71% of professionals might resign from their current jobs in 2023 and follow their passions!
A new survey conducted by Bayt.com – the Middle East’s #1 Job Site – reveals that over 7 in 10 respondents (71%) have considered changing their career path completely, with 42% saying that it is easy to change jobs in the region.
Shifting to a new job (or choosing a totally different career) isn’t always about the salary. When asked why professionals may change their careers entirely, “to find their real passion” ranked first (37%) followed by opportunities to learn and challenge themselves (33%), better compensation (18%) and entering industries with a higher hiring activity (13%).
Ola Haddad, Director of Human Resources at Bayt.com said: “The way professionals plan their career paths has undergone a rapid transformation. Our latest survey highlights the factors defining career journeys in the Middle East during a disruptive time, including employee expectations, personal goals and financial expectations. In an applicant-friendly market, employers will need to ensure their hiring processes are responsive.”
While many professionals change employers, they often tend to remain in the same (or very similar) occupations. More than half (51%) of the respondents deem it necessary to work in the same field as their educational background but 49% are open to working in different fields.
When people switch jobs, it seems only natural that they would look to do something related. After all, skills or experience in one area can carry over to another. According to the survey, the biggest challenge associated with changing careers is transferring skills and relevant experience (41%), finding relevant jobs (27%), understanding a new industry or job role (18%) and recreating CV and cover letter (14%).
A majority of respondents (51%) believe that it is always important to obtain additional education/ training before changing careers, 38% believe it is important in some cases and 11% believe it is not important to gain new skills before switching jobs. However, when professionals have the skills that are vital for businesses to succeed, a world of new possibilities opens up to them.
Today’s workforce may be more mobile but they still are strategic and thorough about the process of switching careers. 16% of respondents believe that they should stay in their current role for at least a year before they switch to another one, 26% believe they should stay between one and three years, 29% think they should stay between three and five years before making the change, while 30% say “it doesn’t matter” how long you stay in one job.
Conducting the Perfect Job Search
Switching careers takes individuals outside their comfort zone, and job seekers need tools to help them in the process. Whilst looking for a new role, most job seekers say that they need help in writing a professional CV (45%), identifying new career opportunities (31%), networking opportunities in target industry (13%) and market/ industry knowledge and research (11%).
The initial step in successfully switching careers is to create a new CV for the target industry (50%), learning new skills (22%), assessing whether the switch is a practical option given past experience (17%) and researching the market trends and opportunities (11%).
Online job sites provide support as professionals begin a new career switch in terms of finding new jobs (83%), acquiring new skills (8%), professional CV writing (6%) and learning about industries and marketing (3%).
Data for the Bayt.com’s Switching Careers in the MENA Survey was collected online from July 31 to September 1, 2022. Results are based on a sample of 3,097 respondents from the following countries: UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Sudan among others.
