mediaME.com, the news community for advertising and media professionals in the Middle East has launched a free Classifieds service .

mediaME Classifieds listings categories cover all aspects of the jobs and freelance markets, featuring Job Postings, Job Seekers, Freelancers and Professional Service Providers with sub-categories for every advertising and media specialization. Also, the listings aim to serve the needs of sellers with categories for Media Opportunities, Sponsorship Opportunities, Events & Activities and Business Equipment & Software.

In a press release Zeid Nasser, Founder & CEO of mediaME.com said that launching the classified section in mediaME signals a shift towards mediaME.com becoming a marketplace for buyers and sellers.

mediaME owner is Jordan based MediaScope has received in Feb, 2009 investment from IV Holdings

If you worked in recruitment before you know the amount of time and pain you put to find the right candidates. Current Job boards like Bayt, Akhtaboot and Monster are all out dated.

The painful hiring process with these platform works either by posting a job vacancy and wait for candidates to apply or search the database of CVs. And Oh Boy that process eats lots of your time and is not organized.

BasharJobs comes to re-engineer that process, making it much easier and less time consuming for the both sides, recruiters and job seekers.

On BasharJobs candidates create what Basharjobs call Talent Profiles (TPs) instead of uploading their CVs ( they can export their Linkedin Profile). TPs are more structured and visual than CVs making them easier to read and easier to use for matching with jobs. Intelligent matching algorithms then match TPs with jobs from employers , producing in real time job recommendations for job seekers and candidate recommendations for employers. Thus both job seekers and employers no longer need to search for each other.

According to Muhammad A. Algarhy Basharsoft founder and CEO, Matching is based on 30 dimensions from both sides and they have different weights, for example, marketing title has higher wight, 5 years experience in marketing has higher weight.

Basharjob Business model is different than other job boards, instead of buying CVs to view or a slot to post a job, recruiters can post a job for free view profiles that match the job, but only pay to get the contacts of these profiles.

The system has also other nice features for recruiters to help them get the right candidates, each profile has a tag cloud, which are collections of keywords from users profile that help recruiters to get a better idea about the person, job seekers can add a 3 to5 minutes video about themselves. They can also tag each profile as short listed or rejected, rate applicants, commenting on profile for internal use and job seekers can see their application status, and the probability to win this job.

BasharJobs is developed by Basharsoft which is incubated at Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC ) in smart village, Cairo, Egypt, The startup won the business plan the incubator runs every year and is funded via a grant of 170,000 USD.

I met with Basharsoft CEO Muhammad A. Algarhy when I visited Egypt in December he told us that they plan to release psychometric assessment integration. Basharsoft also has Spring Talent Management a job board engine used to develop custom job boards for niche segments and industries. and WiseRec is an online careers section for SMEs sold on a SaaS model with features to collect and screen applications.




What appears to be the biggest exit in the Internet industry for this year, Dice Holdings, Inc.,a NYSE Listed specialized career websites for select professional communities has acquired United Arab Emirates (UAE) based Energy job sites WorldwideWorker.

In a press release Dice Holdings announced on May 10th that the purchase price consists of initial consideration of $6.0 million in cash.  Additional consideration to a maximum of $3.0 million in cash is payable upon the achievement of certain operating and financial goals over the next two years.

WorldwideWorker according to the press release has more than 400,000 energy professionals have registered with WorldwideWorker and two-thirds of those are based in Asia, Africa or the Middle East.

This is an interesting news to the Industry and will for sure push more investors to venture into funding startups as Yahoo Maktoob deal did.

We will followup with more info about this news soon.

Until recently Google presence in the region was with a small office in Dubai, Cairo and Saudi Arabia, with a small team whose focus was in Google Ad words, marketing, PR and Arabizing some of its products, excluding the fully Arabic Google’s Ejabat. While all the development work for Google has been carried out from its center in Switzerland.

However, we see now a major change in that direction as we see bigger regional push from Google, as its now seeking to employ more people in the region. This comes few months after Yahoo!’s acquisition of the largest Arab portal : Maktoob.

Recently Google was looking for Head of Arabia – Emerging EMEA, who according to the job post will be developing a business plan for google in the region and select which markets to focus on.

Google also is looking for a Regional Marketing Manager, Middle East North Africa (MENA) ,Policy Manager, Middle East and Northern Africa – Cairo or Dubai at Google and Enterprise Account Manager, MENA – Dubai.

