Quirky job roles are now trending in the UAE
It is time for change say experts and new job profiles are making way
You must have heard of a chief happiness officer role by now.
But have you heard of Happiness Counsellor, Data Scientist, Machine Learning Specialist or a People and Culture Specialist role?
According to Deepak Ahuja, Ceo, Nadia Global Training and Recruitment consultancy, the hiring industry in the UAE is seeing a change just as it is changing globally. Innovative job profiles are making their way to the market, so get ready to adapt to new work environments, warned Ahuja.
He said the market is looking for people with diverse abilities.
“The days of working in cubicles for a set period of time in the day are slowly waning. Now people work from homes. The world has grown and so has [the] UAE,” he said.
Take this: “Traditional roles like personal manager, or administrative clerk are slowly becoming redundant. Technology has advanced and companies are resorting to replace it with the bulk of human resources they have invested.”
Ahuja said data related jobs are big. “We are seeing a lot of enquiries in the field of data science, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, machine learning. There are jobs floating in the e-commerce industry as well as plenty enquiries for social media specialists.”
He added: “Now a days it is quite ‘in’ to have a Chief Innovation Officer role in companies. Whether it is a bank or a private company, innovation is thought to be key. Everyone wants to innovate and this role is trending at the moment.”
On the technology side, he said artificial intelligence and machine learning specialist jobs are rising. “Data management is becoming a massive industry. Every company has huge data banks and there is a need for someone to manage this and pick out trends. So roles like ‘Data scientist’, ‘data specialist’ are in demand.”
He said the mood in the hiring industry in the UAE is to keep the motivational levels high. “So we are also looking at titles like People and Culture Specialist. There are companies focusing on handling cultural aspects in the country.”
What's trending and what's not
“We are continuing to get a lot of requests from the construction industry. Engineering jobs are still in demand. We also get a lot of requests from people who are into sales and business development. That continues to be a big demand. The retail industry [as a job source is] fading,” said Ahuja.
Karuna Agarwal – Future Tense HR solutions doesn't quite agree. According to Agarwal, top hiring trends have been recorded in the social media and digital marketing industries as well as the education sector.
“People have paid the price of a “wrong hire” and they want to rectify this in 2019,” she said.
Industries which are likely to see more hiring than others are real estate, finance, banking, IT and education. “The education sector especially will be hiring many people. I am not talking about just schools – but investment firms investing in education as well,” said Agarwal.
Other trends for next year include a rise in hiring within SME sectors. There will also be a lot of jobs available in the digital marketing industry, experts say. A lot of companies are focusing on setting up their very own in-house digital marketing team instead of hiring agencies to do the job.