I managed to find a job at last after a whole month of job hunting.

I was offered an exciting position at TAGI which I couldn’t refuse, especially after knowing that it will immensely improve my career skills and the position will involve strategic projects in IT, constructions, engineering and financial services.

I was called for an interview to this position few days after emailing my C.V. in response to an advert in Al-Ayam daily newspaper.

It will also involve communicating with business clients and approach them with the services that TAGI offers. Honestly, I suck at face-to-face communication especially with strangers as I am the kind of guy who isn’t talkative, so I need to work intensively on that.

My recruiter also (and like any other recruiter) pointed out the challenges of the position and that I need to be a team worker. He also asserted that I should come to work wearing formal dress and having a clean shave after seeing me in a ruthless style while signing the contract!!

Uhh! Me wearing formal dress! Something I never thought it could happen!!

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Honestly, I don’t like facing the unknown. I am excited, YES (Although many argue that this job-excitement will diminish within months at the most!!), but I don’t know the shape of things to come. Though, I am accepting the situation as this is the way things work and I have to go with it.

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My other (or primary plan) before  getting this job was to continue with my higher education studies. I was offered a place to study a PhD degree in guess what???

SHOPPING ADDICTION Yeah strange isn’t it?? A Doctor in Shopping Addiction. HAHA

I had many research titles in my mind ( in logistics, social marketing and business engineering) to submit to many universities, but this attracted me the most. Some might see as an insignificant project to work on for 3 or 4 years, but I thought that as far as it interests me and I can make something out of it, then go for it T!!

Anyways the placement was as usual in UK, at the University of Durham . There were only 2 things which stopped me from accepting the offer.

1. I don’t have the enough financial resources to study the degree and to cover the costs of living for the next 3 or 4 years. Some might say ok, work and study at the same time. Well, this is a good option but a PhD is a very demanding degree and requires full concentration on the research and by taking a job it will be very hard to concentrate on the research itself. Just ask the PhD guys to see yourself . I also thought of taking up a loan from Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) (offering a maximum of 20,000 BHD). However, this amount will only cover the costs of the first year, let alone it will put me in debt that I must pay back within 7 years.

2. A very private reason you needn’t to know

I was hoping to get any funding offered by the university or any British research councils (e.g. ESRC ), but the university asked me to arrange the funding myself if I want to join the program. So I asked them to defer the offer till next year hoping to find suitable funding by then and to join the program.

A PhD degree was a goal I set only recently (3 years ago to be precise) and I won’t hesitate a bit to reach this goal. I guess this my nature. I am better at research and studying than any other thing. The period of 1 year will give me enough time to gain work experience and organize my future goals.

Anyways, that’s it for now

P.S. Notice to Lizardo: We’ll be in touch soon (son)

Regards,

T.

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Hi,

It’s been exactly a month now since I submitted my dissertation and returned back to Bahrain. I had until the 7th of September to submit it, instead I worked on the research daily for 15 hours and managed to finish it on the 14th of August and submitted it the next day. Surprisingly, I was the first student in the program (MSc in Management) to hand-in the dissertation.

On the same day of submission I phoned a shipping agency to come and pick up my stuff and ship it back to Bahrain (Cost me around 225BHD to ship 86KG of luggage).

On the same day as well, I booked for a flight with our infamous national airline . Within few days, I was back safe and sound in Bahrain, and for good this time!

After one day of complete relaxation, I thought of going on a job hunt and supplying soft (By email and fax) and hard copies of my CV to every possible place I could work in.

JOB HUNTING IN BAHRAIN

Prior to my arrival here, I had this perception that job hunting in Bahrain at many firms is a piece of cake and not as complex as the British system of recruitment where a candidate had to go through many stages in order to fill the vacancy. In fact, this is true because many firms and entities in Bahrain only require you to attend an interview where little and simple questions are asked or may be to do a simple test that hardly tests your true knowledge.

However, this is not the issue for me. What I did is as follows: I printed out 50 copies of my CV, went to every possible place you can think of: , All banks in Bahrain, Diplomatic Area, Seef District, Moayyad Tower, higher education institutions in Bahrain (NYIT, UOB, Dilmun, Ahlia) and car agencies in Sitra. I also applied at many reputable organisations through their electronic recruitment website such as : Gulf Air - Bapco - Ernst & Young - Batelco - Gulf Finance House and many many others that I can’t even remember!

