The age of information technology has changed many things a lot, and made them easier, too – including job hunting.
A recent survey by the jobs portal Bayt.com has shown that more people across the Gulf have been relying on online job sites because vacancies are grouped together into one easy-to-access place.
Another reason, the survey revealed, is that these sites help job seekers improve their CV and professional profile while at the same time allowing them to track their application and providing them with job alerts.
Data for the 2017 Bayt.com poll, named “Job Seeker Journey in the Middle East and North Africa,” was collected online from July 30, 2017 to September 13, 2017. Results were based on a sample of 9,481 respondents spread across the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and others.
Almost all respondents, or 95.5%, claimed that they use online job sites to find and apply for jobs with another 81% saying that job sites are an easy and user-friendly way to apply for jobs.
Further, the majority, or 83.4% of respondents also agreed that they can find many relevant jobs online related to their background and experience.
Meantime, when it comes to looking at how often job seekers look for jobs online, over 71.8% of the respondents claimed they do so on a daily basis.
More than half of job seekers or about 57% also claimed they wait up to a week before applying for a different job, while almost all or 96% of the respondents agreed that it is useful to know if their application has been viewed by the employer or not. This way they can more strategically plan their search activities, they said.
When respondents were asked about whether they research a company before going to an interview, 85.4% said they “always” do.
Another interesting finding is that 61.6% of the respondents said they like having a job search mobile application because they can “search and apply for jobs on the go” with another 25.4% agreeing because job search mobile application gives them “24/7 access to their application status”, “sends them job alerts”, and is “easier and more efficient to use.”
