Social networking and job search : examining the impacts of a company's involvement in social networks on undergraduates' career choice.

This study examines the relationship between a company’s involvement in online social networking sites and an undergraduate’s career choice. In this study, career decision-making was broken down into four influencing factors: a company’s level of involvement in social networking sites, perceived employee welfare, perceived job satisfaction and perceived social status. This paper analyzes the career decision-making from an online social networking perspective based on how a company’s level of involvement in social networking sites affect one’s career decision both directly and indirectly through its influence on perceived employee welfare, perceived job satisfaction and perceived social status. The results of the 2 sample T-test indicate that a company’s level of involvement in social networking sites has a positive relationship with perceived employee welfare, perceived job satisfaction, perceived social status and one’s willingness to join a company. In addition, the results from our multiple regression analysis show that level of involvement has an insignificant effect on one’s willingness to join a company when examined together with the other independent variables. This implies that involvement has an indirect effect on an applicant’s willingness to join a company through the variables: perceived job satisfaction, perceived employee welfare and perceived social status. Hence, as companies increase their involvement on social media networks, they also need to recognize the indirect effect of social media by ensuring that the message being projected encompasses the variables in order to optimize the benefits in recruitment from social media network involvement.BUSINES