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For many jobseekers, a vacancy is simply an opportunity to apply for a job. For Rehna Shajahan, every CV represents a person, a family and often a story of uncertainty. That understanding has shaped Mission Employment, a free professional community that Rehna has helped build into a network reaching more than 100,000 people across the UAE, Qatar and other GCC countries.Around 70% of the community comprises jobseekers, while the remaining 30% includes recruiters, HR professionals, employers and others who support candidates through vacancies, referrals and career guidance.The initiative began in the UAE in early 2025, but its reach has since expanded across the Gulf as more jobseekers and recruiters approached Rehna seeking a platform to share opportunities. “Having been born and raised in Bahrain, I have always felt connected to the GCC,” Rehna says. “I believe the challenges faced by jobseekers are similar across the region, particularly for newcomers who may lack local experience, professional connections or proper guidance.” Mission Employment now operates mainly through LinkedIn and WhatsApp. Recruiters can share vacancies free of charge, while jobseekers can post their CVs and professional profiles and connect directly with hiring professionals.For Rehna, the idea is deliberately simple: remove unnecessary barriers between people looking for work and those looking to hire.Recruiters sharing vacancies through WhatsApp are asked to provide their LinkedIn profile, company details, official email address, job description and application process. The information is reviewed before the vacancy is shared. On LinkedIn, recruiters can post directly, while the community is monitored for questionable or misleading content.The emphasis on safety comes from an awareness of the risks jobseekers face online.Rehna encourages recruiters to provide verifiable professional and company information, while members are regularly reminded that genuine employers should not ask candidates to pay for jobs, interviews, offer letters, visas or recruitment services. **media[495373]** Candidates are also advised against sharing passports, identification documents, bank details, passwords, one-time passwords or verification codes with unknown parties.“No public platform can guarantee the authenticity of every third-party post,” Rehna says. “However, verification, active moderation, member awareness and quick action against reported content can significantly reduce the risks.”Behind the growing numbers, however, is a considerable amount of personal effort. Rehna runs the initiative alongside her full-time career in talent acquisition. Much of the work is done after office hours, when she reviews posts, checks vacancies, responds to important enquiries and deals with safety concerns.It is not possible for her to personally respond to every CV or message. Instead, she wants the community to develop into an ecosystem where candidates and recruiters can connect directly and members can help one another.Since Mission Employment began, more than 1,000 candidates have personally contacted Rehna to tell her they secured jobs through vacancies, referrals or connections made through the community. She believes the actual number is considerably higher because many candidates apply directly to recruiters and never return to report the outcome. Recruiters, too, have found value in the network, with some reporting that they received relevant CVs within hours of posting vacancies. Several have returned to share additional positions.But among the many messages Rehna receives, one story continues to stay with her. It involved a single mother who had lost her job and was preparing to leave the UAE because she could no longer support her children.She eventually found a new job through a vacancy shared in the community.“She later told me that, although it might have been only one job post or referral from my perspective, it meant that she could remain in the UAE, continue supporting her children and rebuild her life,” Rehna recalls.“She also said that she would always remember me in her prayers.”For Rehna, that message captured the real meaning of the initiative. “Behind every CV is a real person carrying responsibilities, fears and hopes,” she says. “For one person, it may be only a vacancy, referral or LinkedIn post, but for another person, it can mean financial security, dignity and a better future for an entire family.” Her own journey has shaped that perspective.Born and raised in Bahrain, Rehna later moved to India and eventually pursued an MBA from Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. Her professional experience includes work and internships with organisations such as Google and Amazon, experiences that helped her develop an understanding of careers, recruitment and professional development.She says her experiences also taught her the value of making the most of opportunities and continuously learning. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she completed 81 certifications within 24 hours, an achievement she says was recognised as a world record. After moving to the UAE, she encountered many talented professionals struggling to find opportunities because they lacked guidance, visibility or professional connections.That experience strengthened her desire to share what she had learned.Today, the vacancies circulating through her community span real estate and property development, sales and business development, administration, customer service, healthcare, technology, construction, engineering, logistics, finance and HR.The employment market, she says, remains challenging, with some companies recruiting cautiously amid regional uncertainty. Tourism, aviation, hospitality and international trade have experienced greater uncertainty, although she sees signs of gradual improvement. For jobseekers who have been applying for months without success, Rehna believes simply sending more applications is not necessarily the answer.She advises candidates to identify a clear target, tailor their CVs, highlight measurable achievements, optimise their LinkedIn profiles and build meaningful professional networks. She also encourages candidates to use AI tools responsibly to improve CVs, prepare for interviews and identify gaps, while ensuring that all information remains truthful and personal.Most importantly, she wants people to understand that rejection does not necessarily define their ability.“Repeated rejection does not always mean that someone is unqualified,” she says. “Sometimes the CV, positioning, visibility, networking approach or overall job-search strategy needs to change.”For Rehna, the work is not without challenges. Managing a large community while maintaining quality, safety and credibility is demanding. There are fake vacancies to monitor, expectations to manage and hundreds of requests arriving alongside her corporate responsibilities and personal life.There is also an important limitation she repeatedly stresses: Mission Employment can provide visibility, information, guidance and connections, but it cannot guarantee employment.The final hiring decision remains with the employer.Yet Rehna remains committed to keeping the service free.Her ambition for the next two to three years is to formally register Mission Employment as an NGO dedicated to supporting jobseekers, particularly people who lack professional networks, local guidance or the financial means to access paid career services.She hopes it can eventually become a trusted organisation serving jobseekers across the GCC without losing what made the initiative meaningful in the first place.“Success is not only about reaching the top; it is also about lifting others along the way,” she says.Perhaps that is the most important measure of Mission Employment’s success. Not the number of CVs posted or vacancies shared, but the message from someone who found work, stayed with their family, regained financial security or simply found hope at a difficult moment.And sometimes, she says, the greatest reward is a simple blessing from someone whose life was touched by the opportunity.“Money may come and go, but a genuine prayer stays with us,” Rehna concludes. 

Qatar has switched on a one‑stop digital gateway for hiring domestic workers to lift service standards across the sector. The Ministry of Labour Wednesday unveiled the first phase of Moawen, an integrated platform built with Google that shepherds employers, recruitment agencies and workers through every step — from initial application to the moment a worker starts the job.Officials framed Moawen as both a labour‑market reform and a digital‑government milestone, aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the Third National Development Strategy. Hamad Faraj Dalmouk, Assistant Undersecretary for Migrant Labour Affairs, said the system embodies a “smart” infrastructure push designed to make recruitment fairer, faster and more transparent, while reinforcing data‑driven governance. He said empowering people through reliable digital tools is central to protecting workers’ dignity and sustaining public confidence in the recruitment ecosystem.For employers, the experience begins after securing the necessary approvals from the Ministry of Interior. From there, Moawen offers flexible pathways: hire a worker you already know, invite selected agencies to submit offers, or browse all available proposals from approved firms. A built‑in rating system, powered by real employer feedback, surfaces performance indicators that help users compare agencies and choose the best fit — while nudging providers to continuously improve. For the ministry, that same data sharpens oversight, highlighting compliance patterns and driving up sector‑wide standards.Transparency is baked into the workflow. The platform tracks the full journey: from the employer–agency contract, through visa and travel formalities, to the worker’s arrival and the signing of the official employment contract. Real‑time access to procedures and data lets officials monitor progress, spot bottlenecks and make decisions on accurate, up‑to‑date information. Clear contractual requirements and dedicated channels for enquiries and complaints aim to balance rights and obligations among all parties.Moawen also reaches beyond the core hiring pipeline. It integrates with government systems to verify details and accelerate processing, sends instant notifications on application status, and supports streamlined electronic salary transfers to improve payment transparency. Future phases will open the portal to domestic workers themselves, allowing them to view contract terms and employment details, access a comprehensive FAQ library, and use an AI‑powered chatbot to better understand their rights and responsibilities.The ministry stressed that Moawen is the sole approved digital channel for electronic domestic worker recruitment services, with all related procedures to be conducted exclusively through the platform.

