Interview with Talal Atassi, Head of Recruitment at Al- Fardan Group Holding Qatar
How would you describe the living & Working in Qatar Experience? Qatar is one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East. The country maybe small but its richness is unquestionable. With its continuous growth despite the weakening of world’s financial condition, great cultural diversity is taking place. Topographically, the country has generally desert climate. Summer may turn to very sultry and humid place but the country is warm enough to make expatriates from different continents feel at home. Moreover, the country is peaceful and safe. It is an ideal place to raise children as this will not only expose them to a global environment but will also uphold their morals and virtues. Generally, I can say that living in Qatar is a wonderful experience. Given that the economy of Qatar is stable, it is a good place to establish a career. The working time is quite different as the usual 8- hour working time is divided into 2 shifts with usually 4 hours in between shifts. This can be tough for family men and women raising family. Also, most of the private companies are family owned which makes the atmosphere more competitive though sometimes it becomes more subjective. Working with multicultural workforce enhances not only one’s competency but also his/her social and interpersonal skills. Generally, I can say that working in Qatar is rewarding and challenging.
How important is the CV to you? The CV is the first impression I get of a candidate. The passion it has been written with speaks wonders to me, to the Read more
Interview with Sherwett Shafie, HR Manager at WHS Plastics Egypt
What is your average day like?
I spend 40% of my time working towards meeting my quarterly objectives, may it be pertaining to recruitment in the time being or to performance management or training. The remaining 60% are usually spent catering to employees’ requirements (20%), meetings and calls (30%) and follow ups (10%).
What is your biggest professional challenge?
My biggest challenge is to get line managers familiarized with the performance management new methods, and showcase how crucial for them it is to manage their staff performance via such updated methods instead of the old, more or less outdated, performance appraisal method.
Job Hunting Tips from Ashraf Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Number 1 Sales Trainer and Author of “The Craft of Selling Yourself”
Job Hunting?
“Treat a job hunt like a personal development project and be the project manager.” –PENELOPE TRUNK
The Majority of fresh graduates, treading the beaten trail, trust writing their CV and sending it out to potential employers is all that’s required to land a job. I’ve screened thousands of CVs and Cover Letters in my one and a half decade career and I have to say that minimal efforts are usually invested by job seekers to customize their CVs and Cover Letters. An employer could easily get frustrated with vague imprecise words such as ‘Metric, Martial, and Carrier etc’ in CVs and sentences in Cover Letters like ‘ I’ve come to know through reliable sources that you have a vacant position and I assure you that if given the chance, I’ll leave no stone un-turned to satisfy you’. All such CVs and Cover Letters end up in piles of unsuccessful candidate files. Successful people don’t sit on haunches, waiting for miracles to happen. They make miracles happen!
Careers UnCovered: Martin Waldenstrom, General Manager, CashU
Best career advice I ever got Think further than your next pay cheque!
Favorite Job task I ever had to do Advice Central Bank of Estonia on EURO implementation
Most dreaded job task I ever had to do A three month summer job in a restaurant kitchen doing dishes
Best career decision ever made To leave the secure environment of a European corporation and join a Dubai based entrepreneurial start up company.
Careers Uncovered: Ashraf Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Number 1 Sales Trainer and Author of “The Craft of Selling Yourself”
1. Best career advice I ever got: I was in 7th grade, when I read the translation of Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. I learnt that throughout our whole life, we are in the ‘selling’ profession. The function of ‘selling’ starts with first cry for milk by the baby and it just goes on. When you opt to roll out your professional career, you are in the ‘selling’ business all the way. You sell your ideas to your colleagues; you sell proposals to your boss; you sell budgets to finance; you sell stumbling blocks to yourself as stepping stones. I am incredibly lucky that I got this career advice in my childhood from no less than Dale Carnegie. When you take yourself as a salesperson rather than as an employee, your approach towards career in particular and towards life in general is very different. You take everybody as your prospect. You remain on auto-networking mode all the time. You look for avenues within the organization as well as outside where you are able to sell your ideas. By selling ideas, you create value-addition possibilities. The more valuable you are to the organization, the bigger price tag you will put on your services. That is how you scale the heights of career.
