Saturday, March 17, 2007

The fair pt. 2

After the experience at the Sharjah career fair, I had hoped to see improvement at the Dubai fair, which was many many times larger than any career fair that had taken place thus far.

It was bitter.

Let me give you a little story:

I went to Procter and Gamble playing the role of obnoxious, rascist local in search of an internship ( I was actually there to test their mettle)

Two ppl at the stand: an eygptian lady, making herself out to be a local, and a half - local girl who was far too sparkly to be at a career fair. (NOTE: This isnt word for word, but rather a summary of the juicy bits)

Me: What makes you better than unilever?

Them: We are #1! (with a smile)

Me: So how many locals do you have working there?

Them: not many... but Sparkle girl is local. But shes an intern.

Me: (To sparkle girl) Yourean intern... Doesnt count, Im wondering about employees.

Me ---> I kept this attitude up, much to eygpt girl's chagrine... I could almost pinpoint the moment she went defensive. Sparkle girl to her credit stayed cool.

Me: So if I were to have an internship with you guys, what will I go through?

Eygpt: Well first we would have to see how you qualify, then we would see.

Me: Well the thing is, I was already accepted for an internship by you people last summer... I passed your exam, along with 15 other guys... You never got back to us.

Eygpt: oh yeah,,, In June.

Me ---> At this point I chose to stay silent than to verbally chop her to pieces, and gave her my resume.

Her: Oh yeah, I remember you

Me ---> Still holding my tongue.

Her: ok then, just send me an email with your phone number, and details...

Me: ( in absolute shock at her stupidity) I just gave you my resume.

Her ---> excuse about having so many resumes that she would forget our pleasant conversation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Much of the career fair was spent in this fashion, but there was a shining moment: At Unilever, the "#2", I was downright rude with the lady there, and she didnt flinch. Her behaviour was quite simply top - notch, with my rascist questions being answered with tactfulness and a smile ( I wont post the conversation, email me for more on that)

Only 3 other things need to be mentioned, the competition between the etisalat and Du stands was apparent. In my opinion, Du won since Etisalat tried throwing its weight around by having some of the khaleej cup players at the stand, while Du had good old-fashioned quality workers at its stand.

General Electric also did well under a grilling by me, despite only having ONE person at the stand (compared to the 8 at ABN - AMRO)

Nakheel had a tiny hole - in - the wall stand, especially considering emaar came out full force. And the design of that stand, and all the other next to it (including Jebel Ali freezone @ Gulfpearl) was terrible do to the flimsy plastic - panel floors with what I believed was broken glass under them... It was downright freaky walking there.

So... Thats my review of the fair... Disappointing overall despite the bright spots.

Stone Sour - 30/30 150

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

internships,,, my spin

Today I visited the career show in the Republic of Shaja (aka city of Sharjah) looking for a one or two month internship ...

Lame,.,. Every stand had between 5 - 10 girls and 1 - 2 guys... Now the what I want to know is why are there so many people in each stand?

Highly unprofessional.

The guy at Barclays was shocked that my english was better than his, the guy at Finance house didnt know that buying futures is against sharia, and the girl at Dubai Bank was hitting on me and my friend.

Highly unprofessional

Hopefully the one in Dubai is better...

Massive attack - I want you

Friday, March 02, 2007

Are we losing our culture?

After reading a comment by UaeBlondie (see the last post), I decided to elaborate on this topic. Now I have always been of the opinion that Dubai is losing sight due to the influx of expats.

Now dont get me wrong, expats built the country with us, and deserve to be appreciated and respected. But with the expansion of Dxb and the UAE in general, both economically and socially, we are heading to an intresting situation.

I believe the the ideology behind the influx of foreigners is for our economic gain (pretty much the only reason I can see so far). Arguably, this great increase in foreigners is wanted and needed by our country so we could get richer? Proof of this is in the words of Sheikh Mohamed, ruler of Dubai: "If the cart is politics and the horse is the economy then we have to put the horse before the cart and not the other way around."

If our economy, being the will of the people, is leading our polotics, then at face value that seems great right?
NO its not, because the collective will of the people in the nation is changing with the increase in foreigners who have their own requirements and wants.

Our economy will lead our politics,,, But it will no longer represent the original inhabitants of this place. We will be rich, but we wont be together.

It is grim, but prove me it isnt so.

Creed - is this the end