October looked like the career event month of the year in Addis Abeba. There were three career fair events in just one week; record high for the capital that has seen only one career fair a year for the past few years. Devex, LonAdd and Society of Human Resource Management in Ethiopia (SHRME) brought together employers and job seekers for efficient and innovative employee recruitment.
Inside Sheraton Addis’s spacious corridors, Yohannes Leta is seen standing by a door to a large hall with two of his compatriots. Yohannes, chatting with his friends Kebede Etana (MD) and Tamru Demeke, contemplates whether to leave or stay and interact with the international crowd. The diverse crowd, consisting of over 35 nationalities, were there to take part in Devex’s two-day Partnership and Career Forum event from 21-22 October 2014.
Devex, a social enterprise and media platform based in the US, is a membership organisation that focuses on connecting various stakeholders in the development field. Since its first event in 2007, the Addis forum, opened by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tedros Adhanom, was its third Partnership and Career Forum event. It follows six previous Career Fair events held in Washington DC, Manila, Brussels, London, New York and its very first event in Africa, held in Nairobi last year.
Devex aims to bring together government institutions, local and international development organisations. Devex’s staff based in Barcelona, Manila and Washington DC offices teamed up with Eshi Events (a local event organising company) to bring the plan into actualisation along with 15 local volunteers. This specific event was attended by over 30 international development organisations, including USAID, Oxfam, African Development Bank (AfDB) and the British Council. The US based RTI International was the event’s executive sponsor.
Joining these international organisations were 180 local organisational representatives and 280 mid to senior level vetted career professionals.
These professionals, like Yohannes, needed to have over seven years of work experience to attend the event; they had to register through Devex’s website, submitting their Curriculum Vitae (CV) and pay 300 Br. Participants such as Yohannes were there to explore career mobility opportunities with international organisations.
Devex claims to have 600,000 members worldwide. Non-members had to pay 15 dollars or 300 Br to attend the event it organised in Addis Abeba, although that does not translate into profit, according to Devex’s President and Editor-In-Chief Raj Kumar.
“It is sustainable; it breaks even, but no profits. Development is an industry that has a social mission, but it is still a business and that is a great model,” the president said.
The biggest takeaway for some of the mid to senior level professionals was the realisation for the need to self-promotion. Yohannes lamented his lack of communication and his difficulty in articulating his thoughts in English. Citing previous personal experiences, Kebede added, “Employers want to hear what you can do for them. Often times we end up reverting and talking about what is on our CV. Employers, however, expect spontaneous and dynamic communication beyond what is on the CV.”
Two days after Devex’s event had concluded, on 25 October 2014, LonAdd, a local HR Consultant Plc, had organised a similar career fair, which took place at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) inside the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) compound. .
Established five years ago, this was LonAdd’s first career fair. The company provides HR Consultancy including recruitment, training and payroll services to other companies. Netsehet Workneh, the co-founder and Managing Partner sees the need for career fairs and recruitment firms to meet the increasing demand in the city particularly by foreign companies.
Hiwot Abera, who partook in LonAdd’s event, seemed to take a different approach from that of Yohannes’ at the Devex event. Hiwot walked from one company booth to the next lining-up behind a few young recent graduates and spoke to company representatives.
On the same weekend with LonAdd in a different part of the city, SHRME a professional association, that aims to promote the human capital development in Ethiopia, organised a two-day career fair. The 24-25 October 2014 fair at the Addis Abeba University was organised at the request of the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI).
The association, established in 2008, was contracted by EDRI for 4,400 dollars to organise the event. SHRME will host a similar event for EDRI in February 2015, said Aida Yewondwossen, Project Manager for SHRME. SHRME began organising career fair events in Ethiopia in 2008.
EDRI, a semi-autonomous think-tank and development research institute engages in economic research and policy analysis. According to Girum Abebe (PhD), Senior Associate Research Fellow with EDRI says, the fair was for scientific policy research aimed at a select group of unemployed youth. EDRI, using a normal enumeration from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), went house to house and gathered a list of over 10,000 names that have completed high school and are unemployed youth. The targeted research group is ages 18 to 29 years old. From the list they used 4,422 as a sample and invited 500 individuals. Amongst those invited for the career fair, Girum says some 300 visitors may have graced each of the two days of the event.
“Only 50 to 60 companies in total came for the two-day fair,” says Girum, who was less than enthused by the results, because EDRI had invited 120 companies.
