Social recruiting : exploring the impact of social networking sites on digital natives’ occupational opportunities

“Social Recruiting: Exploring the Impact of Online Social Networking Sites (SNS) on Digital Natives’ Occupational Opportunities” is a study about the rise of the Digital Native market segment in Greece. Relevant to a number of different fields where recruitment is present (i.e. affiliations, employment and university enrolment), next generation digital nativity has radically transformed capacity-building strategies by organisations. This study on social recruiting explores the impact of social networking sites (SNS) on Greek college graduates’ occupational opportunities and elucidates candidate’s response to SNS strategies as part of the contemporary human resource management (HRM) recruitment models in Greece. It also addresses candidate and HRM professionals’ perceptions in the interest of entrance into the global sphere of employment. SNS integration is becoming vital to the interface of human intelligence in the web-based talent search. Primary data was gathered using both quantitative and qualitative methods, though tripartite research instrumentation. 1) an online survey, distributed on SNS; 2) two focus groups, organised to provide a more in-depth understanding of the responses given on the use of SNS in career development; 3) two semi-structured interviews and one open interview held in Athens with senior level HR managers of multinational organisations located in Greece, for further understanding of this question and to compare student responses. The thesis’ main argument is that Greek university students and graduates are using SNS either to start their career in the private sector or to develop their own professional opportunities that will lead them to a career anywhere in the world. However, whilst they constantly use SNS, Digital Natives make a clear distinction between social and professional use of SNS. This thesis introduces a new taxonomy of web users in relation to their understanding and use of SNS. The four categories, which define contemporary Digital Natives, are (1) Denials (2) Socialisers (3) Contributors, and (4) Achievers.