Middle East job hunters put their best foot forward

The Life: The world economy remains sluggish, with many countries reporting weak job growth. But a recent survey suggests the employment market in the Middle East remains buoyant.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates- January 25, 2011 ; Visitors at the Tawdheef Recruitment Show in Abu Dhabi . ( Satish Kumar / The National )

The world economy remains sluggish, with many countries reporting weak job growth.

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But a recent survey suggests the employment market in the Middle East remains buoyant.

An index developed by the job-searching website Monster.com found the number of new job adverts was up 7 per cent between September and October in the Middle East.

In the UAE, annual growth of new job openings was also 7 per cent. The retail, trade and logistics sectors were the leading industries annually, while health care professionals registered the biggest rise in occupational demand between October compared with the same period last year.

Although the jobs market is improving here, the uncertain gobal economic environment means there is also more competition as those living in weaker economies look elsewhere for work.

So, an important question for job-seekers is: how do you stand out from the crowd? "In a competitive market you need to really think about where are you likely to be the most competitive candidate, giving you the best chance of success," says Toby Simpson, the managing director of the Gulf Recruitment Group.

"There is no point applying for astronaut jobs if the closest you have got to astrophysics is watching Star Trek," he adds.

Employers have a good idea of who they want, and will look for certain points on an applicant's curriculum vitae (CV), experts say.

The best way to make a CV readily accessible is to ensure the information is easy to read. That means avoiding block text and large monologues about who you are - such things will come out in an interview.

"Stick to a clear academic and employment history with descriptions of the companies you have worked for and clear bullet points on your main responsibilities and examples of key achievements in that role," says Mr Simpson. Getting the CV to the person who needs to read it is another matter, as is often the case in the UAE, it is who you know that helps get you noticed in the first place.

"If you know someone in a firm you want to work for, asking them to 'courier' your CV to the right hiring manager acts as an internal recommendation - which would give the application strength," says Mr Simpson.

For those with few contacts, recruitment agencies can often offer a wider reach and add credibility to a candidate. Online jobs boards list most of the larger agencies.

But job seekers should beware that information stored on some of the larger online job boards is not always kept private.

Many store CVs and make it available to their database customers automatically if the privacy settings have not been applied.

"The process is often very opaque and it is likely that you may not have realised this has happened, and either your HR team could see it or an unscrupulous agency who you have never spoken to could send it somewhere embarrassing without your knowledge," says Mr Simpson.

"If you have used a job board recently, and privacy is important to you, I would log back on and retrieve your details."

When it comes to interviews, some of it is obvious, dress smartly, and always answer any questions.

People should also remember to treat everyone in the company with respect, not just the big bosses.

"In several occasions, hiring managers ask reception what they thought of the interviewee as they want everybody in the whole company to act as a team and treat each other with respect," says Mr Simpson.