Hopefuls wanting to get a job at a small business in IT over the next few months truly need to set themselves apart from the crowd, according to new guidelines.

Serif, a creative software company, explained that a large number of young professionals wanting to get into the world of work need to catch a recruiter's eye, such as through the invention of a branded logo or colour and graphics on a CV.

Given the market is all about technology, applicants to small businesses in IT may also want to save their CV as a PDF or in HTML to mark themselves apart even further.

Amanda Fone, the managing partner of f1 recruitment which worked with Serif, said the personal logo is a particularly good asset but also stressed another simple and widely-adopted item.

She continued: "A simple business card is also a good idea, especially if it is eco-friendly and bio-degradable. In a recession people want you to keep things simple - anything too fussy and complicated and employers will think you have too much time (and money) on your hands."

The advice comes after new research by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) indicated that racial discrimination continues exists towards ethnic minorities in the UK from the private sector.

It was found that for every nine applications sent by a white applicant, an equally good potential employee with an ethnic minority name needed sixteen applications before receiving the same positive reaction.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.