One of the biggest questions we get at ILQ is ‘How do I get a job in Qatar?’; which is then usually followed by ‘Can you help me get a job?’ or ‘Know of any vacancies in Qatar?’

At the moment, a couple of ways of searching for jobs on ILQ is through our Beta Classifieds or through the forum (Job Hunting). (That’s all changing to something fantastic).

However, I wanted to take the time to mention a great start-up Qatar Visitor Jobs. It’s still building up, but it’s growing at a great rate and I thought I’d share it with you.

Also, don’t forget that ILQ has some great quick guides.

See: Working in Qatar and Moving to Qatar and The Ultimate Expat Workers Guide

Tags: Getting a job in Qatar, Searching for a job in Doha Qatar, finding a job in Qatar

You’d think that with all this talk of Qatarisation, things would be a bit easier.
We’re in the process of highering a secretary in the office (not ILQ but my day job office). So we started to search for Qatari secretaries.

We needed an Arabic and English speaker, we thought that we’d want to help Qataris searching for jobs, and that we’d be helping the system.

So we knew that the Ministry of Labour had a list of Qataris searching for jobs. We went to http://www.mlsa.gov.qa/Pages/default.aspx in order to get the number (side note, the English section is under construction and it’s probably going to remain that way for a couple of years).

How can the english side not be up yet? There should at least be a basic page so that foreigners can also search for Qataris to hire, especially if it’s a rule now.

You’ll finally get the following number 4841111. Give it a call. If you get an answer, you’ll win… win….. satisfaction. The type of satisfaction that comes with a hint of shock

We called for three days and nobody answered. How can we help Qataris if nobody answers? Why isn’t the database of employees searching for jobs accessible online?

So my colleague decides to head off to the Ministry and speak to someone. He meets someone in an office who promises to email us the list.

After receiving a list of graduates and non-graduates we go through it systematically.

I’ve now read every unusual (yes I heard some names I’ve never heard of before) name and heard every exception in the book.

- I want to wear the niqab in the office (against policy)
- I want my own office (you’re going to be a secretary..)
- I want a higher salary (do a good job first!)
- I don’t want to be in a mixed office (we live in a mixed world)
- I don’t like your company (fair enough… but if you’re on a government job site should you be so picky?)

The list goes on! We finally find TWO out of 100 people that seem suitable, ask for their cvs, they sound happy, and they send nothing…

As usual everything is messed up. From the institutions to the inviduals the institutions are trying to help.

side note: for those that can’t read the ‘about’ section or couldn’t have guessed by the title of the blog. I’m Qatari.

Today I did my bit to support Qatarisation in the office. To be honest I’m all for a country trying to help it’s own people, it’s only natural. I guess some expats don’t like it because it takes jobs away from them, however the expats are taking jobs away from the locals in the first place.

I think it’s a good step if they push forward with the training and educational portion of Qatarisation before throwing someone into a job.

We’re looking for a receptionist in our company and so far there’s been this very good Syrian girl. She speaks English well and has a friendly attitude, which is what a receptionist should have. However HR said that we had to pick a Qatari and could only hire her if there was no suitable candidate from the CVs we receive.

That’s fair enough. So a few CVs were plonked on my desk for review; four to be exact. I had to sadly reject two for the simple fact that one said she had experience with ‘Castomir Servise’ and the other had no mention of her English skills.

I was left with two. I looked at them carefully as they were both quite similar. So I decided to call them in. I rang once to both at 10am. No answer. Oh well.. let’s give them another hour. At 11 I picked up the first CV and dialed the mobile….”beep beep beep, this number is not in service” (or should I say servise). No problem, I’ll call the home phone. A woman answers the phone. “Hello, may I speak to *insert your favourite name here”. “I’m sorry there’s nobody by that name that lives here.”…. oh… seems like she’s moved and changed her number. I look at the CV. It’s dated November 2007… it took HR 8 months to pass over the CV! No wonder there are Qataris seeking jobs.

Ok, I need to get serious now. One CV left. I dial the number and a man answers “Hello?”… “Hello yes, make I speak to *insert another name here*”. “Who’s this?”, he says in a tone which implies I’m a secret lover. “I’m with *Company*, your wife sent us a CV and I’m calling to ask if she’d like to come in for an interview sir.”. “oh well thanks anyway, I appreciate it but she’s already got a job. You do know we handed in that CV months ago.”. “Oh, I’m sorry”, I say in a friendly voice, “thank you anyway for your time”. *click*

So I’ve ended up with no one. I call up HR to mention the news. “Good, now we can just hire that Syrian girl”. *sighs* Again… no wonder we need Qatarisation… those CVs I had showed that they had trained and took up extra training to study English but simply weren’t given the chance…

Oh well! I did my best to give them a shot. That’s the best I can do.

Today was an extremely odd day at the office. The secretary had to leave. She’s a very nice girl, works hard, follows the rules, but sadly she didn’t have her work permit authorised so was forced to leave the office. Everyone, included our head, was sad to see this happen.

We’re also in the middle of transforming our department into a subsidiary so losing the secretary (and friend) is going to set us back a bit… I’ll do my best to see if I can help sort things out for her…