INTERNET: Virtually employed: getting the job online

Although the Russian Internet is still young, it has already experienced a number of trends, often ones reflecting previous developments in America. Russians have had, and still have, online shopping, auction sites, news and joke sites, online trading platforms for raw materials and so on.

Another area that has seen a recent blossoming of Websites is recruitment through the Internet. It is still in its nascent stage and, so far, has only a limited number of users. But, in a few years, it could gain momentum and develop into a fairly important branch of the ru.net.

The large number of Websites claiming to be devoted to recruitment should not fool anyone. Most of them have little to offer. Whereas there are officially around 1,000 such sites, according to data collected by the Rambler portal, only 30 are serious and offer real and efficient services, said Dmitry Chursin, project manager of Internet financial news agency RosBusinessConsulting's Job.rbc.ru recruitment Website.

Of these, 10 are independent Websites, while 20 belong to traditional recruitment agencies that went online, like Agentstvo Kontakt. Of course, there are many more recruitment agencies in Moscow, and about 75 percent of them have a Website of some sort, said Arkady Sander, who chairs the Internet department at Agentstvo Kontakt. But many of these are little more than just a Web page, where you cannot actually look for a job online.

Similarly, the number of people who actually use recruitment Websites is still very low. Chursin says it doesn't exceed two percent of Russian Internet users, which amounts to a little less than 30,000 people. This is partly due to the fact that most users in this country log on at their workplace.

In other words, people who have access to the Internet almost always have work, usually rather good work, and are thus less inclined to look for a new job. Also, looking for a job from your workplace is not always convenient.

The fact that there isn't a licensing system for online recruitment services to guarantee a certain level of quality doesn't help much either. Websites in Russia are considered as media and have to register as such, regardless of what their online activities are.

However, the future is not devoid of perspectives for online recruitment. For one thing, as the number of Russian Internet users is set to grow in the coming years, according to most estimates, the number of people who would use the Internet to look for a job will also likely increase.

There are 1.5 million to 2 million Internet users in Russia, and there could be around 6 million in 2005, Chursin said. Also, this would mean that the demand for IT and Internet specialists will grow, and these will be more likely to be recruited through the Internet.

Another point that argues in favor of online recruitment is the fact that it is extremely convenient and easy to use for people looking for a job and also for companies wanting to recruit employees. For one thing, you can have much more information available about candidates for a job on the Internet than by traditional means, said Alexander Kupchin, general director of Agentstvo Kontakt.

There are no space limitations on the Internet, which is not the case with a traditional resume on a sheet of paper. Actually, most online recruitment services have adopted a two-tier system that allows for a quick reading and more detailed examination of a candidate's details. Resumes are first presented in an abridged form that can be a few lines long, stressing only the most important points. Then, one can also look at the same resume in full, and this can be just as long as one wants.

From the point of view of a company, the Internet is also particularly convenient to reach specialists from certain fields like IT, telecommunications and banking, Chursin said. These are people who usually don't read the job-offer pages in newspapers but, on the other hand, often spend quite a lot of time browsing the Internet.

Tellingly, such specialists make up for 40 percent of visitors of a typical, generalist, on-line recruitment service such as Job.rbc.ru, Chursin said. Managers looking for a new job represent about 30 percent.

However, some online recruitment services are now looking into broadening their client basis by exploring new directions. One of them is building an online English-language section for Russians wanting to find a job abroad and foreign companies interested in hiring Russians, said Xenya Torshina, project manager at Job.ru.

Paradoxically, another way to get more clients for online recruitment services is to explore the market of job seekers who don't have access to the Internet, particularly in the regions. "There are enormous workforce resources in the regions, and we want to tap that," said job.ru's Torshina.

Job.ru is going to publish free newspapers in the regions, where people can send their resumes. These will then be put on job.ru's Website, where companies will be able to have a look at them.