Management consultancy firms’ approach to IEM students’ social media exposure - A study investigating Industrial Engineering and Management students’ social media exposure and how it may affect their hireability at management consultancy firms in Sweden

Due to the digitization and increased accessibility to internet, social media has now become vital part of most people’s lives. Today, even most professional organizations have implemented social media in their business strategy, using it for several purposes such as recruiting, marketing, internal communication, brand awareness and employer branding. Neither students nor graduates from Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), or management consultancy firms (MCFs) in Sweden deviate from this statement. The MCFs and IEM students’ mutual interest in each other is well-established and considering both sides’ increasing presence and exposure on social networking websites (SNWs), a research on how an IEM student’s social media exposure affects the student’s hireability at an MCF in Sweden. The objective of this report is to identify, analyze and map the attitudes of MCFs stationed in Sweden in relation to IEM students’ social media exposure. By identifying and analyzing the attitudes of the MCF, the authors hope to develop a deeper understanding of how students’ social media behavior affects their possibility to employment at a MCF in Sweden. The theoretical framework presented in the report initially outlines an overview of the framework, providing information about the research areas from which the secondary data was collected. Then the theoretical framework deals with key concepts such as person-environment fit, values and attitudes, and values-based organizations (VBOs). The framework also addresses social media and its role in today’s recruiting. The research is of qualitative character and is based upon empirical data gathered from interviews with MCFs in Sweden. The work process was initiated by collecting information about the MCFs’ through their websites and then contacting them via email and phone. Meanwhile, a literature study was initiated in order to understand the concept of social media in a recruiting context, as well as laying the foundation for the theoretical framework. By conducting interviews with eleven different respondents working with recruiting at MCFs, information regarding their attitudes on social media in a recruiting context was gathered. The collected empirical data was then connected with the theoretical framework in an analysis chapter, leading up to a final discussion and conclusions. The research study shows that professional SNWs and especially LinkedIn are associated with positive attitudes amongst the MCFs. IEM students and graduates can affect their hireability positively by exposing a broad, relevant and coherent network, updated qualifications and general knowledge by taking part in relevant discussions on LinkedIn. By not having a presence, having an unpolished LinkedIn profile and/or non-updated information therein affects the hireability negatively. IEM students should be aware of their non-professional social media behavior and what they post there. The research study shows that IEM students should use full privacy settings on their non-professional SNWs to affect their hireability positively.