New Delhi, July 30 - Ever thought of logging on to a social networking website to find a job? These sites have become a huge hit with job seekers in India who not only look for career opportunities but also interact with potential employers online.

At a time when recession has hit people hard, social networking sites like Apnacircle.com, Linkedin.com, ibibo.com and Facebook are giving a tough competition to job portals.

'We generate over five million page reviews in a month and we have about half a million registered users on our websites,' Yogesh Bansal, founder and CEO of ApnaCircle.com, a career-cum-social networking site, which was launched in the year 2006, told IANS.

'We have managed to loop both the social and career aspects of networking in our site,' said Bansal, who was in the US and saw how these social networking sites were helping people get jobs there.

Making a resume is also easy. Job seekers have to just put their professional-cum-personal profile on the sites and add relevant information under various sub-topics, he said.

As soon as the profile appears on the site, one gets an sms and sometimes the sites themselves offer jobs.

'Your profile builds your image, packages you as a brand and acts as your resume as it reveals relevant information about you and your professional self,' added Bansal.

For software engineer Ankit Gupta, making a profile on these websites is like giving a classified advertisement in a newspaper.

'I got a reference about a job opening through my friend on one of these sites. I checked the site and applied for the job. After an interview, I was finally placed with 3G Soft Solutions,' said an overjoyed Gupta.

'Through such sites one gets to network with different people from different personal and professional spaces who can be useful in building contacts and getting us the desired jobs,' Gupta told IANS.

Another benefit of these sites is that many employers often visit various career oriented groups and communities on these sites to hunt for the right employee.