As you might know we achieved unprecedented Arab rank in the blogs scene, as ArabCrunch earned the first rank in the Arab World and the 24th rank worldwide, beating both The Wall Street Journal and Forbes Blogs in the startup category.

We also have ArabCrunch.NET the first and largest social platform to empower Arab entrepreneurs and techies. And we organized last year the largest DEMO event in the region: ArabCrunch DEMO.

We have 10s of thousands of impressions across all our sites every month, so we need someone who can drive and close ad campaigns from key advertisers ( classical and social media ads) and close partnership deals with others. In order of us to cover our costs and continue serve our loyal readers and members.

This is a full time job and the location is Amman, Jordan but we are open for Dubai applicants.

If you love what we do at ArabCrunch and believe in our values this is your life time career, you close deals and meet monthly targets we will love you and you will grow with as we grow.

Here are more details about this job ( to view other all ArabCrunch jobs go here.)

Job Description:
• Selling online ads (Classic and Social Media) with the ability to meet sales targets every month.

• Continually identifying leads and new potential customers from external sources.

• Handling all in coming leads.

• Handling and growing leads. Face to Face, Telephone and online presentations and sales.

• Creating creative online marketing and social media plans for our clients.

• Working with both agencies and direct clients.

* Generate sponsorship deals for our event.

• Implement and track each client online campaign using OpenX ad server.

• Study our visitors and social media stats to propose offers to our advertisers.

* Administer all sales support systems in line with internal requirements.

Skills:
*Demonstrate a very strong background in online advertising sales if not, then you must have strong offline advertising sales track record.

* Existing relationship with both advertisers and ad agencies .

* Skilled negotiator who is target-driven.

* Natural interest in startups/technology / Internet/ social media/gadgets/PCs as our work and many of your potential clients work in these areas.

* Ideal person is someone who has drive, and enthusiasm, and passion.

* BA/BS degree in any relevant field.

This role would suit a determined person. Who enjoys a fast paced, creative and fun working environment whose input will have a direct contribution towards the company’s success.
To apply send your CV to jobsATarabcrunch.DOTcom with the title: Online Ad Sales/Business Development Executive.

About ArabCrunch Group:

ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs and technology professionals, both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch En http://arabcrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET http://ArabCrunch.NET, ArabCrunch Arabic and via its events. ArabCrunch blog is ranked as one of the top 25 blogs in the world.

After many days of hard work, after over a year of full time dedication to help startups and techies like you, today AC reached a major milestone: ArabCrunch.NET First Online Social Platform in the Arab World focused on Startups & The Technology Industry. With this announcement, the social platform, was what you the passionate startup and tech community wanted AC to develop for you  and as I mentioned back on April that AC will do it! when I wrote about the ecosystem that we need to have in order to help grow the tech industry in this region and turn our economies into knowledge based economy. Today Our promise is delivered, Here is the ecosystem in one place

ArabCrunch.NET, Helping The Arab World Innovate

ArabCrunch Group Extends Technological Reach with First Social Network in the Arab World focused on the technology industry

Amman, Jordan and Silicon Valley, CA – Tuesday, November 10, 2009 – ArabCrunch Group announced today closing a round of funding and the launch of ArabCrunch.NET, the first social network dedicated to creating an environment that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and mentorship for Arab entrepreneurs throughout the world. ArabCrunch.NET offers a dynamic platform for collaboration amongst the various stakeholders within the technological ecosystem from Berkeley to Bahrain.

The launch came during a press conference held by Arab Crunch in cooperation with Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at the headquarters of the Royal Scientific Society.

“ArabCrunch.NET will facilitate knowledge transfer and enable veterans from Silicon Valley to work with and mentor young talent from the MENA region,” said Bassel Yassine Ojjeh, a former Senior Vice President of Yahoo!, Inc. USA, a serial entrepreneur and Board Member of ArabCrunch Group, who led the round of funding. “We’ve built ArabCrunch.NET to fuel innovation, create a knowledge based society and an environment for job creation in the region that will serve high tech professionals throughout the 22 Arab countries and the western hemisphere.”

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to be the first dedicated group that focuses on accelerating the innovation cycle both here in Amman and throughout the Arab world,” said Gaith Saqer, Founder of ArabCrunch Group. “Ever since we launched ArabCrunch.com in 2008, we have been committed to finding the most compelling technological innovations that impact the Arab world – this next chapter allows us to help foster collaboration on a scale never seen before in our region. We have built a social platform that connects participants and helps them find crucial resources, build strategic partnerships and promote services.”

