I got a long list of a really good questions after the Lecture about SEO and Social Media Marketing on the University of Osijek. The lecture wouldn’t have been half as interesting if not fuelled by the challenging questions from the audience. The students and graduates of Faculty of Economics and Business Informatics showed deep understanding of the topics, and engaged in discussions on various topics.
I was really surprised by the quality of the questions, and the discussion that the same created during the official presentation and later on in the ‘unofficial’ chats later on.
When afterwards I found out that majority of them struggle to find a job, I simply couldn’t believe it. Some questions revealed some niche expertise like in depth understanding on Facebook marketing, that I thought must be a sought for skill. IN the same time I am told the same person will find it really hard to get a marketing role since she has just finished her Masters degree, and has a very little work experience. By looking at her online activity on the social media networks – her reach is enormous.
The students will say that they are overeducated. The Employers will say that they are under experienced.
But what it seems to me is that employers actually need to understand the change in business better, and accept that there is more or less no experienced social media marketing manager in this world jet. Simply since the whole marketing aspect of the social media sites is only being commercialised recently, and there is no one with X years’ experience in it.
Perhaps there is another view on the current skills in demand and on offer mismatch. Perhaps it is not that the schools and universities are not producing what is actually needed for the industries. Perhaps the potential employers need to understand how to hire the talent in all this new industries, that didn’t even existed a few short years age when current graduates have ben choosing topics they will study.