The demand for career fairs is increasing, because stakeholders find it incredibly re-sourceful, says Aida. In addition to providing a range of HR related consulting services, SHRME organises HR networking events every Friday evening at Capital Hotel. The networking event is open for a fee of 150 Br per event for non-members and 100 Br for members. Individuals can obtain membership for an annual fee of 300 Br.
SHRME is currently gearing up for its sixth annual career fair, which it hopes to attract a thousand or more attendees. The fair is scheduled for 29 November 2014, at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre.
One of the more interesting discussions at the Devex event was Managing Your Career In a Changing Landscape, a question and answer breakout session that gave career professionals an insight into how large organisations sift through a vast number of applicants. On the answering end were Joyce Chew, Deputy Director for Global Recruiting Programs for the Gates Foundation, David Munyoro, Chief Recruiting Coordination Officer for the African Development Bank, Celia Kiene, a recruiter with Coffey, (a UK based professional services firm) and Hellen Kong’ong’o, HR Regional Director for RTI International. Kong’ong’o said, the demand and trend for expertise varied from country to country, but that there are specific qualities employers look for. Her organisation, for example, looks for “Soft skills, a combination of core education and experience and a candidate’s attributes such as ethics, integrity and high degree of adaptability.”
“This kind of career fair provides an opportunity to meet a lot of people in a short amount of time. It gives you that personal touch,” said Abeselom Debebe, who was interacting with job seekers at the UNECA.
Abeselom, a managing director with FA IT Services Plc, a company he helped found six years ago, after returning from the UK, where he had lived for 20 years, added that, “The growing trend in these career fairs is a sign of Ethiopia’s growing private sector.” Although, he did not have any vacancy and was not looking to hire, he used the event to collect CVs, so that he will have them readily available when he gets new projects.
From the looks of it, Hiwot, in her 30s, was making sure she spent some time with many of the potential employers, irrespective of whether they had an opening or not. She left a copy of her CV, took their contacts, and where possible filled in application forms.
Netsehet, who urged companies to create internship opportunities for young professionals, says career fairs offer employers access to a large pool of candidates in a short period of time. It also helps them extend their corporate brand and identify future talents.
Peter Joyce, RTI International’s Global Center on Youth Employment General Manager, moderated a panel discussion entitled Africa’s Rising Workforce: Empowering Youth to Drive Economic Growth and Job Creation, shared his frustration regarding what he said was the lack of hands-on technical skills opportunities for African youth. Citing Ethiopia as an example, secondary and post-secondary students, in particular, lack technical experience, he said.
According to a 2012 International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, Ethiopia had a high urban unemployment rate of 17.5 percent. Furthermore, the report stated that core challenges for the country included a skills mismatch due to an inadequately focused education system and a lack of job opportunities in the labour-intensive sectors and demographic dynamics (referencing uneven rates of increase between the youth entering the labour force and the number of jobs available).
Yohannes, a Monitoring & Evaluation supervisor with a USAID funded project, admits his communication shortcomings. He also recognises the perspective gap that exists between Ethiopian job seekers and Western recruiters. Ethiopians tend to be conservative and find it challenging to highlight and articulate their personal skills and career achievements, because they are afraid of being perceived as arrogant and cocky. On the contrary, HR professionals for international organisations seek clarity and confidence from potential candidates.
“I am currently self-employed, doing some construction finishing work,” says Hiwot, who was looking for employment opportunities. “When I get a contract, I usually hire others to do the actual work. It is on demand basis; so it does not require a lot of my time.” She added.
She had just finished doing a brief interview with Jenny Ecuyer of Jolly Gift Collections Company, where she hopes to land a sales or marketing position in one of Jolly’s branch stores around the city. Between the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia, she has almost 10 years of international work experience.
LonAdd brought together over 24 companies and over 1,300 young professionals. The recent graduates interacted with recruiters and attended many of the breakout sessions at the UNECA conference halls.
The Devex’s event was different in its scope from the other two career fairs. Devex forum was aimed at creating a platform to connect those in the developmental field. Observing the full schedule of the two-day event, it was full of optimistic representatives looking for new partnerships. International organisations hoping to establish or expand their presence on the continent are finding Addis Abeba to be a great central hub.
Echoed throughout the two-day event was how the global developmental trend is localising development and the need to empower local change agents. Subsequently, there is consensus for international donors to help build local capacity. Allowing local organisations and states to take ownership of their developmental goal. As a result, candidates who understand the local culture, politics, and nuance are in much need to implement a successful program.
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