Personal contacts still integral for IT job-hunters

12:54 31st July 2008

Developing personal contacts is still the most important job search tool despite the emergence of social networking, a new study has shown.

In a survey of 500 European executives, conducted by the recruitment firm Harvey Nash, it was found that although 90 per cent of respondents had signed up to an online networking site, only 24 per cent believed that this was important.

This lags behind the 81 per cent who felt developing personal contacts was an important recruitment tool and the 63 per cent who advised contacting recruiters.

Carol Rosati, director at Harvey Nash, said: "Whilst online networking does not replace human interaction, it does provide candidates with an additional set of resources to create and maintain a personal brand."

This week, IBM delivered what it hailed as "outstanding" first half-year sales of £13.5 billion, as it defied the current economic downturn.

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