A new year means a fresh career start. It is a chance to find new jobs, get promoted, have a better income, improve skills and qualifications, and overall have a much stronger professional journey. Across the Middle East, there is a great sense of optimism towards the year ahead and many are feeling well-prepared to meet their goals. When asked to describe how they feel, more than half (55.6%) of respondents to the Bayt.com poll, ‘Career Prospects in the Middle East’, used the word “positive”, and another fifth (18.5%) used the word “excited”.
The Bayt.com poll revealed that three quarters of respondents believe that they will get a salary raise or a promotion in 2017. For a majority (58.6%) of respondents, finding a new job is at the top of their list of career goals – and nearly all of them (95.1%) feel more prepared and qualified to apply for jobs this year than they were in 2016.
Setting the bar high
Professionals across the Middle East have their goals set high for the year ahead. Nine in ten (89.5%) respondents state that they’ll have more job responsibilities in 2017 and almost the same amount (85.3%) will start taking more initiative at work. More than nine in ten (91.9%) will dedicate more time for training and development. As for those who will remain in their current position, three quarters (75.5%) of respondents feel very optimistic about getting a raise this year, and nearly the same amount (74.8%) feel very optimistic about getting promoted in 2017.
Nearly nine in ten respondents (88.5%) state that they are likely to achieve their career goals in 2017, with six in ten (61.9%) stating that they are “very likely” to do so.
Finding more jobs online
Finding a new job is at the top of the list of career goals for the majority (58.6%) of respondents. This is followed by improving skills and productivity (22.5%). To reach these goals, more than eight in ten (83.7%) respondents will spend more time looking for jobs online in 2017.
When looking for new employment opportunities, 53.2% say that they will look for career opportunities in 2017 using online job sites and other methods, while 29.8% will exclusively use online job sites. Less than one in 10 respondents will use companies’ websites (7.1%), personal networks (6.4%), or social media (3.5%) for finding jobs.
Being realistic
Along with the high optimism and proactive planning, there are some barriers that job seekers acknowledge. The main barriers that hold respondents back from achieving their career goals include lack of growth opportunities (27.7%), lack of funding (22.6%), lack of experience (14.5%), poor company management (14.3%), lack of work-life balance (10.9%), too much competition (5.1%), and fear of failure (4.9%).
We can clearly see that job seekers in the Middle East are determined and inspired to find more job opportunities and better professional development tools. The fact that 83.7% of respondents will spend more time searching for jobs online and that the majority will be using online job sites over any other search method, highlights the benefits of using Bayt.com. In fact, job seekers in 2017 are able to have daily access to over 10,000 jobs announced on Bayt.com. But more than that, job seekers can do their job search on-the-go through our mobile application, network with like-minded professionals on Specialties, find out what salary they should be paid, and access countless research reports, career articles, and blogs.
