How job hunting goes smart, mobile and social

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2015-11-19

A job applicant scans a QR code with a smartphone to have access to a company's website in Jinjiang, East China's Fujian province, in this Feb 26, 2015 file photo. [Photo/IC]

Forget job fairs and recruiting websites for now.

Job seekers can try their luck at the News Feeds on WeChat, a popular instant messaging and calling app, which is becoming a trendy place for employers to publish job vacancies.

Smartphones are revolutionizing almost all industries and are now taking on another bastion of tradition – the job sector, as young people in China, especially those who were born in 1980s and 1990s and grew up with electronic gadgets, watch TV shows, shop, and now land a job on their phones.

Job applicants traditionally turn to career websites like zhaopin.com, which lists job information, and Craigslist-style classified advertisements sites. Head-hunting companies help with hiring by snatching up candidates with work experience. Fresh college graduates also go to job fairs.

Instead of posting on careers sites or turning to head hunters, more and more employers either advertise job opportunities on News Feeds, an accumulation of posts only seen by friends, or launch a public account designed to publish recruiting announcements.

By doing so, business people can make the maximum use of connections formed by friends on WeChat, who can recommend candidates after seeing the job posts on News Feeds.

Job seekers also like this way too. Tech-savvy college graduates opt to subscribe to prospective employers’ WeChat public accounts and wait for updates rather than be inundated by all kinds of information on career sites or squeeze into a job fair that can always be packed with desperate competitors for limited available jobs.

Job hunting season started in September for fourth-year university students, as most want to secure an employment contract before graduation in July.