FT Business school: Recruiting via social

Welcome to the second edition of the FT Business school newsletter, a weekly serving of management wisdom, reading recommendations and business-related challenges. FT subscribers can sign up here to receive the newsletter by email every Monday. If you have any feedback about FT Business school, please email bschool@ft.com.

Andrew Hill's challenge

The FT's management editor sets a weekly test of your business, strategy and management skills.

Deutsche Bank is the latest blue-chip employer to experiment with its recruiting techniques, in an attempt to widen the pool of candidates. My colleague Laura Noonan writes that the bank is turning to Twitter and Facebook in the hope that by scouring social media feeds it will pick up possible recruits "who would not apply through traditional channels". The idea met the scorn of an unnamed rival who said that intruding into a millennials' social media would "feel like turning up at a university house party with a careers brochure".

For this week's challenge, write a tweet — 140 characters maximum, of course — that would best sum up the attractions of banking for a young, tech-savvy potential recruit who had never considered that career path. We'll highlight the best, and wittiest, job adverts in future issues. Send your ideas to bschool@ft.com.

In my further reading this week: I am fascinated by Ray Dalio, who founded Bridgewater, the hedge fund group, and runs it according to a management regime of "rigorous transparency". Last week — partly to set the record straight following a Wall Street Journal article about his company that he disliked — Mr Dalio gave an interview to Henry Blodget of Business Insider that shed further light on Bridgewater's idiosyncratic culture.

Professor's picks

Every week a business school professor or academic recommends useful FT articles.

Kai Peters, chief executive and chief academic officer of Ashridge, selects three articles:

1) Cities offer a glimpse of China’s economic future

How China develops in the coming years will have a tremendous influence on both economics and geopolitics. This article is interesting because it paints three competing and compelling scenarios for the future: new economy, stagnation or an acute crisis. What do they mean? Are there other scenarios which have not been considered? Lastly, is China’s form of state capitalism easier to manage and thus a better system than a free market economy?

2) Stampede to cash in ‘gold plated’ final salary company pensions

This article looks at the reasons behind why some people are cashing in their final salary, or defined benefit, pensions. It makes me think about how does one manage staff benefits and also ensure from a societal perspective that people have money in retirement? It looks like some people will not have enough money in retirement, which means governments will have to chip in.

3) Sweden’s new business king takes the long-term view

This is an article about the Swedish Industrivarden group. It raises questions such as what form of ownership is best? Long term or short term? Continental or Anglo American?

Ask the academics

Got a question for leading business school experts? Send it to bschool@ft.com and we will publish the best replies in future newsletters.

Jonathan Moules' business school news

The clock is ticking for those who have been considering a place at business school this year. The deadline for applications at many schools is this month. For those who still have questions about what to put in their entries, our MBA blog on application essays may help.

The big event this week will be the arrival of Wharton graduate Donald Trump in the White House. Kaye Wiggins has written about the opportunities that business schools, in Canada and the UK, feel they could receive from Donald Trump's inauguration, as they seek to attract candidates who might be put off studying in the US.

It is uncertain what the president-elect would make of the gender equality group Manbassadors, run by students at London Business School, but my piece about a visit to their meeting in a pub near Baker Street has attracted a lively debate on the FT site.

Test your knowledge

How good is your grasp of the news? Test your reading of last week's top stories with the FirstFT quiz.

Compiled by Wai Kwen Chan