Experienced hands losing out to fresh graduates

You are out of college with little to no work experience in your field. Will employers in the UAE still hire you instead of an experienced applicant? The answer may be 'yes' as opportunities for freshers have increased.

"I remember when I was still at college three years back, trying to find my first job in the field. I had lots of difficulties getting at least a phone interview. In fact, I had my resume posted on all popular websites but there were no job interview e-mails or phone calls. Every job I was interested in, needed some kind of experience. My question back in those days was how am I supposed to start my professional career if no one would take someone without any work experience?”, said Abida Hussein (name changed).

But that was three years back. Since then the job market has changed and employers are looking at graduates as people who can be moulded easily, come without any baggage and most importantly come cheaper than those who have experience.

"Not all roles require high levels of knowledge, precision and qualification. I would rather hire somebody who is just educated and can train him," said the owner of a small firm in Dubai.

According to Lama Ataya, Bayt.com’s Chief Marketing Officer, "positions that are most in demand by UAE employers [based on a poll run by the recruitment company] are junior executives at 41 per cent of votes, executives at 38 per cent of votes, and coordinators at 31 per cent of votes), which clearly highlights an inclination to hire more fresh grads and beginner professionals during 2011.

"Furthermore [our] recent blog about fresh graduates in the Middle East workplace showed that UAE employers are today more inclined to hire fresh graduates (as opposed to before the recession) as per 30 per cent of poll respondents. Departments that are most likely to hire fresh grads in the UAE as per the poll respondents are marketing (at 25.3 per cent of votes), IT at 20.5 per cent of votes and HR at 18.6 per cent of votes," she told Emirates 24|7.

Statistics based on popular job portals show that fresh graduates are not faring bad in the current environment. There are nearly 40 jobs posted for fresh graduates on GulfTalent.com in the months of April and May across the GCC. Jobs for freshers in banking and oil &gas are also posted on www.direct-jobs-in-dubai.com. "Banks in Dubai pay very well for graduate recruitments," says the website and states that jobs for fresh graduates are available in big oil companies. About 772  graduate jobs just in Abu Dhabi have been posted on www.careerjet.ae.

And, fresh graduates do not have to settle with less money all the time. According to reports, salaries of around Dh20,000 per month were on offer to Emirati graduates for joining as trainees, at a job fair exclusively for UAE nationals held recently. Such candidates were being offered packages of Dh20,000 plus a month. However, this was largely limited to Emirati fresh graduates. On the contrary, a fresh graduate, who is not a national will get around Dh6000- 8 000 a month + bonus, show listings on job websites.

However, some experts in the industry believe that demand for graduates has not gone up. "We haven’t observed any appreciable increase in the number of clients seeking to recruit fresh graduates rather than experienced candidates. In general we find that clients are looking for candidates with at least 3 to 5 years of relevant work experience," Cliff Single, Commercial Manager at BAC Middle East told this website.

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