Dubai: After reviewing thousands of CVs and conducting hundreds of interviews at the Careers UAE 2013 exhibition, companies reveal the positive characteristics they found in UAE job seekers and the areas that need improving.
The last day at Careers UAE 2013 exhibition which provides Emirati job seekers the opportunity to meet recruiting companies saw an increased number of participation.
One of the aspects that where found problematic by some of the recruiting companies was language skills.
“We in Dubai Police take pride in the Arabic language and use it for our written and oral communication. We found it alarming that many of the Emirati youths had problems in writing Arabic during a simple test. We advice UAE nationals to not neglect Arabic for English and call on the Ministry of Education to focus on this issue,” said Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah Khamis Buamim, Director of Selection and Recruitment at Dubai Police.
As for the aspects that Dubai Police consider positive, Buamim said that communication skills are vital.
“We currently have 421 vacant military positions that require candidates who have high school degrees and 12 vacant positions for those who have university degrees. The characteristics that we are personally looking for include intelligence, communication skills and strong observation and we have been successful so far as we hired 24 people,” he added
Manager of Emiratisation and local talent at HSBC, Hamda Al Shamali, on the other hand had the opposite remark.
“We were really impressed by the candidates. They all met the standards that we were looking for in terms of wanting career progression, having good communication skills and being self-driven. However, if I have to advice Emiratis, I think that those who want to work in an international bank like HSBC should be fluent in the English language as it is a minimal requirement in any international organisation.”
Mohammad Al Khatib, director of Support Services at the Dubai School of Government, noticed that many of the UAE nationals had wrong practice in terms of submitting their CVs without thinking.
“Students burn their CV by printing 1000 CVs and giving them to any company they meet. This is a wrong practice because they will end up working in the wrong profession. For example we received CVs from fresh graduate civil engineers. I understand that obtaining a job is important but if he works anywhere without thinking of his future career path, he will loose his experience and will not be able to capitalise on what he learned in university.”
The Careers UAE 2013 exhibition ended on a positive note as many of the recruiters were impressed with the quality and volume they received.
