Promoting and Enhancing the

HireQatar TAMUQ Portal

Website
Usability Test on HireQatar Website
Hassan Moussa
321009535
ENGL 210
Section 102
18 June 2015

An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.

Table of Contents
Introduction.....1
Results and Analysis...2
Suggestions...........................8
Timeline/Milestones....9
Conclusion..10
Appendices.....11

I. Introduction/Objectives:
As students graduating with engineering degrees from Texas A&M University in Qatar, we
are expected to build our careers by working hard and looking for every bit of opportunity that
contributes to this mission. This begins during undergraduate life when students get the
chance to blend research duties with internships in the industrial world. In the beginning of
spring 2014, the Office of Career Services at TAMUQ introduced a portal website HireQatar
where students get the chance to promote their academic and professional profiles. Thus the
purpose of this website is to guide students to find out about job postings and apply for these
opportunities. I set out to investigate how successfully the website is doing its job and to come
up with suggestions for improvements. Recently, a detailed survey in the form of a study was
sent to 541 TAMUQ students to get a clearer understanding of their experiences with
HireQatar. A total of 41 responses were recorded which is equivalent to 7.5% of the
audience. This report will evaluate the results obtained and will propose different constructive
suggestions and solutions that will be raised to the people in charge of career services. This is
expected to enhance the learning experience for TAMUQ students that is not merely restricted
to course work, but rather covers involvement in industrial work.

Page | 1

II. Results and Analysis:

The survey first investigated how many TAMUQ students know about HireQatar website.
Figure 1 below shows the distribution of a total of 41 students (survey takers) know about
the HireQatar website against their academic classification:

D O YO U K N O W A B O U T T H E E X I ST E N C E
O F H I R EQ ATA R ?
Know

Respondent Count

14

Do Not Know
12

12
10
8

6
4

6
3

0
Freshman

Sophomore

Junior

Senior

Graduate

Classification

Figure 1. Results from question #1 of the survey

From the graph of Figure 1, it is seen that the number of students who know about
HireQatar increased with academic year. This is proven by the ratio of Know-to-Do Not
Know that gradually increases from 1 for freshman to 6 for graduates. There is a small
exception for seniors and this could be explained by the small number of survey takers in
that category.

Page | 2

The survey then targeted the marketing side of HireQatar. It tested how students at TAMUQ
were introduced to the website. The results are represented in the horizontal bar graph of
Figure 2 below.

H O W D I D YO U K N O W A B O U T
H I R EQ ATA R ?
Method of Informing

Other

3.3

Information Sessions

6.7

Social Media

6.7

Word of mouth

23.3

Posters around TAMUQ

3.3

E-mail

86.7
0

20

40

60

80

100

Percentage

Figure 2. Results from question #2 of the survey

It is observed from the distribution above that 86.7% of students heard about HireQatar
through E-mail from the program coordinator Ms. Shannon McNulty. This is true as the
Office of Career Services was responsible for informing students about its launch. However,
it is surprising to see that 6.7% of students knew from information sessions and an even
smaller percentage (3.3%) knew from posters around TAMUQ. This is suggestive of the
weak publicity of HireQatar within the TAMUQ community due to the big variation in
percentages between the methods used to advertise the website.

Page | 3

Then a question on the level of difficulty faced by students in accessing the website (finding
the link, creating an account, and logging in, etc) was raised. Figure 3 below identifies the
students difficulty ratings on a numerical scalar basis:

H O W D I F F IC ULT D I D YO U F I N D T H E
P R O C E SS O F A C C E SS I N G T H E W E B S I T E ?
12

Respondent Count

10
8
6
4
2
0
1
Very Difficult

3
Level of Difficulty

5
Very Easy

Figure 3. Results from question #3 of the survey

It can be seen from the graph above that the majority of students find it difficult to access the
website. This directly linked to weak marketing in terms of instructing students on how to
use HireQatar taking into account that they are not frequent users of it unlike the cases of
TAMU powered websites e-Campus or Howdy, for example.

Page | 4

The survey then looked into how many TAMUQ students actually applied for jobs using the
website. Results are summarized in Figure 4 below. It is seen that more than 50% of the
survey takers did not apply for jobs on HireQatar. This will be further investigated later in
the report.

H AV E YO U E V E R A P P L I E D F O R A J O B O N
H I R EQ ATA R ?
Yes

No

40.6%
59.4 %

Figure 4. Results from question #4 of the survey

Looking at the positive feedback received (students who actually applied to postings on
HireQatar), the survey looked into the applicants experience when applying for these
opportunities. Results are summarized in Figure 5 below.

D I F F IC ULT Y FA C E D W H E N
LO O K I N G /A P P LY I N G F O R P O S I T I O N ?
14

Respondent Count

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
Very Difficult

3
Level of Difficulty

5
Very Easy

Figure 5. Results from question #5 of the survey

Page | 5

The majority of students expressed difficulty looking for positions on HireQatar. This is
directly associated with the levels of confusion this website holds in terms of the process of
accessing it or availability of options in Qatar. This is supported by the next couple of survey
results.
The survey then questioned whether the HireQatar website satisfies the needs of TAMUQ
students. Results are shown below in Figure 6 below.