Since it’s unveiling in 2008, ArabCrunch.com has grown to one of the most widely read technology blogs in the Arab world with over 30,000 monthly visits. Founded on the principle of “professional blogging,” ArabCrunch.com has become the primary source of information about the latest technological advancements relevant to the Arabic world. An Arabic version based on “citizen journalism” was launched last month and has met with great success.

- END-

About ArabCrunch Group:
ArabCrunch Group’s mission is to inform, impact, inspire and create an Arab centric technology ecosystem that delivers information, and connects Arab entrepreneurs both in the region and throughout the world via its properties, ArabCrunch.com, ArabCrunch.NET and ArabCrunch.com/ar. About

Arab Crunch.NET:

The mission of ArabCrunch.NET is to help accelerate entrepreneurship and technology innovation in the Arab world by delivering an online social platform that connects participants of the technology ecosystem.
ArabCrunch.NET is the first online social platform dedicated to connect and support technology companies, entrepreneurs, techies, scientists, academia and investors in the Arab world. ArabCrunch.NET is a project from ArabCrunch, the publisher of arabcrunch.com and ArabCrunch Arabic Edition.

About Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship:
The QRCE is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in October 2004 and is now a complement of El Hassan Science City. The center’s mission is to support economic development through offering a package of services to promote excellence and market technology. The centre particularly targets college students, researchers, inventors and initiators to enhance and build their personal capacities. QRCE offers this group consultation and works to develop their sense of excellence and initiative through a set of programs including Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Excellence Competition, Technology Commercialization Program, Connect Jordan and Princess Sumaya University for Technology’s Entrepreneurship Society (DART).

Social Networking and video portal site d1g.com, which allows users to share, discuss, and distribute rich online content, has tapped into the knowledge and expertise of online data mining and data strategist, Dr. Usama Fayyad, appintement is a big win for D1g.com. 

Dr. Usama Fayyad served as Yahoo!’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Research & Strategic Data Solution.  Dr. Fayyad was responsible for Yahoo!’s overall data strategy, architecting Yahoos data policies and systems, prioritizing data investments, and managing Yahoos data process infrastructure which processed and mined over 25 Terabytes of data per day resulting from Yahoo!’s over 500 million users globally.   

Dr. Fayyad was also responsible for the advanced technology arm of Yahoo! in Yahoo! Research — the group that is driving innovation in social systems is Search Technology, in Microeconomics and in monetization technologies. He was also responsible for user targeting and grew ad targeting at Yahoo! by 20-fold from when his company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2004 till he left Yahoo! in later 2008. 

Dr. Fayyad invested into d1g.com, and has become the company’s new Executive Chairman. But the amount of investment has not been disclosed.  With d1g.com growing regional audience of more than 3 million unique monthly visitors viewing more than 20 million monthly pages and an excess of 15 million online monthly videos — making it the leading video streaming site in the Middle East, Dr. Fayyad’s entry into the company provides great value in helping scale the company’s infrastructure to accommodate the increased users’ activity and to grow the business to the next level   

“Arab audiences are really thirsty for new-generation rich content and social media represented by the Web 2.0 offerings of d1g.com. I am very excited about d1g.com.  I have been informally advising the firm since its early days, and I am very bullish about their potential to grow and provide some of the most dynamic experiences for their audiences and marketers alike.” said Dr. Fayyad.  “Since my departure from Yahoo! in the autumn of 2008, I have been evaluating various investment opportunities in the regional online space, and I was very impressed with the skills, expertise and dedication of the company’s leadership.” added Dr. Fayyad.  

Dr. Fayyad will play a particularly crucial role in helping the d1g.com management team better monetize the company’s inventory through more targeted ad offerings that allows marketers to dynamically generate ads that target various audience criteria such as geography, demography, and browsing behaviour. He will also help expand the offering to our rapidly growing user base across the entire Arabic speaking world. 

“We are very excited to have Dr. Fayyad on board.  His hands-on approach to the company and the team has already proved to be of enormous value to the business.”  said Majied Qasem, d1g.com Co-founder, “Dr. Fayyad will be instrumental in helping us capture a larger share of the rapidly growing on-line advertising market as all companies realize the effectiveness and value of this new medium, especially in reaching the youth and high-value audiences across the Middle East, including especially the GCC and North Africa.” 

