JOSE RICARDO Rodriguez Ferreita - known as Junior - dreamed ofusing his Brazilian footballing skills in Europe. So he advertisedhimself on the Internet. The "Jobs Wanted" message was spotted by afan from Rhayader, and 20-year-old Junior got an e-mail from Britaincalling him over for a trial at the Welsh league club. Sadly, aftera few games for the first team he did not make the grade, so heheaded back to Brazil last month.
Phil Reid , a 45-year-old engineer, had a more successfulexperience with the Internet. He had changed jobs several times,using the time- honoured conventional checking of newspaperadvertisements and registering with employment agencies.
To find a new position this spring, he went online, with almostimmediate results. On 30 April he used his home computer to log onto monster.co.uk and found an advertisement for a post placed justthe day before. He sent off his application and within days wasbeing interviewed for job production engineering manager withStafford- Miller, the healthcare company that owns the market-leadingbrands Sensodyne toothpaste and Polygrip denture treatment. ByMonday last week he was at his new desk at the Plymouth plant.Mr Reid says his experience proves how perception of the Internethas changed in a few years. "People seem to think that the Internetis just for younger anorak types," he says. "The Internet is foreverybody."And everybody is interested in keeping an eye open for better jobprospects, be it from the privacy of their own home or throughsurreptitious surfing behind the boss's back at work. Job-relatedwebsites spring up almost weekly. Employers and recruiting agenciesare exploiting a channel that can deliver not just information butpeople too.Research by the US company Forrester shows recruitment is thefastest- growing advertising category on the Internet. In the UK, astudy earlier this year by National Opinion Polls revealed thatnearly 10.6 million people used the Internet at least once last year,an increase of 48 per cent on the previous year's seven million.Crucially, the report showed that more than a million British peopleare using it to search for jobs.With established search consultancies trying to protect their turfby piling into the online market alongside upstarts, US estimatespredict the total Internet recruiting market will grow from $250mthis year to $5.1bn, or half the size of the traditional searchindustry, by 2003.Sometimes, old habits die hard. Mr Reid did not sign on for aninteractive test, and chose to send in his CV by post, not e-mail.But he still bears out some of the claims made for onlinerecruitment. "It was much quicker, a very dynamic process," he says.Ken Brotherston, UK managing director of Futurestep, the servicelaunched by the leading executive search firm Korn/Ferry and the WallStreet Journal, believes this is part of what makes using theInternet attractive to companies. "Typically, a search takes 90 to120 days," he says. "Over the Internet, it's about 30 days."Futurestep has attracted 9,000 registered candidates since beingestablished in Britain a month ago, and has been used by Shell, 3Comand other well- known organisations. Mr Brotherston claims it isalso better than more conventional search processes thanks to anassessment tool the firm has developed that matches candidates andorganisations according to both skills and experience."It's a massive saving on clients' time," he says. "And it shouldget better fits and lead to less likelihood of people leaving aftersix months, which is incredibly expensive." These benefits, he adds,justify him charging about the same as the traditional executivesearch fees.With the technology throwing up the most suitable 50 candidatesfrom up to 10,000 names almost instantaneously, there can be littlecomplaint about the thoroughness of the search. "What it does isfocus the consultant on what's important. It means the consultantcan zoom in on people who are appropriate," he says.Futurestep is even willing to help with the online equivalent ofputting yourself around. Under the slogan, "It's not what you know,it's who knows you" it offers a service that enables job seekers toregister for on-line tests of their decision-making abilities,suitability for certain positions, as well as a read-out on that keyassessment of their worth on the market. Then they join a databasewhich enables them to be considered for every suitable post.Karen Skewies, director of monster.co.uk, the service Mr Reidused, says the Internet helps companies reach a wider audience,points candidates to corporate websites for full information aboutthe organisation, and - increasingly importantly - attracts"computer-savvy people".Not surprisingly, the information technology industry was amongthe first to see the recruitment value of the Internet. Noting thatstudents and employees of other organisations were constantlyaccessing their websites, companies including Cisco Systems andOracle started using them as recruitment tools.Many sites are little more than bulletin boards - essentially anelectronic form of the traditional advertisements that appear innewspapers and magazines - but as the technology develops, thesophistication is increasing.A company called ITM has launched a service aimed at final-yearstudents - almost all of whom have access to the Internet - that aimsto make the job hunt look more like a trip through a theme park. TheInternet-linked Activate CD-Rom allows candidates to access companywebsites and apply for positions online while also offering computergames.More seriously, companies such as TMP, which includesmonster.co.uk in what is claimed to be the largest network of "onlinecareer hubs" in the world, are attempting to move Internetrecruitment beyond the electronic equivalent of the "passiveadvertisement". Ray Everett set up TMP's UK interactive businesswhile working as a traditional recruitment consultant, and now putsparticular effort into identifying areas on the web being used by histarget audience, though they may not be looking for a job at thatmoment.Internet forums - electronic clubs where people with commoninterests gather on the web - as well as newsgroups, whereprofessional groups swap developments are ideal. Using powerfulsoftware, it can key in certain words and even look for individuals'home sites or attempt to track e- mails aimed at building ever biggerdatabases.National boundaries are irrelevent. Mr Everett tells of theGlasgow operation of the US controls company Honeywell seeking aproduction engineer who knew the German market and could speak thelanguage. Having tried and failed with the traditional newspaperadvertisement route, Mr Everett's team posted the vacancy on the weband quickly came up with a German national, who got the job.
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