The story appears on

Page B8

November 10, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Benchmark

Looking for a job at L’Oreal? Don’t sweat over the traditional resume

AS the year enters its final quarter, company recruiters are once again on the prowl for the best and brightest among 7 million university and college students due to graduate next July.

For students, it’s a tough choice: a job or further study for an advanced degree.

If the past is anything to go by, about three-quarters of the new graduates will decide to begin their careers.

Shanghai Daily invited Jacob Bonk, recruitment director of L’Oreal China, to discuss how his company is structuring its search for young talent and what the company is looking for among applicants.

He points to an innovative new approach. The recruitment drive this year is discarding traditional resumes in the first step of application and instead using mobile phone communications app WeChat and online video interviews to vet applicants and fill management trainee positions.

Bonk said that he hopes technology will provide a highly selective and efficient recruitment process as the company looks for 70 trainees from among tens of thousands of applications.

Q: How does the WeChat application system work?

A: We have opened WeChat campus recruitment account where students can apply for our management trainee programs in Shanghai and other cities. On this platform, we don’t ask students to submit a resume and we don’t ask them about their previous experience. They need only fill in basic information, such as name, contact details, and education, and then answer three open-ended questions that ask them how they would resolve some complicated situation or dilemma. What we care about most are the real personalities of students and if they match our required competencies, rather their places of birth or any internships they may have done. The job applicants who pass the online-application stage will qualify for the next round of video interviews.

Q: How do you ensure that an applicant can be judged fairly and thoroughly with only three questions?

A: Every year we receive a lot of applications on our website. Our recruitment team previously would screen the applications manually. One problem is that a resume doesn’t necessarily tell us whether an applicant’s capabilities meet our requirements or whether a person would fit in our corporate culture. And I feared that some of our best potential candidates were not getting to the interview stage. We wanted to find a solution that would use modern mobile technology and a breakthrough assessment platform, and we believe this is what we have developed.

From a technological perspective, we have a very good partner helping us developing that system. Questions are based on competencies to match the applicants to the L’Oreal culture. And it guarantees that all data are analyzed in a very scientific way. I cannot tell you how they do it or what the criteria are because then applicants could attempt to change the way they answer the questions. The best situation for them, and for us, is that they are answering the questions naturally.

The truth is that it doesn’t become any easier to become selected by L’Oréal. It is actually more complex. What we’ve created with the Wechat application is a way for more students to join the first step, but we’ll still have a really tough interview process that includes a video interview, group assessment, and individual interviews. It is not easy for the applicants, but selecting the best is really important for us because we hope these fresh graduates will someday become general managers or even our future CEO.

Q: Is L’Oreal anxious to woo the younger generation?

A: Management trainees are a crucial source of innovation and dynamism to the company. To attract young talent, we have to develop a recruitment method in line with their way of communication. Mobile phones have become a most convenient tool for students to learn recruitment information.

Based on market data, we believe more than 60 percent of university students spend more than three hours a day on the Internet using a smart phone. The use of mobile Internet to obtain information has become an essential part of everyday life for post-90s university students. The WeChat application platform we created is an attempt to address those trends. Previously, students may have needed to spend two or three hours completing an online application. Now I think it will take much less time. Also, through science-based and innovative recruitment methods, customized career plans, and accelerated development plans, we look forward to developing the future leaders of the industry.

Q: What do you expect from young job seekers?

A: Our company is not a place for everyone. We are basically looking for innovative and risk taking people because our business is very much driven by innovation. People who conform to accepted rules have their merits, but they are probably not suitable for us. Also, being a cosmetic company means that we have sense of beauty. We need people to be good at expressing themselves even if they are applying to work in our finance department. Also, they need to be self-motivated. Work is always hard and you need to be passionate about what you do.

Q: Any advice for students?

A: During the entire application and interview process be sure that you are not putting on a mask. Be yourself and express what you want from your career and your employer, and then be selective about what function you work in and the company you work for. When you are researching the company, also be sure to try and understand the industry, because there is always a chance you will want to move to a new company in the future and it will probably be in the same industry.

Look for industries that are stable, and with innovative new brands and products that keep changing the market. It should be an industry where startups and established companies are challenging each other to continue pushing new ideas. This is one of the key reasons I wanted to work in cosmetics, and of course I wanted to work for the best company in the industry — so I came to L’Oreal.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend