70% people in India find jobs via referrals from friends and family: BCG Survey

When everything in India is going the Internet way, a new survey by the global management consulting firm Boston Consulting  Group has revealed that job referrals from friends and family is still the most effective way of finding jobs in the country. About 70 per cent people found jobs using this medium in 2014.

What's even more surprising is that the second most effective medium for finding jobs in the country is print (job ads and job magazines) and 9 per cent of people surveyed found jobs using this platform last year, the survey said. Internet came in as the third most effective medium for finding jobs in India and only 8 per cent of the respondents found jobs using digital media in 2014.

On the other hand, globally among the 20 per cent of employed people who changed jobs in 2014, 33 per cent rated Internet sites as the most effective channel for finding their positions, the report said.

However, the finding could also be attributed to low Internet penetration, which stood at only 18 per cent in India as compared to 80-90 per cent in other countries, as per the survey.

"As India's Internet penetration continues to increase - it grew from 7.5 per cent in 2010 to 18 per cent in 2014 - we can see more job seekers shift to Internet-enabled electronic devices", the survey said.

Another interesting finding of this survey said that overall satisfaction after moving to a new job was highest among respondents from  India (90 per cent), China (79 per cent) and South Africa (80 per cent).

BCG surveyed about 13,000 people from 13 countries about their job search experience and outcome in the year 2014 to prepare the report. About 1,600 people from India participated in this survey.