Chief executive of the Australian Industry Group Innes Willox delivered the Occasional Address during last week's graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences. He said he wanted to make the point that they needed to be serious to seek serious jobs, and employers would definitely stalk their profiles when doing reference checks.

"Employers don't want to know about the last party they were at or how they got really drunk somewhere ... or how their favourite book was The Da Vinci Code. That's not the sort of thing an employer would look fondly upon, and [social media] has a real ability to influence prospective employers' views on a prospective employee."

Mr Willox also told uni leavers to embrace change, as it would provide opportunities in the future, as well as creating enormous challenges. He used the Illawarra as a prime example.

"Wollongong has in the past been heavily reliant on the steel mill, but the steel mill is being impacted by change and is looking to become leaner, smarter, and more productive through changing technology," he said.

"With its industrial base, Wollongong has that advantage to make those changes, and it's also seen a lot of entrepreneurial smaller businesses come to town, because of that proximity to Sydney and that link to the university, so I think that is going to be very important to Wollongong's future."

A tight labour market has made it one of the hardest times for graduates to find a job, as the demand for high-end skills is greater than ever. My advice is they need to be persistent and not daunted by the challenge, because there are evolving changes in the workplace they can grab hold of and they should never stop wanting to learn.