student Employment in China

Malcarne, Joshua; Phillips, Dylan; Hardwick, William; Hariyanto, Andrew

Student Work

New Recruitment Channels: Exploration of College Student Employment in China

Public Deposited

As more people are gaining access to higher education, college students and recent graduates in China are having difficulties finding jobs that fit their specialization due to China’s oversaturated job market. Working together with our sponsor Shanghai Youshi Talent Agency, this Interactive Qualifying Project aims to gauge the need for a platform that utilizes guanxi networks for job opportunities, and to assess the feasibility of career-related peer collaboration in Chinese universities. This project uses a combination of surveys, focus groups, interviews, and existing literature to explore the two topics. The results show that technologies and practices currently exist and that a new platform is not required. It was also found that peer collaboration can occur if students have a sense of peer belongingness brought out through social inclusion and empathy. The recommendation to the sponsor is not to pursue the creation of a new endorsement-based platform, but to focus on creating a platform for collaboration among weaker ties in the form of information sharing and support. Additionally, it is recommended to the sponsor that they research further into activities or events that utilize peer collaboration and foster peer belongingness.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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