As recruitment firms shed large parts of their workforce across the globe, growing demand for recruiters in the US points to a stronger-than-expected job market.Publicly-listed recruitment firms in both the UK and the US recently announced job cuts during their latest results. Still, the sector is proving more resilient in the US.A prolonged slowdown in the UK laboor market prompted Robert Walters Plc to ramp up cost measures after posting a loss in 2025, having already cut headcount by 15%. Hays Plc reduced its global consultant workforce by 14% since March last year, while Pagegroup Plc cut staff by about 7.5% in 2025.In the US, Robert Half Inc cut headcount at its consulting arm Protiviti, executives announced on the latest earnings call. “These were measured actions, not a broad-based restructuring,” the company said in an email.US-based recruitment firm ManpowerGroup Inc also announced a similar move affecting workers in the US and Europe. The $16mn restructuring charges in the first quarter were primarily related to severance, the company said in an email response.Overall, recruiters are in much higher demand in the US. Employment website Indeed’s data on job postings for recruiters showed that in the UK, recruiter job postings have been steadily shrinking for at least a year. In the US, job postings have been increasing since December.Last year’s increase in UK national insurance taxes has “made hiring more expensive,” said An Nguyen, an economist at job site Indeed. The UK recorded the steepest decline in hiring intentions among the 42 countries surveyed by ManpowerGroup.The outbreak of the Iran war is making a tough situation even more difficult for British recruiters. Robert Walters and Pagegroup both warned of an increasingly uncertain outlook as consumer and business confidence continue to weaken, threatening to undo the recent pickup in hiring seen in some geographies.This means fewer jobs to advertise and find the right candidate for, and therefore dwindling demand for recruiters.In the US, despite plans for massive job cuts at giant corporations, and a “low-hire-low-fire” labor market, job listings for recruiters are up. Companies are looking for workers who are well-versed in artificial intelligence, skills that are “difficult to identify” and therefore require headhunting acumen, Nguyen said.Tech jobs listing site TrueUp.io shows openings for recruiter roles have been generally climbing after plunging in 2022. Headlines of companies citing AI to slash thousands of workers could be “a smokescreen,” said Aline Lerner, founder and CEO of interviewing.io, an anonymous mock interview and recruiting platform. Engineering and tech recruiting jobs “are in lockstep.”“It’s about pumping their stock price properly,” Lerner said. “So some of them could just be going back to hiring again.”Even as Block Inc co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey announced plans to terminate 40% of the company’s workforce, he told investors on the February earnings call that the company still intends to bring on a small number of senior AI engineers.Beyond tech, the healthcare sector’s continued need for workers has buoyed jobs for recruiters, Nguyen said. The latest US jobs data showed the rate of openings in healthcare and social assistance rising 5.4% in March, outpacing the 4.3% increase in total private job openings. 

