Location: Palestine

The First Challenge: Non-Profit Organization Can’t Find IT Staff
Raja, IT Specialist at EDC Inc.: I help run the West Bank branch office of a global non-profit organization. We have over 20 staff and someone’s computer always has a problem, so there’s a real need for good IT support staff.

Our challenge was that we didn’t know how to find quality people. We put an ad in the paper, but got a lot of CVs that weren’t relevant—basically, people with no IT background just looking for any job. We asked the IT departments at local colleges, but they had difficulty tracking down their graduates. What we needed was a way to find someone who matched the exact criteria we were looking for. When I heard about Souktel’s JobMatch system and the way it created direct matches between youth and employers, I decided to give it a try.

The Second Challenge: New IT Grad Can’t Find Work
Bassam, age 22, from Bethlehem: I graduated from university in the Northern West Bank last Spring with a degree in Computer Science. I knew there were IT jobs out there, so I just assumed I’d find one quickly. Nine months later, I didn’t have a single option. Finally a friend told me about Souktel’s JobMatch service. So I signed up and created a short version of my CV through a text message questionnaire.

The Solution: A Perfect JobMatch
Raja: On JobMatch, we posted a simple SMS ad that listed the skills we wanted, the salary we were offering, and some other basic information about the job. Nothing too sophisticated—but it got the idea across.
Bassam: After I had posted my mini-CV, JobMatch told me I had two options: I could browse all the IT jobs available or check for an exact match with my own skills. To keep my options open, I decided to browse all the IT jobs, and the one that seemed the most interesting was the position at EDC. The SMS ad had Raja’s phone number in it, so I called him the next day.

Raja: Bassam and I spoke on the phone, and then I looked at his SMS mini-CV on JobMatch, from my cell phone. I liked the skills he had to offer, and his experience and background were just what we needed. We asked him to come to the office for an interview, and we hired him on the spot.

Bassam: Honestly, I owe my job to Souktel JobMatch. If I hadn’t used the service, I definitely would still be sitting at home today with no work, and no way of helping to support my family.

Note: Success Stories are all actual accounts of Souktel SMS service use. Some names have been substituted, to respect the privacy of featured users.