Akhtaboot.com is nothing less than a revolution in the world of online recruiting in Arabia (and that’s not just because SYNTAX had a hand in it ). The launch of Akhtaboot marks the arrival of web 2.0 in the Middle East’s recruitment market. Far more than a database of ‘job opportunities’ Akhtaboot is a total recruitment and career development experience. It not only connects smart companies with smart job seekers but also creates a career oriented social network that has the potential to revolutionize how online recruitment works in Arabia.

SYNTAX helped the clever entrepreneurs behind Akhtaboot to bring their vision to life over the past few months. A team from SYNTAX was intensively involved with Akhtqaboot in a comprehensive process of web innovation which included research, ideation, interaction design, branding and marketing communication (i.e our favorite kind of project)

Based on the vision of the Akhtaboot founding team, as well as insights gained from interviewing job seekers as well a number of recruiters in prominent companies (also from various industries), SYNTAX helped evolve the site’s functionality and advised on various aspects of the site’s user experience. The aim was to develop the foundations of a career site that surpasses anything out there in the market. It was clear from the outset of this project that the Arab Middle East’s recruiters and job seekers alike were being given a pretty lousy experience online.

Akhtaboot empowers job seekers with its “Search-Explore-Connect-Grow” philosophy. This allows job seekers, who are encouraged to join specialized career communities that match their professions, to explore the market, search for jobs, connect with companies as well as other users and grow professionally by offering career advice and, more importantly, relevant content (such as video interviews) from inside the region’s companies.

Recruiters are also well served by Akhtaboot. An advanced, easy to uses, resumé filtering interface ensures that only relevant candidates show up on the screen. The mentioned career communities also offer various industries better targeting of the job announcements.

Most interestingly, Akhtaboot uses its social network to propagate job announcements through so called “Word-of-Mouth” forwarding. One of the key insights behind Akhtaboot is that people’s trusted social relationships are often used, in real life, to find suitable employees for companies. Akhtaboot makes such Word of Mouth referral possible online.

I will leave the rest to the screen shots below. Better still, visit Akhtaboot.com now and set up an account (or a company account if you are a recruiter at your company). The service is free for job seekers, but carries a fee for companies. But here is some good news: Akhtaboot is offering its service for free for a limited test period. I advice you to shamelessly take advantage of their generosity!

JOB SEEKERS..

Akhtaboot’s ‘Companies’ page make it easy to find companies in different sectors, and is starting to feature video interviews with companies offering insights into those companies’ corporate cultures.

Google Maps/Earth is used to pinpoint a company’s address. Some companies are starting to offer video testimonials from their employees.

Select the career community that suits you best.

A community page shows you some of the community’s featured members, latest jobs and interesting content.

COMPANIES

Recruiter’s heaven: the Akhtaboot filters (AJAXified and savable).

Job candidates at a glance.

You Inbox gives you a quick overview of you active jobs, saved searches and incoming testimonials.

Want to see more. Visit Akhtaboot.com now.

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• Akhtaboot: You’ve seen the site, now watch the movie!
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• Blogger.com and Flickr reportedly blocked in Saudi Arabia