DOHA: A dozen banks that participated in a fortnight-long career fair for Qataris that ended recently are running after a large number of job applicants with little luck in convincing them to turn up for interviews.
Some of the applicants have even been given job offers but many of them have asked for time to think and reply.
Human resource officials of these banks are tired of calling many of the job applicants as some are taking the phone and dilly-dallying while others aren’t just responding.
Urged to come for job interviews, a number of applicants asked for rescheduling and even after they were given fresh dates, they failed to turn up.
The participating banks received about 700 job applications from Qataris, some of whom had applied for jobs in several banks, local Arabic daily Al Watan reported yesterday.
Some banks received 50 applications each, including many from women, on average but were able to get in touch with barely 10 of those candidates.
The head of human resource at Ahli Bank, Saad Al Kaabi, said his bank received 50 job applications from Qataris during the Career festival.
“Many of the applicants are not responding. They are just not taking our phone,” said Al Kaabi. He said Ahli Bank has a job nationalization ratio of 22 percent and actively coordinates with the National Manpower Development Department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. “We are keen to raise this percentage,” said Al Kaabi.
The Department of the labour ministry is responsible for pushing citizens into both, public and private jobs. Al Kaabi said there are occasions when a citizen who has applied for a job and is not found suitable is given repeated opportunities for interviews with the aim that he is eventually absorbed.
A senior official of Doha Bank, Mariam Akbar, said her bank received some 70 job applications from Qataris, and nine of them have been approved. Seventeen of them have been selected for scholarship. Mariam pointed out that some applicants are given tests. “When we made job offers to some of the applicants, they asked us to allow them time to think.”
The Ministry of Labour’s National Manpower Development Department has asked banks to submit reports detailing the outcome of the fortnight-long Career festival.
“How do we respond? The problem is that many of the applicants are not responding to our phone calls. Some applicants were given time for interview and they asked for rescheduling. We obliged them and gave them fresh dates but even then they failed to turn up,” said Mariam.
The Peninsula