Respondent Count (in %)

HOW MUCH DOES THE WEBSITE

SAT I S F Y TA M U Q ST U D E NT S' N E E D S ?
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1
Not even close

3
Level of Satisfaction

5
Fully Satisfies

Figure 6. Results from question #6 of the survey

More than 50% of respondents to that question agree that HireQatar does not satisfy the
needs of TAMUQ students in terms on findings the jobs they want. The reason for this is the
limited number of job or internship offerings on the website.

Page | 6

The study went further to see whether students at TAMUQ wish HireQatar to be more
focused on the market in Qatar. Results are shown in the pie chart of Figure 7 below. The
chart reveals that 70% of the students want HireQatar to be more Qatar-focused. This is
further elaborated in what follows.

W O U L D YO U L I K E H I R EQ ATA R TO B E
M O R E Q ATA R - FO C U S E D ?
Yes

No

30%

70%

Figure 7. Results of question #7 of the survey

Page | 7

The comments submitted by the respondents specific to question raised before: Would you
like HireQatar to be more Qatar-focused? are combined in the form of a text cloud shown
in Figure 8 below.

Figure 8. Collective Text Cloud of the Comments by Respondents

Some of the frequently occurring words in the text cloud above are elaborated in the
following:

It is clear that the largest and boldest word is jobs and that is logical and makes sense
as it is an issue for TAMUQ students.

It is interesting to see the words industry and promoted as some of the respondents
see that there is a weak relationship between TAMUQ and the industry in terms of
promoting the students capabilities.

Why does the word United States have anything to do with this? Some respondents
explained that their search for jobs on HireQatar was a fail because all that it
suggested were jobs in the US (eg, Houston, Austin).

One of the respondents said that he has been on main campus for a semester and used
HireAggies, the TAMU powered website for students to look and apply for jobs.
He/she explained that it was much more efficient that the one for Qatar Students
(HireQatar).
Page | 8

III.

Suggestions:
First suggestion: Marketing in TAMUQ
Sending an e-mail address is never enough to remind students about an important factor that
contributes to the building of their careers. The small percentage of students knowing about
HireQatar from information sessions is indicative of a gap in the process of promoting the
website. The Office of Career Services should be more involved in ensuring proper marketing of
this website. More attractive posters about the purpose of facility could be spread around campus.
Getting knowledge visually just by reading an e-mail will not push the students to know more
about a topic as much as a live involvement in an information session would do.
Second suggestion: Tutorial video about using HireQatar

After fulfilling the proper marketing goals and successful promotion of HireQatar, stepby-step tutorial videos explaining the process of accessing the website, creating the
academic and professional profile on it, and applying for jobs or internships will
definitely come in handy for the TAMUQ community. These videos could be created by
the personnel in the Career Services division with involvement of TAMUQ students
(Subject Matter Experts) who successfully used this website for their benefit.
Third suggestion: Relationship with industry
The limited number of internship/job postings on the website is a huge issue. This is indicative of
weak connections between the Office of Career Services at TAMUQ and companies of the
industry. The TAMUQ students academic and technical capabilities should be promoted in a
more extensive manner in order to attract the industry to offer more internship opportunities. This
could be achieved by arranging panels for company representatives at TAMUQ to engage with
students closely. Promotion of programs such as: site visits would be a huge step to strengthening
the connections between the prospective TAMUQ engineers and the industry.
Fourth suggestion: Website filtering to Qatar-mostly results
The issue faced by many students in the job search process is that they could not find results of
jobs in Qatar. It is true that this is a branch campus of an American university but the users
receive job postings from the United States this is contradicting with the title of the website:
HireQATAR. This is supported by Figure B-1 in the Appendix section of the report. This is
simply remedied with the involvement of the IT department to enhance the filtering system of this
website.

Page | 9

IV.

Timeline/Milestones:
The Gantt chart of Table 1 below shows an organization of the different tasks completed
with respect to a time duration (in days). It aided in organization of the milestones for a
successful fulfillment of objectives.
Table 1. Gantt Chart of HireQatar Usability Test Project

Timeline (Duration in Days)

0

Task 1: Idea Proposal

Task 2: Launch of Survey
Task 3: Receive Feedback from Professor
Task 4: Analysis of Results
Task 5: Identification of Potential Solutions
Task 6: Dissemination (Report)

V.

Conclusion:
Many of TAMUQs student body are not satisfied by the easiness of the current portal
website HireQatar that offers them the option to apply for jobs and internships. This
dissatisfaction is linked to the hardships in the process of using the website. The results
have also shown that the website does not satisfy the TAMUQ student need and that it
should be more Qatar-focused. This is related to the lack of internships and jobs postings
based in Qatar. It is suggested to promote the student capabilities to the industry through
the efforts of Office of Career Services to strengthen the relationship between TAMUQ
and companies via hosting different cooperation programs. It is also suggested that the IT
department at TAMUQ work on enhancing the filtering system of results offered by the
HireQatar website in a way to focus on positions based in Qatar not the United States as
this does not help the students of Qatar. Finally, after improvement of the websites use,
it is suggested to market the website at a broader range within the TAMUQ community
for guiding the careers of those prospective engineers.
Page | 10

10

VI.

Appendix A: Survey

Page | 11

Page | 12

Appendix B: Attachments

Figure B-1: A search for the keyword Qatar leads to a job in Sugar Land, Texas

Page | 13