Hi guys! was browsing this place and found out that you guys wayy too much unshared knowledge! Im wondering if any of you guys would be able to help me out a little with a MAJOR dilemma of mine!

1 month ago i made the biggest mistake of my life by coming to Dubai to find work thinking that employers here would like to take on fresh talent from the west (i come from the UK)... but from the day that iv touched this place, its come as a great shock to find out that they dont have any place for fresh grads!! ANYWHERE!! Even if you have a foreign qualification!!

I was wondering, if you guys could guide me as to what i should do to get my career on the track! I want to get into the banking side preferably corporate banking, but as a start i'd say anything that gives me a desk to work on should be good enough.

HELP HELP HELP BEFORE I TURN SUICIDAL!!

that's rough, but what did you expect? best bet, unless your lucky is to head back, get experience and try again...there was a similar thread a few days back you can search out, and also check out the wiki for agencies, but just because you've a degree from the west doesn't make you all that special, there's plenty of people in the same boat, but with experience, or even more qualifications. It's the harsh realities of life these days, it ain't the early 80's/90's any more.

Good luck.

From my conversations with banking clients in the Middle East they tend only to recruit foreigners with some decent work experience. I suggest you come back to the UK, get a job with a bank here for 6 months, and then look for a job in Dubai.

send a PM to Indie Girl, she works in Finance and might be able to help you.

thanks alot guys for ur input! but im having forced to ask, is there NO PLACE for fresh grads in this country??

Possibly, but at a low salary as you have no experience in any field. Additionally, British degrees have been devalued in recent years. What is yours in?

And you won't get very far if you write & spell like that.




_

Well... I left uni last June and was here working by mid July, but I got my job offer before I came.

I only know of a few recent graduates here, but it shows that there must be a small place for us!

And yep... the pay is terrible

graduate pay in the uk is pretty bad as well lol...

finance/banking seems to be a really incestuous field though definately one of those industries that you need experience to even get looked at in any field... there are plenty of graduate open days for finance at the moment in the uk... worth getting into a graduate program though.

that and networking, www.linkedin.com and see if you've any friends in jobs or past lecturers who you could use to pass on your CV etc.

PM me for my email address and send me your CV...I'll see what I can do!

N.

Thank you everyone for all your help. This is highly appreciated!

*I hope my spelling satisfies the quality standards of MEOW :P*

Admirable guts coming out here without a job or contacts or anything...

How much longer do you have until your money runs out? Where are you staying and how are you coping for food etc? Things aren't generally expensive by UK standards but without an income they quickly add up!

What's your qualification in? and what are your motivations? Getting into a bank? Or specifically working in Dubai, in which case have you considered compromising on exactly what the job is, and where it would be located?

Because our company used to have the word 'Resources' in the title, many folk off the street thought we were a HR department/consultancy and would come in clutching CVs. I admired that gumption, I don't think I could ever do that, and Godwilling I haven't had to, though it almost got to that stage in London when I was unemployed for 6 months!

well i have contacts and loads of them. but they seem too useless to be honest. and thank God my money doesnt run out for quite a while since im staying at relatives et al, but its the visa thats going to run out in 2 weeks unless i make a quick 'in n out'.

iv graduated in business management with IT and want to get into ANY financial firm. be it equities, investments, banks, finance house etc etc. i recently had an interview with barclays and they offered me a job and the pay was good too! but unfortunately it was a field sales job which i am so not interested in. nonetheless i havent given barclays a formal reply yet.

Have you thought about Bahrain? Maybe not as glamorous as Dubai, yet, but there's apparently a bit financial sector here....(just moved here less than 2wks ago)

that's true, more life than Qatar too