Rudain Kawar, d1g.com Co-founder and primary investor so far added “I am looking forward to working with Dr. Fayyad.  His involvement will put d1g.com in the forefront of online innovation and provide globally and regionally relevant insights into the industry.”  

 Bayt.com, the Middle East’s number one job site, announced today that JobSeekers can now benefit from a job search that is 40 400 percent faster on the Bayt.com site, following the replacement of Bayt.com’s existing job search engine, with a new one. The new search technology designed for job seekers is a complement to Bayt.com’s InstantMatch technology for employers to find the most suited persons to their specified vacancies, quickly while minimizing time-to-hire.

Once on the Bayt.com site, job seekers will still encounter the same user interface, but they will now receive the results of their search in a much faster time, with the search technology alone, stripped of its appendices, operating at a minimum 40 400 percent faster speed according the Bayt.com. 

Akram Assaf, Chief Technology Officer at Bayt.com commented; “Amidst the current economic downturn in the region, Middle East employment markets are in a state of flux. What we are seeing is that many professionals who were settled and secure in their jobs until very recently, are finding themselves in a position where they now need to find new work. 

At Bayt.com, it is our commitment to constantly innovate and develop new services and technologies to help all of the region’s job seekers to find their ideal position. With the launch of this new search technology, we are demonstrating this commitment; through making the job search process work better for them and perform at unprecedented effectiveness and speed.” 

A significant feature to the technology is that now, job seekers can use a variety of different terms and keywords to look for jobs that couldn’t be used before. Specific key words and symbols such as C++ and R11, and two-letter abbreviations such as HR or IT can now be entered into the search box. The ability to use these search terms gives higher precision to the actual keywords used, over the stemmed version.

 The technology therefore gives greater weight to the keyword if it shows in the job title, followed by the company name, before searching across the whole job description. The result is that the process is even more straightforward and quicker for the JobSeeker without sacrificing simplicity or user-friendliness.

 Once the new technology has completed the search – in seconds – the relevant results will be presented to the JobSeeker, in a descending order of importance, based on the JobSeeker’s specified keywords. 

Internet users are increasingly creating their own online experiences by uploading videos to websites like YouTube and Vimeo, authoring blogs on Blogger, micro-blogging on Twitter, and creating their personalized online profile on Facebook and MySpace. Bayt.com the #1 job site in the Middle East is capitalizing on those talented, creative individuals who are expressing themselves through the internet in numbers and with a level of skill and creativity like never before, and that this creative group is not limited to “professionals.” Talented amateurs make up a significant portion of online creators – and the more than 2,750,000 registered users on Bayt.com – and these users want to play an active role in shaping their online experience. When discussing video content as a core part of their user experience, Bayt.com decided to diverge from the creative agency route for its video production. Instead, Bayt.com has just launched a Video Contest titled “I can draw Video Contest” asking Bayt.com’s users to create engaging, artistic videos that bring the words of Bayt.com to life.

“We spoke to several local and global agencies about producing a suite a videos for Bayt.com, including an introduction to our role in the recruitment process and how-to videos, but the solution was right in front of us all along,” said Dan Stuart, Head of Strategic Initiatives at Bayt.com. “With over 2,750,000 users – many of whom tell us they want to play a larger role in shaping the user experience of Bayt.com – this was a chance to tap into their interests and creative abilities, and to continue the innovative spirit we have been pursuing through events like our Virtual Job Fairs to help our users find jobs in Dubai and jobs in the Middle East–North Africa region.”

“People often use the term Web 2.0, but the essence of Web 2.0 is to empower users to be authors who are building their online experience. Guided by this principle, we’ve already had great success with innovative approaches to crowd-sourcing content for our website,” Stuart said. “Ultimately, we learned from these experiences and decided to bring this particular contest in-house so that we could incorporate user-generated submissions into the very core of Bayt.com – both now and in the future.

”The “I can draw” Video Contest runs from January 5th to March 6th, 2009. Users can visit the contest microsite. Bayt has provided two video scripts on the microsite (here and here). Users create a video for one of these scripts using an original visual concept. The winning video concept will receive the contract to create more than three trilingual videos for Bayt.com. Also, both the winning designer and design will be promoted on Bayt.com, in all contest-related PR, and promoted on the contest Microsite.

