Warning: Job Scam Alert

We hid all comments on QatarVisitor.com yesterday.

Here's why.

Job seekers have been leaving their email addresses and other contact details on our website and on other websites and forums.

Scam agencies and companies have been contacting them.

One of these companies pretended to be a major Qatar company. They asked for money, and job seekers gave it to them.

They never heard from the company together. They only realised the request was a lie and a scam when they contacted the real company.

These people have lost their money. Hopefully, you haven't yet.

Please remember the following :

• Most companies do not ask for money from job seekers. Large companies are very unlikely to.
• If you receive an email from a free email address, be suspicious. An email from a large company should end in the domain name.
• Be aware that when you post your details online you increase the risk of being contacted by a scam company.
• No-one from Qatar Visitor will ask you for money (unless you want to advertise with us, of course!)
  

For more information, check out our tips on avoiding job scams.

And, if you are a Qatar job seekers, please be careful!

How not to lose your job in Qatar

Over the years I have known a number of people lose their jobs in Qatar. Some were people I knew, some were close colleagues, some I just heard about through the rumour mill.

Many of these people did not lose their job because they were incompetent, but because they had a poor understanding of the culture and environment they worked in.

In our latest article, we have compiled tips for keeping your job in Qatar. They may sound rather different from what you would expect in the West, but they are based on our direct experience in Qatar. See Keeping your Job in Qatar and the Middle East for the full article.

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Qatar Visitor Jobs Board

After several months of development we have now launched our Qatar Jobs Board.

We are really pleased that, thanks to our email lists, after just a few days we have over a hundred jobs posts and several hundred users.

Here's why you should check it out too:

For Job Seekers

• browse or search job opportunities
• set up job email alerts - either for specific jobs or for all jobs
• build an online profile and upload a CV so that employers can find you

Click here to access the board and find jobs in Qatar.

For Employers

• post an instant job - no registration required
• sign up and post unlimited jobs
• browse CVs or set up a CV alert
• start an online conversation with potential job applicants

Sign up now and get one year's membership - for free!

Ten Qatar Employers Share Their Favourite Interview Questions

Several people have asked us for common interview questions in Qatar.

To answer this question, we went out and asked Qatar recruiters what their favourite interview questions were - and what answer they were looking for.

The Employers

In Qatar, you can find almost every nationality under the sun.

And though the backbone of the country's economy is oil, you'll find almost every industry here.

That's why we interviewed employers from several different nationalities and industries.

Hamida, for example, is an Indian lady who runs a recruitment agency. She wanted to know why people would want to come to Qatar.

Meanwhile, Patricia, the Canadian deputy dean of the College of the North Atlantic, was interested in how people could relate current research to real life problems at work.

The Answers

We weren't just interested in what questions people asked. We also wanted to know what answers they were looking for.

Several interviewers mentioned that they weren't just interested in what people said.

Some were looking for enthusiam (a 'twinkle in the eye' said Khalifa) while others were studying body language.

To view all the questions - and answers - click here.

To keep up with our job related articles, sign up here.

Are you an employer?

We are still collecting employer's favourite questions and answers. If you have any, please send them to us!

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Job Interviews: Just how useful are they?

Talking the Talk Versus Walking the Walk

We're currently interviewing interviewers about job interviews (I really wanted to say that!), and are coming up with lots of interesting material for our next website article. (Favourite interview questions in Qatar, for our Qatar jobs section!)

However, to me it seems there is a fundamental problem with interviews. Essentially, that you are always testing what people can say as opposed to what people can actually do.

Like me, you probably know people who can really talk the talk - people who sound like experts, but who are completely useless at their job.

You may also know people who aren't the best talkers, but who do quietly get on with their job - and produce really good work.

Personally, I am far more interested in what people can do than what people can say.

We only employ freelancers to work on the websites, but I recently chatted to one of these freelancers before giving her an assignment.

She really had absolutely nothing to say. She said so little, I barely knew she could speak English. She had, however, sent in a really good piece of work as an example, so I took her a risk and gave her a piece of writing to do.

She's done about eight articles for us since then, and they have all been excellent.