Careers UnCovered: Nassim Ghrayeb- CEO of YouGov
Best career advice I ever got Ambition is not about getting ahead faster, it’s about doing everything now passionately.
Favorite Job task I ever had to do Paying out bonuses is always fun, there is nothing that gives me more pleasure than rewarding deserving people, it’s less about the money and more about acknowledging their contribution to our business.
Most dreaded job task I ever had to do That’s an easy one, letting someone go, it is never a pleasure, particularly after investing time and effort in a person only not to see it have any impact. In the long term it works out to the best, at the time it doesn’t feel great.
Best career decision ever made Read more
Le point de la semaine : Les relations entre collègues de travail au Maroc
Vous maintenez de très bonnes relations avec vos collègues de travail ! C’est en tout cas ce que révèle le sondage auquel 1435 utilisateurs marocains de Bayt.com ont répondu en mars dernier. En grande majorité, avec près de 42% des votes vous avez décrit vos relations comme étant très bonnes avec vos collaborateurs. Pour 29% d’entre vous, elles seraient bonnes et pour 12% elles seraient plutôt modérées. 7% d’entre vous avouent que leurs rapports avec leurs collègues sont plutôt tendus.
Interrogés sur la manière dont vous gérez les différends avec vos collègues de travail, vous étiez 70% à affirmer que vous les réglez entre vous comme des adultes. Tandis que 12% préfèrent en parler avec leurs supérieurs hiérarchiques et les laisser s’occuper du reste, près de 9% favoriseraient la discussion avec la direction des Ressources Humaines. Fait surprenant, 9% d’entre vous préféraient le statuquo et laisser les choses comme elles sont !
The Most Common Question: Are there still jobs out there?
No matter where I am in the region, the most common question that I am currently asked: “Is anyone still hiring?”
It is generally followed in a hushed, apologetic voice with, “How is bayt.com doing?”
The underlying premise is that, due to the current economic crisis, hiring in the Middle East and North Africa has come to a grinding halt and bayt.com’s phenomenal historical growth has been stunted.
The reality is, and www.bayt.com is clear evidence of this, there are still tens of thousands of companies hiring hundreds of thousands of people across the region. True, the hiring may not be as aggressive as it was last year, companies may be shedding resources, and economic prospects remain unclear. However, surviving companies are continually in a state of upgrading their existing talent and replacing staff due to natural attrition. There is no better time to find phenomenal talent interested in working in the region and through Bayt.com there is no better way to hire these individuals quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Companies are therefore still hiring and Bayt.com is still expanding.
Now for the answers to corollary questions: Are there still jobs in Dubai? Is Qatar still growing? Is it time to consider a career in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia?
Yes on all fronts (see jobs in Dubai, jobs in Qatar, jobs in Kuwait, jobs in Saudi)! In this marketplace great talent is still in demand across the region, and professionals should open their horizons to the right opportunity wherever it exists. The search for jobs in the Middle East is, and will be, more challenging than it has been in prior years. However, with the right preparation, hard work, and initiative, good people will find good jobs!
Intilaq - ready for launch
Funding and mentoring will be available for regional strategists and technologists with a solid team and great idea
Intilaq, to launch in Arabic - a unique initiative that will nurture and facilitate innovative entrepreneurship in the technology sector around the Middle East, was launched in the region this week. Powered by Bayt.com, the region’s number one job site, the Intilaq initiative operates following a dual approach: to develop innovative ideas germinated within Bayt.com, and to fund and mentor compelling entrepreneurial start-ups and their innovations, through acquiring equity or full-scale acquisitions.
Bayt.com welcomes over 14,000 visitors to first ever pan-regional Virtual Job Fair as part of Middle East recruitment drive
Fifth version of VJF cited as most successful yet, attracting more top talent and leading employers than ever before
Bayt.com, the Middle East’s number one job site, has announced that it received more than 14,000 unique visitors to its pan-regional Virtual Job Fair (VJF), which ran on the Bayt.com website between March 22nd and 26th, for employers and job seekers in the Middle East to interact in a convenient, hassle free and stress free forum. The Virtual Job Fair, which aimed to address the region’s growing levels of unemployment also recorded almost 81,000 total views, and received more than 20,000 registrations.
