With the New Year comes a new outlook on career prospects and goals for many professionals in the Middle East. A new Bayt.com poll called ‘Career Prospects in the Middle East' revealed that 98% of respondents plan on looking for a new job in 2017 – and nearly all of them (95.1%) feel more prepared and qualified to apply for jobs this year than they were in 2016. Reflecting on their careers in 2016, four in ten (40.9%) respondents feel satisfied with their career growth during the past year, and more than half (52.7%) of respondents say that they stuck to the career resolutions they made last year. Overall, the majority of respondents are feeling good about the year ahead. When asked to describe how they feel, more than half (55.6%) used the word "positive", and another fifth (18.5%) used the word "excited". More than two thirds (68.2%) of respondents claim that they do their have career goals ready for 2017. What's more, nearly nine in ten (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. MENA professionals have their goals set high for the year ahead, with nine in ten (89.5%) respondents stating that they'll have more job responsibilities in 2017 and almost the same amount (85.3%) claiming that they will start taking more initiative at work. More than nine in ten (91.9%) claim that they 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. For a majority (58.6%) of respondents, finding a new job is at the top of their list of career goals, followed by improving skills and productivity (22.5%). To reach these goals, more than eight in ten (83.7%) claim that they will spend more time looking for jobs online in 2017. For those 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. When it comes to location preferences, nearly nine in ten (87.2%) respondents say that they want to work in the Gulf region in 2017. 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 are a lack of growth opportunities (27.7%), a lack of funding (22.6%), a lack of experience (14.5%), poor company management (14.3%), a lack of work-life balance (10.9%), too much competition (5.1%), and fear of failure (4.9%). "It is evident that job seekers in the MENA region are determined and inspired to seek more career opportunities and better professional development strategies," said Suhail Masri, VP Employer Solutions, Bayt.com. "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, highlight the value that Bayt.com offers to the region's professionals. We have witnessed a tremendous growth in the number of professionals who use Bayt.com to access the career tools and information they need. In fact, job seekers in 2017 are able to have daily access to over 10,000 jobs announced on Bayt.com. Our poll points to the increased efforts on the job seeker side and we will soon be revealing the region's hiring potential in the bi-annual Bayt.com Middle East Job Index survey."
