Edinburgh Napier University

  Purpose - Although social networks are considered influential to employment outcomes, little is known about the behavioural manifestation of networking during job search. To address this, the study presented here examined the role of networking amongst 16-24 year old active jobseekers living in Scotland.

Design/methodology/approach - A sequential, mixed methods approach was applied to gather data, including interviews (no. of participants =7), a focus group (no. of participants = 6), and a survey questionnaire (no. of participants =558). The study design was underpinned by a prominent model from the field of Information Science. As such, job search networking has been treated as an information behaviour.

Findings - The findings show that young people acquire different types of information from network contacts throughout job search, and that frequent networking is associated with positive outcomes. This is especially true of engaging with family members, acquaintances, and employers. However, barriers such as a lack of confidence or awareness mean that few young people make the most of their social contacts when seeking work.

Practical implications - Careers professionals can use this knowledge to advise clients on maximising the potential of social networks as sources of job search information.

Originality/value - A key contribution of this work is that it provides a detailed insight into a topic that has been neglected in previous studies: that of the process of job search networking as an information behaviour.