Use of the Internet as a Site for Job Searching: A Survey of Graduate Students of the University Of Ghana

Abstract

In light of the contemporary presence and pervasiveness of information and communications technologies (ICTs) into practically all facets of social structure and habits of people, this study sought to contribute a technological perspective to the job-search literature from the Ghanaian context. The study was grounded in online job seeking literature and framed within the technology acceptance model (TAM). The study involved a survey of 150 graduate students from the three graduate hostels of the University of Ghana. In order to find out the relationship between gender and other variables in this research, equal number of male and female respondents were sampled for the study. Results showed that majority of the respondents perceived online job search to be effective as compared to alternative job search methods. Although minority of the respondents had personal success with online job search, majority were aware of success with online job search by others. The findings also revealed that “ease of use” and “improved chances of getting a job” were respondents’ biggest motivations for using online job search. The online job seekers surveyed stated that, they faced challenges while undertaking online job search. Some issues raised regarding the challenges of online job search were: concerns about security of personal information, slow feedback or follow up, poor internet access and connection, filling out long application forms amongst others. The limitation the study had was the lack of probability sampling. In conclusion, more research in the field of internet job search has to be done on online job search websites.