I got 3 offers out from all the places I went to (Gulf air, Abo-Ghazala International Group and First Motor W.L.L). Depressingly, all the position offered a remuneration of 200ish BHD. I was thinking with such qualifications, employers would at least offer suitable positions and generous income. I was surprised how most (if not all) would not offer me any positions other than those lowly paid ones. It is not that I consider those jobs as “insignificant”, but I was thinking that people with less knowledge can handle those kind of jobs, and then what is the point of me being away for more than 5 years trying to obtain best education as possible, then come back to be offered positions which has no or little future career development?

The other thing is, If I am considering betrothal soon (In fact I am!), Nonetheless, how will I manage to spend on my fiancée, arrange for an engagement party and in future start a family and pay rents with only 200BHD?

I don’t want to be thought as a vain or arrogant, but I truly believe that I deserve better. I did an extravagant effort to reach this point and become a highly qualified individual. And as everybody else I have many big dreams that I want to fulfil, but with this situation I think it is very hard to do so. I tried my best to market my interpersonal skills and knowledge, but no employee seem to have interest whatsoever.

I learned several things via this job hunting process.

Firstly you have to get a strong back (ظهر قوي ) and Was6a (Vitamin W واو) and get to know a big Haamoor (هامور) in the company you wish to be employed in. Otherwise you won’t be considered whatever experience or qualifications you got (يمشون على قاعدة الأقربون أولى بالمعروف)

Secondly If you go to an interview and were asked about your salary expectation, don’t answer and give them any figure! Just say in a formal way (إنتون كرماء وأنا أستاهل) (E.g. It depends on my duties and responsibilities) and try to escape from giving them a number when they force you into providing them with one!

Thirdly When I went to submit my C.V. at several companies, I was faced with rudeness, frowns and sometimes ignorance (جني جاي اطر او مرتكب جريمة). So when you face this situation just do the same and صير بليتة وقابل النار بالنار . Don’t act innocent with those who try to degrade you, even if they would consider your job application!

Fourthly University graduates in Bahrain deserve better and should be given jobs that utilizes their knowledge & experience and facilitates their determination and ambitions.

I guess I will be “jobless” for more than anticipated. I know I have to be very very very patient in “Wonderland” and offers would come soon to me, but those are things which I’ve witnessed and loved to share it with you.

It hurts every time I remember that I have to ask the “BABA” for money :$. No wass6a?! Then no job :¬|

Until then, stay safe, take care and happy fasting

T.

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(Click to enlarge)

At this very same day my Mother الله يطول في عمرها ويبقيها gave birth to me

Specifically on Friday 7.20am @ Eid Al-Ghadeer day :-D

I celebrate today my 23rd Birthday and a year closer to death!

May it be a happy year full of joy and happiness for me and all of you إن شاء الله

I will be glad to receive all your presents either by post or meeting you personally to pick up the presents! LOL, just joking silly me!

I’ll update the post with photos with the usual Birthday cake that is made for this occasion heheh

بس عشان يسكتوني فيها كل سنة

Second thing: Anyone interested in joining me on a weekday night for a football friendly match??

One of my friends is going to book a football field and asked me to bring some players along…

It’s a really good chance to meet some of you in person, since I am going to be settling in Bahrain for a while

If you are the type of shy guys and worried that you’d join a group of people you don’t know, please don’t worry about it since I will be in the same shoe. The only guy I’d know in the field would be the person who invited me to the game!

If you’d like to join just email me at: ufo984(at)gmail(dot)com , and I’d be more than happy to give you more details

Kind Regards and hope to meet some of you!

T

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كل عام وأنتم بخير بحلول الشهر الكريم. أعاننا الله وإياكم على قيامه وصيامه وإقتناص الحسنات

دعواتي لكم بالخير والصحة والعافية

إجعلوها فرصة للتقرب لله وطلب التوبة والمغفرة

Yepppi! My first Ramadhan in Bahrain since 2002

Proper food! Exciting nights! Family & friends’ gatherings and a true feeling of what Ramadhan is

Hope that you all enjoy it as I will ;-)

Regards

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