Milkround Online reveals students and graduates are keen to work for Internet companies

More than three quarters of students and graduates claim working for an internet-based company is an attractive opportunity.

But two in five claim they would fear for their income due to perceived poor job security.

Milkround Online polled 100 students and graduates about working for Internet-based companies. A total of 78 percent said they are attracted to web company roles, but 41 percent complained they offer poor job security.

Positive reasons for working in the industry included its entrepreneurial aspects such as allowing for creativity, being open to new business visions and posing fresh challenges in a fast-developing sector. The potential to work from home and being on the cutting edge of where technology and business meet were other popular traits. Seven in ten respondents rated Internet-based companies as having the same level of professionalism as that of more traditional, office-based work.

However, while students and graduates are confident in the quality and professionalism of Internet-based companies, they have less faith in how long they will be in a job. Two in five perceive them to offer poorer job security than other companies with just 15 percent believing them to offer better security.

When asked what industry suited the Internet best, honours were split evenly across the popular sectors such as media and travel, closely followed by recruitment and banking. Personal experiences of Internet companies ranged from them offering good value for money and easy-to-use services to common complaints of lacking the personal touch and offering poor customer service.

Milkround Online spokesman Mike Barnard said: ìItís no surprise that working for an Internet-based company is becoming increasingly popular, especially given the huge growth of social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. However, businesses have got a long way to go before they shed the perception that the Internet puts a barrier between the customer and good customer service.î