“Accept all invitations.” Admit it, you and just about everyone else does it on LinkedIn. Every day, or week, or month, we trudge into our LinkedIn account and blindly accept invitations from dozens of faceless professionals. Quantity trumps quality, no? “Wait a second, since when did oil and gas professionals want to connect with me?”
In the age of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, everyone knows everyone else, and no one knows anyone. We have over five hundred connections online, but we haven’t had a single conversation with any of them.
What does this fecklessness mean if you’re searching for a career in Islamic finance?
Ethica in Dubai is betting that people want real, live introductions and real, live conversations with other professionals. The Islamic finance certifier attracts more professionals than any other Islamic finance institute in the world and now sees benefit in going, as they put it, “beyond certification.” The idea is to introduce professionals to other professionals who are either Ethica alumni or part of Ethica’s contact network.
Ethica’s spokesperson said, “People want more than a piece of paper. Some people want a career change, others just want someone to talk to for guidance. We feel there is a huge gap in the Islamic finance market, somewhere between faceless mass mails and having to call your relative for a job.” Ethica’s trainees now include thousands of professionals across 47 countries in over 100 financial institutions, making Ethica one of the most powerful connectors in a tough Islamic finance job market.
