Why do fresh graduates face difficulties in finding jobs in advertising agencies in the Middle East? And what can they do to attract recruiters?

I can tell about the situation in Russia and other CIS countrries where there is a similiar problem.

The matter is that ad agencies focus on acquiring mid & senior level specialists which do not require tutoring  or other educational investing, thus leaving newcomers and juniors without special attention and not investing into their "practical education" & growth. Unfortunately.

Moreover, the level of universitary education in advertising is not of  high quality as it is a new discipline emerged only in 90s-00s. that means that the best specialists are still empolyed in agencies and not yet interested in teaching.

So, the best education in the profession remains the practice, in the russian market.

Thank you for your invite. As per my experience there is always opportunity for talented people. What can attract an employer is your presentation and particularly in the advertising industry this is prime skill requirement. It is broadly understood that if you cannot sell your own services then how would you be able to sell others/clients.

My advise is to make a good portfolio demonstrating your skills. Pick any subject or a product and create a portfolio with illustrations and with your own copy matters make a suggestive advertisement. Develop five to ten products advertisements and place them on your portfolio. Do not worry about the quality, employers understand that you do not have tools to beautify, what matters is the content and presentation style.  If you have graduated in computer science then try to make video clip or power point presentation with innovative idea that are original and your not copy paste from web, employers can easily identify because when they develop an advertisement they do enough research before creating something different.

Hope you get some idea how you should go about to demonstrate your passion for the profession, being an employer myself we assess the potential of the candidate on these grounds.

Good Luck. 

Hi! Thank you for asking. There are many reasons for the above. The most important ones are lack of market experience which is very crucial in advertising field. 

You have to be a good speaker, to have information about the country and in the area you intend to work enough to be able to understand what is going on around you fast and modern times, you should start with any salary so you can build your experiences and then the way to what you ask for

i still dont have any experience about middle east jobs but tells something is that the recruiter agencies are looking exeperienced not fresh graduates in our pakistan if they give chance to freshers then freshers will be counted in experienced otherwise freshers will be fresher.

My advise is to make a good portfolio demonstrating your skills. Pick any subject or a product and create a portfolio with illustrations and with your own copy matters make a suggestive advertisement.

Not sure about the Middle East recruitment process as i have never worked for the same. If you require Indian perspective do let me know.