Land your dream job - through social networking sites!

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Vaishali Bhambri | 30 Jul, 2009
Ever thought of logging on to a social networking website to find a job? These sites have become a huge hit with job seekers in India who not only look for career opportunities but also interact with potential employers online.

At a time when recession has hit people hard, social networking sites like Apnacircle.com, Linkedin.com, ibibo.com and Facebook are giving a tough competition to job portals.

"We generate over five million page reviews in a month and we have about half a million registered users on our websites," said Yogesh Bansal, founder and CEO of ApnaCircle.com, a career-cum-social networking site, which was launched in the year 2006.

"We have managed to loop both the social and career aspects of networking in our site," said Bansal, who was in the US and saw how these social networking sites were helping people get jobs there.

Making a resume is also easy. Job seekers have to just put their professional-cum-personal profile on the sites and add relevant information under various sub-topics, he said.

As soon as the profile appears on the site, one gets an sms and sometimes the sites themselves offer jobs.

"Your profile builds your image, packages you as a brand and acts as your resume as it reveals relevant information about you and your professional self," added Bansal.

For software engineer Ankit Gupta, making a profile on these websites is like giving a classified advertisement in a newspaper.

"I got a reference about a job opening through my friend on one of these sites. I checked the site and applied for the job. After an interview, I was finally placed with 3G Soft Solutions," said an overjoyed Gupta.

"Through such sites one gets to network with different people from different personal and professional spaces who can be useful in building contacts and getting us the desired jobs," said Gupta.

Another benefit of these sites is that many employers often visit various career oriented groups and communities on these sites to hunt for the right employee.

"Our website provides the opportunity to build up a professional network, where prospective employers and employees come to network, connect and build relevant contacts. Various job openings are also listed in a section from where you can look out for job opportunities," said a staff member of ibibo.com who did not want to be named.

Agreeing that these websites act as an added benefit for job seekers, Megha Sareen, a freelance writer, said she got her dream job after she posted 'looking for a job' status on her profile on one of these websites.

"I posted my current profile and added the status messages as 'looking for a job'. In response to this, I got e-mails and posts from interested employers, friends on my list and friends of friends," said 24-year-old Sareen who is freelancing for a firm.

She said these sites also offer a unique opportunity as there are communities that one can visit to befriend those working in a company that one wants to join.

"People log on to communities and groups of various companies on these sites. So it is easy to make friends with them and it is also good to build one's contact for the future," she added.

For students like Rachit Puri, the future looks a bit more bright.

"Even though I am a student still, I have made my profile on such sites so that I can start building contacts from now itself," said Puri, who is a third year student of computer science engineering at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology.

"I make it a point to add people employed with top software firms and, who knows, I may get a call from Microsoft," he said.

"Earlier people used to run from pillar to post to build contacts, but now it is possible at just the click of a mouse," added Puri.

Note:
* The author is a freelance journalist.
* The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his/ her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.