Souktel Launches Mobile Service for Bayt.com, the Middle East’s Leading Job-Find Site

At the touch of a button, Jordanians searching for work can now get custom job alerts on their cell phones, thanks to a new SMS service created by Souktel for Bayt–the biggest recruitment platform in the Middle East. Serving more than 12 million job-seekers and 40,000 employers, Bayt has traditionally been known as the region’s leading online jobs portal. This new service solidifies Bayt’s mobile presence, and aims to dramatically improve the job-find process for the majority of Jordanians who own cell phones but lack daily web access.

When first signing up to use Bayt, job-seekers provide information about what type of job they’re looking for, what their experience includes, where they live, when they’re available to work and other details; the result is a personalized series of alerts for relevant opportunities. In the past, these updates were only available online, typically via email. But with most Jordanians lacking regular Internet access, the notices risked going unseen for days–putting those job-seekers at a clear disadvantage in the labor market. Now, subscribers have the choice of SMS job alerts–meaning that real-time job news comes straight to their phones.

The new service runs on all mobile networks across Jordan, making it equally accessible for an aspiring teacher living in a refugee camp, or a graphic designer based in downtown Amman: Teaching jobs in the Azraq camp for Syrian refugees and design work in the capital were both listed on the service this week.

“We’re excited to be working with Bayt on this service,” offered Souktel CEO Jacob Korenblum. “For close to 15 years Bayt has been the leading provider of job information in the Arab World, from Morocco to the UAE. By getting this content out to the huge number of job-seekers who can’t use the Internet regularly–but who own basic cell phones–we hope to boost access to jobs across the region”.

Souktel’s Dalia Othman Appointed to Harvard University’s Berkman Center

Souktel is proud to share the news of Project Manager Dalia Othman’s appointment to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Ms. Othman will serve as a Fellow at the center for the 2013-14 academic year. The Berkman Center’s mission is “to explore and understand cyberspace”; Ms. Othman will study the relationship between cyberspace, Palestine and the Middle East region–building on her experience at Souktel and at Palestine’s Birzeit University, where she previously served as a researcher and adjunct professor.