Determinants of Graduate Students’ Usage of Online Social Media as a Job Searching Tool: The Changing Landscape of Labor Market in Bangladesh.

Abstract

The purpose of this original work is to find the determining factors affecting graduate students’ usage of online social media (e.g., Facebook) as a job searching tool. Based on rigorous literature review three latent variables (i.e., graduate students’ perception about Facebook as effective for professional networking, their Facebook usage pattern, and job recruiter’s responsiveness on their Facebook pages) are hypothesized to have significant positive impact on Facebook usage as a job searching tool. Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is applied to analyze data from 200 respondents incorporated into 13 observed variables and to get the concluding remarks regarding the hypothesized relationships. All of three latent variables are found to have significant positive impact on the dependent latent construct. Findings are also bearing great importance for the HR policy makers in terms of addressing the issue of how to deal with online social media during recruitment process.