Which makes me wonder - just how useful are interviews?

Do you interview people in Qatar?

Qatar Visitor is collecting popular job interview questions in Qatar.

We are also interested in whether different nationalities are looking for different things in interviews.

Essentially we want to know:

What are your favourite questions in an interview?
What are you looking for in an answer?
Your nationality.
Your company.

If you want to let us know please email us on admin [at] QatarVisitor.com, direct message us via twitter (@qatarvisitor) or leave a message on Facebook. We'll include a link to your company website with any interview questions/answers we publish.

16 Tips to Help You Win Telephone Interviews

Telephone interviews can be tricky.

Although you may feel relaxed, research shows that the informal settings and distractions of home can lead to really bad interviews.

One friend of mine, wrongly assuming that an interview wasn't serious because it was on the telephone, actually remembers hearing the interviewers laugh in the background because his answers were so bad.

You also have to connect with your employer - without the advantage of eye contact and body language.

In our latest article on the website Mariam Nonha deals with all these issues and more.

Check out 16 Tips to Help You Master Telephone Interviews for the full article.


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Qatar Job Search

We've recently launched a new website called Qatar Job Search, which enables job seekers to search thousands of Qatar vacancies.

The site utilises a custom google search index to search numerous sites which list Qatar jobs.

Sites indexed include local jobs sites such as All Qatar Jobs, websites with a jobs classifieds section such as Qatar Living and large jobs websites such as Bayt.com.

We've tweaked the code to try and ensure it returns only jobs in Qatar, that the most recent jobs are weighted first and that posts older than one month are not indexed.

So please check it out - we'd love to hear any feedback!

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Qatar Jobs Survey

Update: The survey is now complete, and the results are being anaylsed. Thanks to everyone who took part!

You may have noticed a new link to the side of the blog. This is for our Qatar jobs survey. We are currently collecting information about people working in Qatar. We are asking for information such as:

• how you found work in Qatar
• qualifications before coming to Qatar
• experience before coming to Qatar
• gender (male of female)

Our intention is to find out who is finding work in Qatar, and how. This will hopefully be of great use to people searching for work in Qatar. If you are a Qatar employee, please consider completing the survey!

Browse a List of Qatar Jobs or Upload Your CV

Qatar Workers More Confident

Employees in Qatar, although worried by current economic conditions, are more confident about their current of residence.

This is the latest finding by Bayt.com, who provide Qatar Visitor's Qatar Job Listing.

Although a majority of professional (62%) were worried about their job, a majority (52%) also felt confident about the prospects for their country of residence, Qatar, as compared to other countries and 65% expressed confidence in Qatar.

Just 4% said the country was no longer an attractive place to live.

Labourers may have more reason for dissatisfaction, with Al Jazeera recently reporting that some construction workers, who often borrow money in order to pay illegal agency demands to come to Qatar, have gone without pay for months.

Recession in Qatar: Jobs, Beggars and Traffic

As I approached my car, the man fixed me in his gaze and approached me. Lifting up his shirt to display a bloody wound, he pleaded with me for money.

"Please sir, I have car accident, need to go home to India..."

I gave him a few riyals and he started crying, pleading for more.

An increase in the number of beggars seems to be one effect of the recession in Qatar. Although against the law - beggars run the risk of being arrested - I have also seen women with their heads covered asking for money; in one case entering the restaurant I was eating and going round the tables despite the protests of the waiter.

Other friends, particularly those who walk a lot, also tell of being approached by beggars. One reported being approached by the same beggar as me. This time the beggar complained after receiving 50 riyals - "more, more" he said.

Beggars may do quite well here. Locals often feel it is their Islamic duty to help those less fortunate, while expats whose hearts have not been hardened by the frequency of beggers in other countries are more likely to give. With many people stranded here, and with those who are here on an illegal basis unable to access the public healthcare system, it's an obvious choice for those who are desperate.

It's not without risk, though. Begging is illegal, and transgressors risk arrest, imprisonment and deportation.

