Job? Search online
More than seven out of 10 job seekers in the Mena region search for vacancies online everyday, according to a latest survey. It further notes that others check for new openings at least three times in a week.
dubai — More than 7 out of 10 people in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) search for jobs online every day, according to a new poll released on Monday.
Conducted by jobs portal Bayt. com, the survey results found that 71.8 per cent respondents look for jobs online daily and 16.5 per cent respondents check for new openings 3 times a week while nearly 7 per cent search few times a month.
Around 57 per cent job seekers claimed that they wait up to 1 week before applying for a different job while 23.5 per cent of them don’t wait at all and apply for more jobs.
Moreover, almost all — 96 per cent — respondents agreed that it is useful to know if their application had been viewed by the employer or not in order to strategically plan their search activities in a better way, the results showed.
Suhail Masri, vice-president of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com, said job seekers like to have many options especially technologies such as automated job alerts and ‘who viewed my profile’. Discussing the device that job seekers like to use when searching for a job, the majority — 81.6 per cent — of respondents said that they prefer to use a desktop or a laptop computer, this was followed by 13.5 per cent who said they prefer to use a smartphone or a tablet, and 4.9 per cent who claimed that they have no device preference. However, when applying for jobs more than 6 in 10 respondents — 61.6 per cent — said that they like having a job search mobile application because they can “search and apply for jobs on the go”. Around 25.4 per cent of respondents agreed and also said that a 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”.
CVs with photos
The survey found that a large majority — 95.5 per cent — use job portal to search and apply for jobs.
In reply to a query about whether the job seeker searches about a company before going for an interview, the results showed that around 85.4 per cent do search the company as compared to 11.4 per cent who said they sometimes do it while 3.2 per cent never search about the company before heading for the interview.
Bayt.com’s survey revealed that more than 8 out of 10 respondents put a picture on their CVs while nearly 6 out of 10 send a cover letter with their applications. While more than 2 out of 10 “sometimes” send a cover letter.
More than 8 out of 10 survey respondents said that job sites are user-friendly while one out of 10 were neutral. The survey, conducted from July 30 to September 13, had received answers from 9,481 respondents across region.
— waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com