slainteva

Hello,
My wife has accepted a position in Tanzania (Dar) and will be moving there in September.
I have the option of joining her, but would have to give up my current job; however, I understand that it is difficult for expats to find local jobs.

I am interested in expat experiences finding professional work in Dar, especially IT related.

There has been significant foreign investment in Tanzania, especially in natural resource extraction. At one time, those foreign companies brought in their own expat employees. Is that still the case?
Relevant links, including recruitment companies, are appreciated.

I am a dual British/Canadian citizen, with an IT background (software development, hardware, consulting, banking).

Thanks for any help.

scot47

You will have to face the obstacle of getting a work permit. Can an employer prove that no citizen is available to do the job that you will take ?

Roxa

I literally just got back last evening from Dar. My husband was there with some business and took me and the kids for a few days. Dar is chaos but has charm. We stayed at an amazing hotel, near White Sands. Well, from what I was talking with locals, internet penetration in the country is only 10% and Tanzania has 52 million people. So I guess that there are many opportunities for someone who is into online businesses. I think you can take simple concepts from Europe and just implement them there. Like Bla Bla car. People hitchhike a lot there, so....could work.

Novocastrian

I think that didn't work out very well last time though. Never mind: we're British, It's always the locals' fault.

Ever heard of groundnuts?

Pulaski

That was the thing, they were h​​​​​​​eard of, ..... but never seen!

Roxa

I was referring to constructive business ideas

There are many ideas who can actually help people, simplify their lives. The same thing happened in Europe.

BEVS

As Scot47 mentioned 8 months ago there may well be the practical issue of a business visa. In any case the OP was looking for info re paid work & has not returned to this thread which is now 9 months old.

slainteva

The original question was trying to explore the feasibility of a skilled, expatriate software developer finding relevant work in Dar, based on experience alone.
My conclusion is that it is possible, but highly unlikely.

As everywhere, the best way to find work is through networking and contacts.

Funnily enough, just yesterday I was talking to aTanzanian with good IT training, who helped me fix some hardware issues with my wife's computer equipment, after it had been air shipped from Canada.
He had been unable to find an IT job in Dar and is now working as a driver.

I decided not to give up my lucrative job in Canada, but would visit my wife as much as I could, while she is in the beautiful country that is Tanzania.

Currently 32c in Dar (feels like 41c) and -21c (feels like -26c) at home.
I head home in a week, but I do get to do some skiing