On Jobs on Google Search Being Launched Right in Time for Graduation Season in the Philippines

Stacie Chan: “Whenever we launch in any country globally, we work very closely with the local marketing team just to really get insights on when’s the best time is to launch.

Millennials make up a huge portion of the Philippine workforce, we know that there are hundreds of thousands of graduates that are gonna be unemployed, looking for a job in a couple of months. We wanted to get this out the door well before then, so if they want they can already start browsing the feature, start applying for jobs and try to align it as close to their graduation day as possible.”

On Partnering with Different Universities

Stacie: “Partnership is a really interesting word. With Google, the ultimate goal is always to try to scale outreach. With this product, we open it up to everyone; there’s technical documentation online that’s public, so if one university wants to integrate their jobs, absolutely, or if they want to let people know about our feature, they’re absolutely open to that.

Nothing is ever ‘exclusive’ or contracts, even with our current partners, there’s no contract. We believe that our product actually is mutually beneficial for both them and for Google.”

On How ‘Baby Boomers’ Can Use the Feature

Stacie: “We see this challenge with ‘the internet’, and any tech company in general. Digital literacy is really important, and that takes a village. It’s not just one product at Google or even one team at any other tech companies responsible to do that, I think we all work together with other companies.

When I was talking to Kalibrr, I said ‘this is absolutely a problem we both need to tackle’ in a much broader, macro picture. It’s not gonna be solved by the product that we launched for jobs, that is for those who already are familiar with navigating the internet, they generally know how to search and use filters. All of us should be bought into and work together.”

How this Feature will Help Out of School Youth

Stacie: “We try to provide as much information upfront about the job, so there’s a lot of different filters you can toggle through so the job type work by experience. I think for a lot of these recent graduates, it’s incumbent on them to be realistic about what opportunities they can actually apply for.

Making those pieces of information clear, upfront is our goal, and the way we try to work with our partners to do that is to get all that information from employers. If they can be transparent about salary, about the number of years of experience required, it helps everyone. It’s much more long-term conversations with employers on how do they attract the best talent and how do they hire the right people. They need to be more forthcoming with their information.”

On Tapping ‘Traditional’ Businesses

Stacie: “I think it’s tough. Google is committed to helping businesses and people as well, bring their digital presence online, because we know you can just scale your reach so much more than just a flyer or a sign in the window. It starts with a lot of education on how people can leverage digital tools to help them. It seems like a big ‘upfront’ investment, but in the long run, it pays huge dividends.”

Why Now is the Best Time for the Philippines to Have a ‘Digital Evolution’

Stacie: “I think Filipinos are so uniquely poised, not just in Southeast Asia, but Asia, because you (Filipinos) all have the skillsets. What we saw on Google search was that 95% of searches are done in English, the command of the English language makes Filipinos ‘hireable’ across the world. So there’s really no limits for what Filipinos can do, and everyone is so tech-savvy, everyone understands how to use a mobile device, everyone understands how to connect to the internet.

By leveraging the internet, they know that there are no limits to a certain industry and that they don’t have to settle. With the internet, the possibilities are endless.”

On Partnering with Other Job-Searching Websites

Stacie: “We talked with some of the biggest players in the ecosystem that’s really to prompt the ecosystem and see the ecosystem and say ‘hey look these guys agreed to work with Google, you all can too.’ Obviously, it doesn’t just stop here, we always continue conversations; if there are other websites who are interested we’re more than happy to have those conversations. The product only gets better the more people work with Google and implement the technical code and instructions.”

On Google’s Learnings from Working in the Philippines

Stacie: “I learned so much just by actually talking to users. On Monday, I visited a few young Filipinos, and it was really remarkable just to see how they search, what they search for, and how often they’re searching, and they really have great aspirations and that was really heartening to hear. That’s why I’m so committed from a product perspective, specifically on Jobs, to just keep bringing those opportunities.

I feel like now it’s really coming on me to keep pushing those dreams. Keep adding more Metadata so that they can filter and find the right job for them. It’s not just about the number of jobs, the quantity, but truly the right jobs for them.”

Google Philippines is certainly making life easier and better for all of us!

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