Jobs for the boys

When I was in Ramallah a couple of days ago, I bumped into a number of old friends, who have graduated from university since the last time I was here and are now working. Three of the guys got bachelor degrees in the same subject that I study. One is now working as a truck driver at a concrete factory. Another is a waiter in a restaurant in Ramallah. The third is working for the Palestinian Central Bureau for Statistics. Only the last job requires a university degree.

I’ve also met a couple of friends who graduated with business degrees and now have jobs for Jawal, the mobile phone company. In fact Jawal is pretty much the only Palestinian company of any size. It also has a monopoly over the phone market, although another company is starting up soon. (Or you can go with Orange, although the reception isn’t good unless you’re near a settlement). The selection process for Jawal is incredibly drawn out, involving an interview, apprenticeship and then another interview, and it’s great for that my friends eventually got jobs as salesmen and marketers. However their achievement is something of an anomaly in an economy in which a paucity of jobs leads university graduates to wait tables and drive trucks.