As collegiettes™ about to graduate looking out on the job market, there’s a lot of factors to consider in your first job: location, benefits, growth opportunities… but would you say no to the job of your dreams if you couldn’t access Facebook during your shift?
That’s the feeling of some college students, as this new study says that one in three college grads said that access to social media sites like Facebook and the ability to choose their own devices was more important to them than salary when considering a job offer. This was according to a worldwide study of 2,800 college students and young professionals conducted by Cisco. More than 40 percent went so far as to say that they would accept less money for a job that was down with social media at work on a device of their choosing if it also included telework.
The study was conducted to determine what the next workforce of college graduates, wants from employers and what they consider to be a reasonable work/life balance, including matters of social media.
Consider some of these surprising facts garnered from this study:
- 68 percent believe their companies should allow them to access social media and personal sites with their work-issued devices.
- Over half of college students globally (56 percent) said that if they were offered a job at a company that banned access to social media, they would either turn it down, or ignore it.
- Two-thirds said they will ask about social media usage policies during job interviews.
- 41 percent of those in the workforce said their companies convinced them to take the job by offering them flexible device choice and friendly social media policies when recruiting them.
- At the same time, almost a third of the employees 31 percent said their expertise with social media and devices actually helped land them the job.
Not surprisingly, more than 77 percent have multiple devices, including multiple phones and computers, but more suprisingly, they demanded flexibility with their technology of choice. Thirty-three percent of participants said they use at least three devices for work and 81 percent wanted to choose the device for their job – either receiving funds to purchase the work device or bringing in a personal one in addition to standard company-issued devices.
While traditional employers may view Facebook as superfluous, this study suggests that companies that ban social media sites will not attract new talent and could leave them behind. It’s also a testament to how deeply ingrained social media has become in our lives.
What do you think, collegiettes™? Would you forfeit a job offer for Facebook?