“For us, this contest is only the beginning,” said Stuart. “We have an ambitious plan to continue innovating across all areas of Bayt.com in 2009 – including our core goal to match talent with opportunity. In all cases, we are driven by our mission to empower users with the tools and information to build their lifestyle of choice. We hope the “I can draw Contest” is another example of this empowerment.

We at ArabCrunch hope more companies in the Arab world understand Web 2.0 and Crowd-Source more and more of their services, where they can unleash talent and gain great services at lower rates than traditional means.

Bayt.com the leading online job recruitment in Middle East, has announced that it will host the first virtual job fair in Jordan starting on 19th of this month for 5 days tell 23 of Octobar 2008. 

Job seekers can attend this virtual job fair anywhere they are via any PC with internet and web browser. When attending, job seekers can send their CVs to any of the attending company (recruiter). This venue also allows companies to reach job seeks without going anywhere.

Fadi Drawish the regional manager told Addustor newspaper “We are committed to develop new methods, and make it easy to find qualified employees and to communicate with them in issues concerning  the employers, as for job seekers, we aim to make looking for the suitable vacancies much easier with the best workplaces in Jordan and the region”.

The virtual job far will host 3D booths for participating companies, each both will hold the name and logo of each company like real world job fairs, and users will be allowed to access information about the participating companies such as culture, mission and recruitment policies.

Employees with full time jobs who are looking for a new job may not be able to visit real world job fairs, so the virtual edition offers them efficient and suitable means to find a new job without the need to take a leave from work, According to Drawish.

He also said that the fair will offer confidentiality for each job submitter regardless of the job or company he/she apply for, and it eliminate all the traveling  and  associated time and money expenses.

Both Job seeks and employers  can be in touch directly through the virtual fair via chat or video conference.

As for employers the job fair offers them 50 % cost cuts according to Bayt. It also allows them to reach the audience of Bayt, that is about 2.5 million members in 94 different career fields from 182 countries.

Bayt will offer recruiters the ability to measure the success rates of their virtual fair attendance via measurement tools supplied by Bayt.

Bayt based in UAE competes with Jordan based Akhtaboot and the arabian version US based Monster : Monster Gulf .

Speaking during “Culture of Google Life Inside, and How to Apply?” Lecture which was held in Amman, Jordan last week, Husni Khuffash  Google Country Business Development Manager, UAE,  said that Google’s official  answer  to whether they will open an engineering office in Amman or not, is that Google  does not comment on rumors and when they decide to open an office in the region, they will inform every body. He also said that UAE Googlers will  move to a new Dubai office  after mid September. Google also has an office in Egypt, But as I said before that Amman will be the location of the engineering office, as multiple sources has told me.

The event had huge application from people who wanted to attend, but due to the limited space only 150 people attended.

Husni was the sole  speaker in the lecture, where he presented Google’s philosophy and work culture to the crowed.

Fortune magazine called Google the best working place environment, which is also shared by Opera Winfry according to Husni, where he displayed a video of Opera show regarding this matter.

Husni displayed many adverts for Google, all the people on them were actual Google employees. He cited an example of the loyalty Googlers have to Google, where every on in its Mountain View  Silicon Valley’s  head quarter around 5,000 agreed to go out in the rain to record a video advert for Google.

Husni said that Google received 1 million CV last year, in which they hired a couple of thousands.

Husni  also showed many videos displaying the luxury Googlers enjoy in its head quarter in Mountain View in  Silicon valley and its regional HQ in Dublin, Ireland. Where Googlers can bring their dogs to work, enjoy free gym, a wide rang of food choices. and access to many nice toys among other things.  Husni said that  Google wants to make the work place for its employees feels like home. He also said googlers work less hours but produce more.

One of the interesting things he mentioned is that Silicon valley Googlers are invited to eat free food in San Francisco, CA, USA and Arabic food is served to them once a month.

Husni will email me the links to some of the videos he showed during the event, and I will post them when they arrive. Mean while I picked this one after a fast search on Youtube (Note: I did not see the video since my net speed is down, but this video has 124,890 on Youtube Update: here are the Videos:







I asked him whether these facilities which are available at Google HQ and Ireland branch, would be also available in Middle East office, he said the office in Dubai will reflect the Google life style and culture.

Moreover  he said that Google offers many benefits to its works worldwide, such as free gym membership, and 50% subsidy to learn a new language.

