It has never been so eminent than now that our employment prospects are getting tougher year on year within the middle east job market. I have grown up in this region and hence can confidently vouch to the fact that fewer and fewer opportunities for employment of Pakistani nationals are coming forward within this region. Once upon a time not too long ago Pakistanis dominated the ME job markets being employed at almost all organizational levels. From the CEO to Salesman. Today however the situation is very different.

We are still employed across most organizational levels but the opportunities are allot fewer. Preferences are given to other nationalities. What are the reasons behind this disparity? Have our skill sets failed to keep up with the demands of the world markets? Has our education system fallen behind the world stage? Or is this an outcome of our attitude, professionalism and personalities? I believe that is it a combination of all of these factors. Beginning with the quality of education that is available to us in our home land for our professional development and international opportunities available to us on mother land. Today we have world class institute in Pakistan but how many people, employers, know them in this region for instance.

We have been asked to search for Harvard & Stanford grads but never LUMS or IBA grads. So the first challenge is communication. We not only need inter university rankings for our top business schools but also inter-employer ranking at the world stage. Now let’s look at the talent that is produced not only by these universities but also from our country in general. Firstly, the talent produced by the top business schools either generally gets employed within Pakistan by top companies or head out westwards. I understand that ME may not be the top choice when the world stage is open to you, which is why what we generally attract are candidates from second tier universities. As the saying goes, first impression is the last impression, those first impressions are generally created by your appearance and then solidified by your linguistic ability, English being the most common business language.

Considering ME or UAE for the sake of being specific is a world market, how many Pakistanis are able to speak the language like to native speakers? Also considering that there is a distinct employment nationality preference pyramid in this region, we need to better and not just equal at this skill. The reason for this is because we have not been able to attract foreign workforce in our country. All MNC & local companies employ Pakistanis and have deeply embedded Pakistani culture. There is nothing wrong with this when you are staying within Pakistan but when you are competing in the international arena this may become the final consideration for the prospective employer. Cultural balance is critical to organizational success. Having interviewed hundreds of people, work atmosphere and culture makes a big difference towards once personality, ethics and outlook even if two candidates have identical education background. So the second challenge is to provide international culture and best practice opportunities to our talent on the home turf.

Lastly, as Pakistanis or even as Pakistani Muslims we need to really look into our code of ethics, be honest in our dealings with others and keep in mind that we are and will be held accountable for our actions sooner or later. We need to keep our ego down and concentrate on the taks at hand and once again be recognised for what we really are, hard working honest intelligent people.

Part-1 of 2. By, Danish Haidri