1.1 Why LinkedIn for STEM?

LinkedIn is an effective and increasingly popular platform, especially for STEM recruitment, so it is worth getting to know how best to use it to your advantage. In a recent review based on data from over 300 million LinkedIn member profiles worldwide, 18 of the 25 positions listed were STEM roles. In other words, STEM specialities dominate hiring priorities, especially in the technology sector.

According to the report, the ten most sought after skills include:

1. statistical analysis and data mining
2. middleware and integration software
3. business intelligence
4. storage systems and management
5. Perl/Python/Ruby
6. mobile development
7. network and information security
8. SEO/SEM marketing
9. foreign language translation
10. Java development

The author of the report Maria Ignatova (2014) explains:

Listen to John, an SSE HR manager, talk about how he uses LinkedIn in his company's recruitment.

Download this video clip.Video player: return_to_stem_week2vid2_512x256.mp4

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Transcript

JOHN

Our perspective in using things like LinkedIn and social media – I think certainly over the last few years we've seen that as a very viable route to market. It's replaced what I would call some of the headhunting activity, where we've gone out for professional roles. We've been able to post roles is one thing, but also, if people update their profile and indicate that they're interested in our company, or they're interested in specific type roles, that allows our recruiters to actually target people on an active basis.

So two things you'll see from our perspective as an organisation is one, fairly active with our recruitment team flagging up roles, flagging up opportunities, flagging up the type of arrangements, pay, working hours that come with them. But also, if you're up-to-date in LinkedIn, and you're clear the kind of career opportunities you're looking for, your experience and skill set is up-to-date, you'll find that our recruiters will come along and nudge people like yourself from that point of view.

End transcript

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