Online job searches come out top for graduates

The internet and its wealth of job information provided by online job boards, job search engines and careers service job listings is the top choice for students looking for graduate jobs and places on postgraduate courses.

A report by Graduate Prospects has found that 80 per cent of final-year students believe the internet is the most useful source of information on career prospects - compared with just 51 per cent choosing newspapers.

For final year students faced with the impending reality of finding a job, the internet comes out on top again - 44 per cent said they go online to look for work.

Email is the top way to get information about vacancies - more than half the finalists receive job alerts via email, with 19 per cent receiving vacancy bulletins from their university careers service.

The unstoppable power of the internet is impacting on every aspect of graduate recruitment, Graduate Prospects chief executive Mike Hill told Online Recruitment.

It is embraced fully by students as a resource for careers advice and job hunting.

Of the ten per cent who had secured a graduate job by the start of their final year, almost a quarter had sourced it online, the report found.