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Upon returning from her study in Sydney, a biomedical engineer, Naziha Deriche and her friends are facing difficulties in finding jobs in Saudi Arabia. Deriche makes her move to Dubai and manages to secure a job there. The problem of finding a job in Saudi Arabia especially for women and how it is mostly male dominated, is a gap that Naziha would like to solve.
In March, Alajnabia, a platform that connects female job seekers to recruiters is born. This Australian-born, Saudi raised engineer from Algerian descent built Alajnabia (which means ‘Foreigner’) to prove that women deserve a chance to be hired based on skills, abilities, and talents in comparison to the traditional method which is the word of mouth and connections. Naziha said: “We wanted to create a platform on which women are offered positions through a healthy competitive environment.”
With the vision of Saudi Arabia 2030, which is to raise the percentage of women in the workforce from 23 percent to 28 percent, Naziha’s platform could help speed things up. The site has now engaged with more than 40 recruitment agencies and received 1000 resumes since it was launched and continues to surge.
The term “Alajnabia” was chosen because of the concept of females in Saudi in the workforce being so unfamiliar. This is taking into account the kingdom is being known for forbidding females to drive and women to live under the male guardian supervision. Hence, the word Alajnabia suits the platform identity.
Australian-born Naziha noted that people might think that the platform is an online job board, but the platform does so much more than that. Alajnabia provides a better way for employers to advertize their jobs and analyze the potential of the candidates, on top of that, the site is completely free to use for the job seekers. In Naziha’s perspective, what she has created is a social initiative and a stimulation of women empowerment. If you are living in Saudi and would love to dive into career world, check out her website here and upload that awesome resume!
This article is written by Zalikha Razali.
