Development of a Bahraini job seeking based web portal for UOB-IS graduates

The discipline of information systems (IS) at the university of Bahrain (UOB) is characterized by its dynamicity and diversity in terms of the employment of diverse and up to date information technologies to achieve the strategic goals and dynamic operational objectives of organizations. However, the UOB-IS graduates and IS job employers alongside face difficulties in job seeking/provision. Seekers hardly find the best matching job offerings to their degree qualifications and skills, while employers hardly find the best candidates for the required job positions. This project is aimed at developing a Bahraini web-based job offering portal (J4IS) that acts as an automated recruiter for the job seekers and employers to facilitate an efficient and professional medium of communication and time and cost reduction tool to seek/provide suitable jobs for both sides. The theoretical framework is based on a systematic literature review (SLR) and web content analysis (CA) techniques. For the portal's application development, a six phased system development life cycle (SDLC) methodology was employed at which three questionnaires, two of which were conducted for collecting user and system requirements, while the third was for the web portal's evaluation. The research outcomes recognized the nature of the Bahraini workforce and the qualifications and skills of the UOB-IS graduates, the shortcomings of the commercial online job portals and the related reasons, and subsequently informed the user (seekers and employers) requirements of the developed “J4IS” which revealed a 94% of usability acceptance.