Thousands of German teenagers skipped school Thursday to join protests against a stepped-up military recruitment drive that many fear may in future involve a form of conscription.About 3,000 students gathered on Berlin's Potsdamer Platz square, with smaller demonstrations held across Germany as part of a nationwide "school strike"."I don't see why anyone should have to go to the front lines for politicians," Alex Krzeszka, a 15-year-old student, told AFP at the Berlin rally."I don't see it as morally right, and I think war should never be the solution. Problems should be solved diplomatically."Germany, like other European countries, has sought to build up its armed forces in response to Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the threat of further aggression against Nato members.Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to turn the Bundeswehr into Europe's largest conventional army, banking initially on a voluntary recruitment drive.The government this year started requiring all 18-year-old men to fill out questionnaires about their interest and fitness for short-term military service.Women are also being asked to fill out the forms, but cannot be compelled to do so under current German law.Among the signs being waved by protesters in Berlin was a poster that read "We are not cannon fodder" while another demanded: "Send Friedrich Merz to the front line!"For now at least, German lawmakers have decided against bringing back mandatory conscription, which Germany suspended in 2011.But some politicians have expressed doubts about whether ambitious recruiting targets can be achieved without some from of conscription.Plans call for strengthening the Bundeswehr from about 185,000 active-duty troops now to 260,000 by 2030, while roughly quadrupling the size of the reserves to 200,000.The Bundeswehr shrank dramatically after the end of the Cold War as countries across Europe slashed defence budgets.In the 1980s, West Germany alone had fielded a military of nearly 500,000 troops."I think they should definitely advertise for the Bundeswehr, but it absolutely shouldn't be compulsory," Leander Martinez, a 16-year-old student from Berlin, told AFP."Reintroducing conscription is nothing other than rearmament," Leon Reinemann, a student who helped organise the school strike in the western city of Koblenz, told broadcaster NTV.He defended the fact students were skipping classes, saying that "a single day of absence from school is significantly less serious than six months in the barracks".Others took a more staunchly pacifist stance at the Berlin demonstration."I'm against conscription and against war propaganda," Tillmann, a 19-year-old student who declined to give his last name, told AFP."And I think murdering someone is always wrong, even if the state says that someone should be murdered. There's nothing more important than human life." 

As part of joint national efforts to attract Qatari talent to the government sector, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), in co-operation with the Civil Service and Government Development Bureau (CGB), concluded the first round of the 'Rapid Recruitment Campaign'.This campaign targeted candidates through the 'Kawader' platform and lasted two days. It witnessed a strong turnout from national candidates. During the campaign, a number of in-person interviews were conducted with Qatari candidates over two days, resulting in the selection of several candidates to join various departments across the ministry. The campaign also provided candidates with the opportunity to learn more about MCIT’s work environment and gain insights into the major national digital projects it oversees.The initiative aimed to facilitate the integration of qualified national professionals into MCIT by enabling direct interviews, assessing their skills and capabilities, and expediting their recruitment into a digital work environment. It further sought to expand their participation in major national projects and contribute to advancing Qatar’s digital transformation.The campaign is fully aligned with the objectives of Digital Agenda 2030, which aspires to create over 26,000 new job opportunities in the ICT sector by 2030, in addition to enhancing the skills of professionals working in the ICT field. These efforts will further strengthen the readiness of Qatar’s national workforce to support the country’s digital transformation and solidify its position as a leading nation in digital innovation and progress.

QNB Group, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, organised the Open Recruitment Day which witnessed a large turnout of Qatari national graduates and talents seeking careers in the banking sector, supporting job nationalization plan within Qatar National Vision 2030 for sustainable economic growth. This initiative is part of QNB's ongoing programs, in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor, to implement this plan in line with the Third National Development Strategy 2024-2030 aimed at empowering citizens to increasingly participate in the labour market, providing them with unique job opportunities in the financial sector, QNB Group said in a press release. Senior Executive Vice President - Group Human Capital in QNB Group Abdullah Nasser Al Khalifa said: "The significant participation in the event clearly reflets Qatari youth's confidence in QNB as an employer of choice, on the one hand, and our commitment to engage more local talent across various roles, on the other hand. This initiative aligns with Qatar National Vision 2030 which places great emphasis on investing in our youth to support Qatar's sustainable development." "Our strong partnership with the Ministry of Labor demonstrates the success of the bank's nationalization strategy, strengthening the role of local talent in the sector and developing the next generation of leaders, while ensuring diversity and equal opportunity," he added. The event served as an active platform for participants to explore an array of career paths offered the bank and to apply for current openings. They also learned about current training opportunities, scholarships, and leadership development programs to support their career progression and prepare them for future leadership roles within the bank. This initiative underscores QNB's efforts in workforce nationalization which represents a major priority. The bank actively supports job localization, having more than 60% of its total workforce. The proportion of Qatari nationals holding leadership and senior positions increased to 76%, while women represent about 64% from the total Qatari workforce in the bank. At the branch level, the bank has achieved a 100% Qatarization rate for branch managers.