Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Doha, Qatar -- Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) hosted its first career fair on Thursday, March 12, 2009. Open to SFS-Qatar students, the inaugural career fair gave employers the chance to discuss future professional opportunities with the students, while at the same time preparing the SFS-Qatar student body for the job market.

"As a result of this fair and presentations, students got the chance to meet and talk face-to-face with representatives from a wide range of industries and organizations, explore various career options and opportunities, gain valuable interview experience and job search advice from seasoned professionals, and develop their network skills," said Basmah Ali, Career Counselor at SFS-Qatar.

SFS-Qatar hosted a variety of high profile employers from varying industries at the fair. ExxonMobil, Qatar Finance House, Barwa, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel and Qatargas are some of the companies representing the private sector. Additionally, nongovernmental organizations such as Muslim Aid, Qatar Red Crescent and Reach Out to Asia were also present. The fair also included research institutions and think tanks such as, RAND, Brookings Center, The Arabic Democracy Foundation, and Aljazeera Research Center. Some of the other employers participated were Qatar Foundation’s research division, MADE in Europe, Kershaw Leonard, Clarendon Parker, BP, Bayt.com, Qatar News Agency and Qatar Olympic Committee.

Employers participated with booth exhibits and information sessions at the career fair. They were available at the booth exhibits to promote their organization and talk about future professional opportunities for possible internship and full-time positions in a private setting. At Lecture Hall A, there were rolling information sessions throughout the day by some of the participating employers, including Maersk Oil – Qatar, Brookings Doha Center and Hill and Knowlton.

Career fairs are different than job fairs. While job fairs are a recruitment mechanism for employers to advertise about their professional vacancies for the upcoming six months, career fairs provide educational elements to the students. “They aim to advance attendants’ knowledge of the job market and its current and future trends,”said Ali.

SFS-Qatar students agree with this statement in that they think they were able to raise their awareness on the job market. “It was hard to start at first,” noted Lina Abduljawad (SFS ’10), “but as I talked to different employers, I was able to build up confidence and fine-tune my skills interacting with the employers.”

Aakash Jayaprakash (SFS ’11) sees the importance of starting early on breaking into the job market. While gaining a competitive edge with access to companies’ application procedures, he was also able to make a better sense of his vocational aspirations. “It is great to have different organizations from various sectors represented at one place,” he said. “This enables me to talk to very different employers and have a better idea about where my interests lie.”

SFS-Qatar career fair was a great opportunity for employers to promote their organization and also interact with potential employees. Ms. Laura Loric, from HSBC’s HR Department, thinks that SFS-Qatar has provided a great space for this event. They were able to interact with students in a private setting at their booth. This is HSBC’s fourth professional engagement with the university. “3 SFS-Qatar students interned at HSBC so far. Judging from that experience and also from three different career workshops we conducted on campus, SFS-Qatar provides a highly qualified pool of candidates for our future vacancies. They are always well-prepared and know what they want when they talk to us,” said Loric.

Mr. Saifallah El-Ebyari from PricewaterhouseCoopers shares similar impressions on SFS-Qatar students: “They are very well-educated, self confident, extremely fluent in their command of the English language and great source to be candidates for possible positions at our organization.”
Basmah Ali affirms these observations: "Employers attending the career fair commented on the level of the soft and transferable skills of our students; such as communication and analytical skills, which are very vital in the business world today."

The career fair ended with an appreciation dinner at the Diplomatic Club, where James Reardon-Anderson, the Dean of SFS-Qatar thanked the participating employers.

For more information, please visit Career Fair 2009 page, including a complete list of participating employers.