Perhaps another cause in the increase in beggers is the increasing trend to not paying workers recently highlighted by Al Jazeera. Contractors are increasingly holding back wages, sometimes for months. Heartbreakingly, the workers have often borrowed heavily to come out, sometimes even mortgaging their land. With no shortage of labourers desperate for work, complaining has little effect.

At the other end of the scale, I knew one gentleman who came out to work here and was given a nice car, a great house to live in and the latest mobile phone - but no money. "I've given you everything you need - what do you need money for?" his boss asked him.

Another aspect of the recession - a positive one for a change - seems to be a very welcome decrease in traffic. This is something I have noticed on the school run, with the time from the school to my office dropping by ten minutes. With, apparently, 60,000 expats leaving Qatar to return home in the last few months that's perhaps no surprise. It's not likely to last long - when the economy picks up and the Qatar economy, aided by vast government projects, resumes expansion, the traffic is likely to get worse than ever!

Check out our Qatar Job listing

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Qatar Jobs: Movie

Also see:

• Qatar Job Vacancies
  
• Getting a Job in Qatar
  
• Qatar Labour Law
  
• Working Women in Qatar
  
• Qatar Jobs Forum 
  

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Qatar Jobs

Jobs and Competitions

Our partners, Bayt.com, are running a competition to help them find a visual style for their movies.

To enter the competition you have to create a video showing your use of an original creative design.

The winner of the competition will win the contract for all or part of the videos they are creating.

For more information check out the movie below or visit the Bayt Jobs I Can Draw site.

Remember you can also see a list of current jobs in Qatar and the Gulf provided by Bayt.com on our Qatar Jobs page.



Also see:

• Qatar Job Vacancies
  
• Getting a Job in Qatar
  
• Qatar Labour Law
  
• Working Women in Qatar
  
• Qatar Jobs Forum 

Virtual Job Fair

As desperate job seekers from the West and elsewhere flood Qatar with job applications - even Qatar Visitor has been receiving daily emails by job seekers requesting help finding work - Bayt.com has announced that it will holda virtual job fair in Kuwait. 

Bayt.com has held job fairs in other countries, but this is the first one to be held in Kuwait. (When is it going to be Qatar's turn?)

At the job fair employees and employers can connect and interact online, and job hunters can also check out companies virtual booths. 

Job seekers will be able to upload their cv at the fair and to apply for jobs advertised at the booths.

Check out Bayt.com job vacancies or upload your CV

Virtual Job Fair

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Working in Qatar: Check out the company first!

The Indian Embassy in Qatar has urged workers to check out companies'credentials before accepting positions in Qatar. According to Sindh Today, the advice followed a case in which a hundred recently recruited Indian employees had to return home after a company lost the contract for which they had been recruited. Not only did they return empty handed - the majority of them had paid Rs.50,000 to Rs.60,000 to a recruiting agent in India to get the positions in the first place. The newspaper went on to quote Sanjiv Kohli, minister at the Indian embassy, as saying:

This is not the first or the last case in which people are cheated by recruitment agencies.

In our article on jobs, Getting a job in Qatar, we advise workers to avoid small and recently set up companies where possible. You are less likely to get problems with a large well established company or with a government position. While this may not also be possible, you should also research your company as far as is possible. In addition to doing an internet search on the company that will be recruiting you, there are many expatriate forums where locals have a wealth of knowledge which they are willing to share. A little bit of research could save a lot of expense, hassle and heart break later on.

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Qatar jobs

In what must be good news for expatriates seeking jobs in the Middle East, Qatar is facing a shortage of professional staff in a number of fields, according to a story in The Peninsula today.

The fields include engineering, banking, finance, medicine and accountancy.

Part of the problem may be due to the rising cost of living and the falling value of the riyal. However one recruitment consultant, Maria Brown, said that as a result companies were offering increasingly competitive packages.

Demand, though high in all fields, was particularly strong in the banking sector.

Those accepting jobs may get an unexpected benefit in the coming months. It is looking increasingly likely that the Qatar riyals - as well as other local currencies - will be devalued. If so, the value of any savings or remittances will increase. But I'll leave it to all those bankers to work out exactly how much extra they will benefit!

Browse jobs in Qatar and the Gulf

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