CAIRO: Since its modest launch in August 2007 as a supplement distributed in a local newspaper, careers magazine Wazayef Masr has grown into an independent monthly that jobseekers and employers both in Egypt and abroad swear by.
At a time when markets in Egypt like real estate, banking, telecommunications and oil and gas are booming, its role has become more essential in directing the right people to the right job openings.
As Wazayef Masr prepares to go weekly, expand into soft skills training, and host the largest careers fair in Egypt’s history Jan. 16-18, the company’s Managing Partner Mohamed Tahoun sat down with Daily News Egypt to speak about the magazine’s rapid ascension, the job market, and why his Facebook Careers Event has 28,000 people.
Daily News Egypt: Who is behind Wazayef Masr?
Mohamed Tahoun: There is myself and my partner Yasser El-Ghayaty. We both went to school together and we both graduated from the English section of Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Commerce.
Why did you decide to set up a careers magazine?
I had the idea when I was a regional business development manager for a British telecommunications company trying to set up a new branch Cairo.
I wanted high-caliber employees so I placed an ad in the local press. But it wasn’t a good experience because the professionalism of doing business with a newspaper is not that high, and the feedback we got from the ad was not good. Personally, when I was looking for jobs myself I never used to reply to ads in newspapers because I expected a good company to headhunt me.
I used to see in Asia, the US and the Gulf newspapers dedicated only to advertising jobs. I saw top management positions in these papers, and found out that good people would reply to them.
I wanted to create a more professional recruitment channel like that, which would work for both employers and those looking for jobs in Egypt.
What accounts for the success of your magazine?
Firstly, with the country’s current level of economic growth, Egypt needed a publication like this. We are the only one so far.
We also offer advertising to employers at a far better rate than other newspapers, and at the same time attract a better educated readership. We have high-caliber graduates reading the magazine, and it is about 40 percent cheaper for companies to advertise positions with us.
Our marketing campaigns have been very successful and we have gotten a lot of publicity. We even have our own weekly radio show on Nagoum FM called “Your Future. We get experts each week to talk about various career fields, human resources management and resolving business problems.
What do you make of the current jobs market in Egypt?
There is a boom in a number of sectors: real estate, banking, telecommunications, oil and gas as well as the financial sector. I see this growth continuing at the same rate for the next three to four years.
The problem in Egypt is that in these sectors there are more jobs available than there are workers with the skills required to take them. The education system is inadequate. The system doesn’t provide the basic skills required for these positions. It needs immense improvement.
Can you talk about the careers fair Wazayef Masr is holding next week?
This is Egypt’s first international employment fair and will be held at the Cairo International Convention Center. One hundred and twenty-three companies – local, regional and multinational – in a number of sectors will be at the fair with displays, speaking to and trying to recruit prospective employees.
There will be a high caliber of job-seekers coming to the fair; it is open only to university graduates, and judging by the feedback so far we expect 10-15,000 people to attend each day. Twenty-eight thousand have been invited over Facebook alone.
There will be big open spaces for companies to set up displays, there will be meeting rooms for on-the-spot interviews between companies and graduates, and there will be a business center so people can be fully prepared – if someone runs out of CVs they can go and reprint a bunch.
What are Wazayef Masr’s plans for the future?
As of February, we will be publishing on a weekly basis, coming out every Friday.
We will also start to offer training to individuals and companies, and will offer courses for fresh graduates. This will mainly be in soft skills, such as computer training, English classes and so on. This will be in collaboration with two big-name companies whose identities we will reveal at the careers fair next week.