Husni mentioned odd things about Google “inspiring” work environment where he said Dublin HQ had a pajama day and in other offices the ugly dress contest, but these days were optional to Google’s employees to participate in. Which is funny in my opinion, and my take is that the conventional business dress code of a the formal tie uniform should be abolished to any type of dress as long it is neat and covering the body in a respectful manner:) .

Husin mentioned how he got to work with Google. In which around 4, 000 applied to his position, but he was head hunted, and they chose him for many reasons. He said they looked at his experience, his education, and entrepreneurship spirit and social activities he did during his life. He also added that his work in the a restaurant during university was also a helpful factor, that  showed that he sets plans on early stages and has been working hard to achieve his goals.

You can look his linked in profile here.  and here is an interview with Husni that dates to 2004 when he was Regional Manager for Maktoob.com.

Husni said he left online business few years ago and started a small consultancy firm for several industries in Dubai, but he joined Google because he has a passion for what it is doing, and for the online industry.

Husni also touched in his own work experience with Google, he said he used to work for 14 hours a day, but the HR called him and told him “you have been working too hard” and gave him a vacation and told him you only work 8 hours a day. This is unfortunately not a common practice among Jordanian IT companies.

Every new employee at Google has to go through a series of interviews before joining. In an answer to how Google would keep the ego of their employees down, he answered that every new employees that joins after the person is smarter than him/her, so it is impossible to be the smartest.

When asked whether Googles’ founders share the (humbleness ) of Google’s employees, he mentioned this: After having few weeks experience with personal secretaries which was suggested to them by the Google’s CEO, they told him they do not want to have secretaries and asked him to transfer them to other departments inside Google. He also said that they have a culture of sharing and participate with many employees activities for example they get their daily meals in the office with the employees at the restaurants Google Plex. I also remember reading that they go to work with very normal cars. But in my opinion, there is nothing wrong in buying luxury things as long the persons earnings are from legitimate means.

Husni said that Google chose allot  students from around the world for its internship program every year, and they do not have a quota for any country, they simply chose the best CV. Moreover they also have Google Ambassador program for students.

As for Google’s philosophy he said Google first focus in the user, and everything will follow (like business model) among other remarks, he also said Google believes in “do business with no evil”.

He also said that Google is an engineering company, and they never relax because they know that somewhere out there in the world there are two engineers developing the next big thing.

The lecture was organized by IEEE Gold and Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE).

To apply to Google jobs go to here .

Note: I had few pics of this event, but unfortunately someone corrupted the memory card

UPDATE: Husni Khuffash Google Country Business Development Manager, UAE, said that Google officially has not made final decision regarding the location of its upcoming engineering center in the Arab world. But I have other sources who say Jordan will be the place.

Google is being active lately organizing seminars and lectures in Amman/Jordan, and posting Job vacancies on different regional job recruitment websites. First it was “The Art of online Advertising (covered here)”    and  “Online Advertising in the Arab World: Impacts and Opportunities” Seminar  which will commence next Thursday.

“The Culture of Google Life Inside, and How to Apply? “  will be held on Wednesday the 20th of August , 2006, Amman / Jordan at Sham Hotel between 6:00 and-9:00 pm.

The speaker will be Husni Khuffash Google Country Business Development Manager, UAE.  In which he will give an insight into Google’s work culture. The lecture will be followed by a networking evening gathering professional and senior executive.

The title of this lecture points out that Google that wants to recruit in Jordan, and it has been confirmed to me by multiple sources that Google is in the process of opening an office in Amman, Jordan.

The lecture is organized by IEEE Gold and Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE).
To register you can email khawaja@ieee.org.

Participation fees:

IEEE member: JD 4.
IEEE non-member: JD 6.

# Source Bayt Blog.
The results of a series of online polls conducted by the Middle East’s number one job site – Bayt.com – into the region’s jobseekers, has shown that the most important element for women in finding a new job is the potential opportunities for growth and advancement. Of the respondents, 36% put this as their primary concern, followed by 31% of respondents stating that an attractive salary was the most important factor considered when seeking employment. A ‘cordial and friendly boss’, and a ‘friendly working team’ were considered as the least important factors, by 3% and 4% of respondents respectively.

The range of recent Women in the Middle East Workplace online polls seek to understand and measure the attitudes of the region’s jobseekers to women in the workplace, by assessing prevailing outlooks on important and contentious elements including gender equality and the competence of different genders to do the same professional work.

