Dubai: Amaan Khan is on the hunt for his first real job and so far it doesn't look good. "It's been difficult especially this month with Ramadan," the fresh graduate told Gulf News. "I have not been able to get an interview yet."
However, the 21-year-old's inexperience might actually help him land a job sooner than he thinks.
One out of three respondents across the Middle East and North Africa have said that companies are more likely to hire fresh graduates after the recession, according to a recent poll series conducted by Bayt.com, an online job recruitment company.
The results of the ‘Fresh Grads in the M.E Workforce 2010/2011' poll showed that almost 37 per cent of respondents said that since the recession, management was keener on hiring fresh graduates; 26 per cent said they were less and 19 per cent said things remained unchanged.
"The results of our most recent poll show that in times of economic strife employers are perceived as more likely to hire fresh graduates mostly due to the fact that they accept a lower salary and require fewer benefits," said Amer Zureikat, Vice-President, Sales, Bayt.com.
According to the poll results, the number one motivation behind the employment of fresh graduates is less salary and benefits, but more passion and enthusiasm.
"If you hire, for example, an human resources consultant who is experienced, he/she will demand more money. A fresh graduate will be willing to start with Dh6,000," said Alzeena Javed, a management consultant based in Dubai. Vineet Singh, Business Head at Naukrigulf.com, another online recruitment agency, said that for the past six months there has been a trend in the market where new job creations are happening at the entry level — positions suitable for fresh graduates.
"When people don't know how fast the recovery will be and companies can't do without hiring, they play it safe by hiring at the junior and entry level positions," he told Gulf News.
The same trend had happened in India when the country was recovering from an economic crisis, he said. "The same trend gets repeated in almost every market."
Survey
A survey conducted by NaukriGulf.com in mid-June forecasts an optimistic employment scenario for the second half of 2010 across the GCC countries.
At the moment there aren't too many jobs being created and companies aren't looking at replacing their mid-management staff, he said.
This will also affect job hirings into Dubai.
Singh also expects the trend to continue for the next 12 months and to open doors for the local graduates. "Once it starts happening, it won't stop," he said.
This also shows that the quality of education in the UAE has improved. "Education grew a lot in Dubai in the last five years, so there's a large population of graduates in the market. For the long term, it will be very beneficial because you will find that the people graduating from Dubai are getting locally absorbed by locally companies," he said.
The survey results showed that almost 50 per cent of the respondents said that their companies provide training for their fresh beginners. Companies see it as an investment rather than an expense.
"We are seeing after a long time that companies are giving a lot of importance to entry level jobs," he said.
Najia Mansour, an HR manager, recommends the hiring of fresh graduates and said the market is definitely going in that direction.
"The education [system] has improved quite a lot and they [the graduates] are diverse with the kind of work they are doing. They are getting some experience before graduating as well," she said.
"When you have a fresh graduate you can mould them into the person you want them to be and they are more open that people who have been doing things the same way for years."
Fresh graduates are ready to do what it takes to put their foot through the door and most companies should capitalise on that, she said.
