10 January2019: As the New Year gets underway, a recent Career Aspirations study by Bayt.com – the Middle East’s #1 Job Site – and YouGov – global online market research company – has revealed that professionals in the region are encouragingly optimistic about their career outlooks for2019. In Kuwait specifically,81% of professionals said they have “positive” feelings towards the new year. Only7% had a negative outlook, while the rest of respondents were neutral.
No Limits for Career Ambitions
In Kuwait,66% reported setting future professional goals for themselves, which included finding a new job (63%), learning new skills (46%) and getting a higher salary (54%).
With career development in mind, around two-thirds of Kuwaiti respondents (64%) believed they deserve to work in a higher-level position, and almost half of those respondents (48%) were willing to move to another department or area of expertise to develop their skillsets and further their professional careers.
As well as this, two-fifths (44%) of all respondents stated they were willing to move into a different industry altogether to broaden their professional expertise.
What Drives the ‘Ideal Job’
The top three factors that were seen as “important in an ideal job” for Kuwait residents were salary (81%) and opportunities of career growth (58%) followed by job security (30%) and work-life balance (24%).
Interestingly, more than half of those surveyed (59%) claimed they preferred being an employee in comparison to owning their own business (25%).
The reported reasons for seeking employment in the region are marked by the desire to “consistently learn and gain experience” as indicated by70% of respondents. This was followed by the goals to “make money” (61%) and to feel “useful to society” (49%).
Motivation levels at work
Nearly six in10 Kuwait respondents (58%) are reportedly satisfied with their professional growth. As for motivation levels in the workplace,65% reported feeling motivated at work.19% were neutral while only16% said they don’t feel motivated.
Possibly connected to motivation at work, the prevalence of mentors and role models featured highly in the findings, with more than half of the respondents (51%) reporting that they have either a mentor or role model in their careers.
Though respondents revealed a positive indication of their motivation in the workplace,77% of respondents reported that higher salaries and improved perks and benefits would help to increase their motivation. For52% of respondents, the opportunity to showcase their creativity and skills would make them more motivated at work.
“It is wonderful to observe that the majority of respondents to Bayt.com’s Career Aspirations study emitted such a positive sentiment for the2019 working year. This encouraging outlook will reflect positively on the region’s hiring activity and the individual career progression,” said Suhail Msari, VP of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com. “At Bayt.com, we work with over40,000 employers across the MENA region and they rely on our technologies and data to master their talent management practices. Based on this study, it is crucial to acknowledge employee aspirations and satisfaction as we start a new calendar year and as we work to enhance the hiring and job seeking processes even more.”
Future Personal Ambitions
Overwhelmingly, the top personal goal for2019 was reported to be saving more money, according to two-thirds of the overall respondents (77%). Other prominent goals included buying property (42%), spending more time with family (38%), more travel (36%), and exercising more (30%).
Less than a fifth of respondents (22%) said they prefer retirement before the age of50, indicating a desire to stay in the workforce for a longer period.
“The Career Aspirations study aims to better understand the challenges and aspirations of MENA professionals. It covers aspects such as perceptions and attitudes towards current job, career aspirations, barriers to career growth, overall work environment and personal aspirations and concerns,” said Kerry McLaren, Head of Omnibus MENA at YouGov.
Data for the2018 Bayt.com ‘Career Aspirations’ study was collect online from November22 to December25,2018. The results were based on a sample3128 respondents. Countries that participated are the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and others.