Job seekers turn to social networks

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Xing, the first online community to offer its shares to the public, is expected to report 2008 sales rising 77 per cent to €34.7 million (£29.05 million), with profits rising even faster, according to a consensus of analysts provided by the company.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests the macro slowdown might even boost subscriber growth and therefore Xing's core revenue source," HSBC analyst Dominik Klarmann said in a research note.

The fast-growing phenomenon of social networks has over the years attracted intense interest from investors and companies like IBM, Microsoft and News Corp, and earlier this year the largest US cable service provider Comcast bought Plaxo.

Soumitra Dutta, professor at European business school Insead and co-author of a recently published social networking book Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom, said new online ties could often lead to someone's next job.

"Networks are very good examples of weak ties. Traditionally it has been thought that we need strong ties to get jobs, but we often get jobs through weak ties, not strong ties," Dutta said.

This worked for Bryan Webb, a 57-year old sales manager with a manufacturing company in Canada. It took him a while to build up a network to find a job after he joined LinkedIn, but it paid off last year.

Webb started by sending an application in response to an advert, but later found three people from the firm including the head of operations in his LinkedIn network.

He asked his network friend to pass on a recommendation to a third person, who was connected to the chief at the new firm.

"I still don't know who it was ... but it really made the process smoother and got me the job," Webb said.

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