Cursory enquiries with some fresh Qatari graduates reveal that most of them wouldn’t like to settle for an entry-level monthly pay of less than QR20,000 ($5,480) after a few months of training.
The jobs they prefer are mostly administrative and in the government sector.
“They (young Qataris) think that if you wish to lead a good life, you should be a manager,” says Abdullah Al Mansoori, Executive Director of Qatar Career Fair, an annual event, explaining the preference of his young compatriots for state jobs.
However, those who get career counselling change their minds, he added in remarks to this newspaper.
It is difficult to change the mindset of job-hunting citizens, for a vast majority of whom landing a government job is a lifetime dream.
This year’s version of Qatar Career Fair, which began on April 1, ends today. On offer were more than 23,000 job, training and scholarship opportunities for young Qataris.
The fair, which is into its sixth year, remains dominated by the government sector and by sectors like education, health and sports, which are largely controlled by the state.
Figures suggest that at last year’s fair, more than 9,000 job, scholarship and training opportunities were on offer, and some 80 percent (or, over 7,000) of these were in the government sector and sectors like health, education and sports.
The ministries and state agencies that are traditionally the largest employers of the Qatari workforce, absorbed 3,645 nationals who applied for jobs, scholarships or training. Education, health and sports accommodated another 3,465 Qatari job, scholarship or training seekers.
The energy and industry sectors had offered 1,550 opportunities last year, but only 40 percent of these materialised as job opportunities. The ‘business and financial sector’, which had a low representation at last year’s fair, has put on offer 2,600 opportunities this time.
The fair has, meanwhile, come in for criticism on local social networking sites with people commenting that the event is just a show by companies and a ‘camouflage’ to attract experienced expatriate workers.
Despite the fact that the event is exclusively for fresh Qatari job-hunters aged up to 26, expatriates looking for jobs have been turning up at the fair with their CVs and several exhibitors have been accepting those CVs.
While some have praised the fair, there were others who said nepotism, and not a fair selection process, can guarantee a Qatari a job. “There is no need for one to attend a fair to land a job. If you have influence, you would get one in just a week,” said a commentator.
Another commentator asked why companies taking part in the fair were allowing those who already had jobs to hunt for greener pastures.
Yet another commentator said companies at the fair just collected CVs and then consigned them to the dustbin.
