LukeandJo

Well we got our flights booked last night.
Fly out 26th Feb - 5 days in Dubai and then 4 in Abu Dhabi.

Plan of action now is to arrange some meetings!

I reckon we are going to stay at Golden Sands when in Dubai.
Looking for a cheap place to stay once in Abu Dhabi though.

...slowly chipping away at getting work in the Middle East, but I feel confident the trip will be worth while!

commander

what industry are you in if you dont mind me asking?

LukeandJo

IT and Town Planning

UmJammerLeilani

All the best to you, I did something similar very recently and got lucky. So keep positive and have faith in yourself and give it your best shot.

If you don't get responses before you land, don't panic, bring along a list of everyone you have contacted/sent your cvs to chase them up directly when you are in Dubai/Abu Dhabi.

Golden Sands area is pretty decent. You'll probably see me chasing down taxis - if I steal one from you then apologies in advance!

LukeandJo

Whats the best way of going about seeing people once over there.
Can we just go to the offices and ask at reception? Seems a bit forward.

commander

what is your strategy?

have you sent out CV's

I would call a week before you arrive and arrange an informal meeting to discuss..

admon

You need a far better strategy than that..

just to get the receptionists to understand your request will take longer than a week..

LukeandJo

I thought that would be the case.

hmm... tough one.

UmJammerLeilani

Send out cvs now. Try to make each covering letter unique to the place you are applying to and tell them that you are planning to be in Dubai/Abu Dhabi on those particular dates and will be available to meet in person.

Like Commander has said, follow these up about a week before you arrive.

Although I ended up arranging everything once I had landed, I brought with me a list of the places I REALLY wanted to go for and spent my first two days making lots of phonecalls.

I don't see a problem with going directly to the offices if you have previously tried to follow up your initial application with no success. Just go in, tell them you applied on such-and-such date, and you made a phonecall previously to follow up, and you never know the person you want to see might be in the office and have a spare moment! Although please listen to the other posters on here, I'm sure they have better advice (I'm not really clued up on all this job hunting ettiquette)!

admon

snap into it.

target the businesses now - call them, let them know you are coming, make appointments, that way you aren't wasting your trip.

Yes you are likely to spend a week on the phone before you get here, but at least you won't waste a shed load of money coming here to get blown out by receptionists.

LukeandJo

CV has been sent out to loads of places.
I have rang the international companies in Dubai, but with little luck.

I will go back over the emails again and make a few phone calls here.

cheers for the advice

commander

ok,

you have sent CV's....yes?
responses??......yes?
favourable??......yes??...............call 1 week prior and ask for the manager direct, tell him your in town on the following dates and you would love an informal chat for 10minutes.


DO NOT turn up unannounced and expect them to remember you from a random CV they glanced at months ago.

Also dont go to companies on the off chance. Likelyhood is that management deal with customers/employees/salespeaple all the time. They will not go out of there way to listen to another sales pitch.

Do the groundwork or your wasting your time..

LukeandJo

Cool, we have 4 weeks to get a few things sorted.
And the recruitment fair in Abu Dhabi from the 3rd to the 5th

commander

good luck and the best of british to you both.

If you do the work and put in the effort, i hope you reap the fruits of your labour.