Once again, a recent poll run by Bayt.com, the Middle East's #1 job site, which received 3,376 votes in November 2007, showed that `opportunities for growth and advancement' by far outweighed `higher pay' as an incentive to join a new job. 41.5% of respondents voted that opportunities for growth and advancement were more important to them as a motivator to join a new job than `higher pay' which received 29.5% of the vote, `a better company' which received 11.8% of the vote, `a more interesting job description' and `a better position' which both received 7.1% of the vote, and `flexible hours' which only received 3% of the vote.
Clearly immediate pay considerations are secondary to career development potential for today's professionals and interestingly company quality considerations are more important than position considerations probably also lending support to the theory that professionals are taking a longer-term perspective to their career development. In a related poll, where we asked respondents what the most important aspect they look for in a job is, the overwhelming majority (59%) cited `opportunities for growth and development' far exceeding `well defined roles and responsibilities', `friendly team', `pleasant environment', `cordial and professional boss' and `proximity to home' as deciding factors. Interestingly, `friendly team' at 8.8% received exactly double the votes of `cordial and professional boss' at 4.4%. A third poll asking employees what their favorite part of the work day was, saw `working on important projects' receiving 52.5% of the votes followed by `meeting with clients' at 16.7%, `meeting with team' at 14.4%. `meeting with boss' at 4.1% and `the daily repetitive tasks' scoring the lowest popularity at 3.7%.
Another poll of 3,884 professionals also run in November 2007 indicated that almost 32% of candidates still see themselves staying with a company indefinitely while only 17% of respondents hope to stay with a company 2 years or less. 19% of respondents hope to stay in a job for a maximum length of time of 3-4 years and another 16% hope to stay with a company a maximum of 5 years. Interestingly the Bayt.com January 2007 Salary Survey revealed that the average length of time holding a job in the polled countries ranged from 4.7 years in the UAE to 5.8 years in Kuwait and Bahrain yet in the past 5 years most people have changed jobs at least once with the average number of jobs held in the past 5 years ranging from 2 in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to 2.3 in Kuwait and 2.4 in Qatar.