While the majority of respondents – a 45% average – felt that women are not at a disadvantage in the workplace, the range varied widely. An overwhelming majority of respondents in Iran, at 76%, felt that women are at a disadvantage in the workplace, which contrasts with only 25% of respondents in Lebanon who felt that women were in an untenable position at work. Over 50% of Saudi Arabia’s and Morocco’s respondents felt that women were at a disadvantage in the workplace, while the other Gulf countries, Egypt, India and Pakistan, largely felt that women were not.

In a separate poll, jobseekers were asked whether they thought women in the workplace were given equal opportunities, compared to their male counterparts. Saudi Arabia and Iran topped the list of respondents that answered no by 56% and 53%, while respondents in India (57%), Egypt (53%) and Jordan (53%) felt that women were treated equally with very little exception.

“Women make up a large proportion of the region’s workforce and are fundamental players in helping to build and shape the region’s economies. The poll results show that attitudes regarding women in employment differ dramatically between countries, which may reflect prevailing social conditions – including the fact that women in some countries are not eligible to work or are forbidden from certain jobs, and that in other countries, women’s employment is a relatively new development in society,” explains Rabea Ataya, Bayt.com. “These results may also underscore a prevailing current of inequality in the workforce in some countries.”
Attitudes towards the competency of men and women to undertake specific job roles were also assessed in the online polls, by asking whether respondents felt there are some positions that women can do better than men. Respondents in Egypt were the least convinced of women’s ability with only 31% citing they could do many jobs better. The majority of respondents in the Gulf countries believed there were many jobs that women could do better with 48% in Saudi Arabia, 46% in Qatar and 45% in Bahrain responding positively on that score. In the UAE, this figure was 43%. At 70%, Iranian respondents had the strongest conviction that women could do many jobs better than men.

The most recent poll carried out as part of the Women in the Workplace theme also asked respondents whether they believe there are some professional roles that men are better at doing than women; or whether gender plays no role in success at work. Bahrain’s respondents at 39% were the most convinced that gender doesn’t directly equate to work success, closely followed by 38% of Qatar’s respondents. This figure was 29% in the UAE, 24% in Kuwait and only 20% in Saudi Arabia.

“This data can be of huge benefit to all HR practitioners and regional and international recruitment websites as it provides quick and valuable insights into how jobseekers in the region are feeling about the hugely important, pertinent topic of women in the workforce – in their country. This data will help HR practitioners to understand and question the role that issues of gender equality and competence should have in the modern business environment, which can in turn promote dialogue and even culture-change, in terms of improving or updating current regulations and practices that relate to both women and men at work,” concludes Ataya.

Data for the five Women in the Workplace polls was collected online between the period of 30th April and 3rd June 2008 with a total of 10,371 respondents from the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Iran and India. This online poll exercise was conducted ahead of an extensive ‘Women in the Middle East Workplace’ survey undertaken by Bayt.com and YouGovSiraj in June 2008.

Byte is by far the number one job site in Middle East, but it faces competition from startups and the American entrant to the Middle East job market Monstergulf.com.

Competing startups include: Akhtaboot.com from Jordan, Twffaha.com the Arab world woman only recruitment website from Sudan.

I am looking for a part-time Arabic writer for ArabCrunch, to write for the to be launched Arabic version of the blog.

You can be a high school student, a student at university or employee at a tech Company.

All you have to have is passion for tech, the web and cool mobile apps.

You should also understand web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 terms (is a must). Have some business sense or experience, excellent Arabic and English, and the love to write for fun.

Job description:

• Work from home or anywhere there is a PC/Laptop and the Internet.

• Translate stories from English to Arabic.

• Write posts in Arabic, profiling and reviewing Arab originating startups and newly launched services by established companies in the Arab World.

• From time to time you will be conducting interviews with senior executives using email, IM, twitter, phone and even face to face meetings.

Qualifications:
• Passion to tech blogging in Arabic.
• Excellent Arabic and English.
• Tech savvy.
• Basic business and management skills.
• BA in Management, Marking, MIS or Computer Science is preferred.
• Having a personal blog is a plus.
• Management experience with a Web 2.0 or Mobile 2.0 company is a plus, plus.

Send your CV to Arabcrunch@gmail.com with 2 of your best written articles, and mention to me your favorite tech blogs.