main15

My husband is currently working towards his electronic engineering degree via open university whilst working full time as an ROV Supervisor. He is applying for jobs in Middle East but he keeps getting rejected. Is this due to not having a degree? I believe most companies prefer degree over experience. Should he just give up until he has completed his degree? Thanks in advance.

psychopomp1

Nope, vast majority of well paid roles in the ME will ask for both a degree AND relevant experience. No harm in your hubby applying for roles now but chances of landing a role (or at least being shortlisted for one) will increase massively once he's completed his degree.

Also worth bearing in mind that distance learning based degrees (such as OU) are no longer accepted in Qatar. Reason being that loads of people in Qatar (many in managerial positions) have been caught with fake degrees in the past which claim to be distance learning based. So as a result the Qatari authorities will only accept classroom based degrees.

main15

Thanks for that information. We were not aware of this. Such a difficult position as he is trying to better himself but obviously with a family to support he can't just take four years off to do a degree at uni. Unfortunately he was never encouraged to go to university when he was younger and instead he is a trained electrician.

​​​​​​Thanks again

psychopomp1

No worries. Ask your hubs to send his cv over to Fugro in Abu Dhabi (speculative application), they normally recruit a lot of ROV staff from UK.