poutine

Hi,
I'm a newbie to this forum.

I would like to find a job in IT field during next year.
I currently occupy a steady job but for professional reasons, I would like to experiment the private sector.

I already did some research regarding the employment agencies, the packages/salary and everything. But what I would like to know, is the condition of work in Dubai. Let say an individual paid 7000-9000 a month with accomodation allowance, 5 weeks vacation, does this individual work 40 hrs a week or could he found himself easily doing 70 hrs a week without any overtime paid?

Regarding the employment, I've noticed on this forum that people suggest to go in person in Dubai rather than doing business with an employment agencies when you live abroad. My budget and vacation will allow me to go in Dubai around Mars/April 2006 for 1-2 weeks. Do you think the agencies would consider a candidature sent from abroad specifying that I would be physically in Dubai for a face to face interview?

Before proceeding with any action, I would like to know what is the reality in the workplace for an expat.

Thanks in advance for any information/opinions.

Zannie

Welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately, Dubai is not a good place for Westerners looking for IT jobs; the IT market is already oversubscribed with highly-qualified people from the Indian subcontinent who will work for much lower salaries than Westerners with equivalent experience.

Bottom line : unless you work in a specialised area of IT where there's a shortage of talent, you're likely to find it difficult finding work that provides the kind of package you'll probably have in mind.

You'll also be at a disadvantage coming to Dubai without a firm job offer. The best packages tend go to people who are directly recruited from abroad and need to be tempted to leave their home countries.

And finally, try to get a job in a free zone (Dubai Internet City / Media City / Knowledge Village etc). People who work in free zones cannot be banned if they leave their job to find a new one, which is no small advantage.

Face81

Hi and welcome to the forum.


If that amount includes an accomodation allowance, you might find yourself struggling a bit as rents in this city are continuosly sky rocketing and you would be left with a very small amount of 'take home' cash at the end of the day.

With regards to working hours and overtime, you will work way more than 40 hrs a week and the chances of getting over time are next to 0.

A face-face interview is always best as this shows your seriousness and commitment to come out and work in Dubai. 1 - 2weeks should be a significant amount of time for you to get a feel for the lay of the land.

Sorry to have painted a grim picture, but its best that you know the truth before moving out to Dubai.

You may also find the FAQ's very useful.

Enjoy the forum!

TA5

Yea, if I had a dime for every westerner that came to Dubai looking for a decent IT job and left jobless I would have to work way less than my normal 70-80 hours per week (note, i'm not IT, and my workload is reflected in my compensation).

IT is just a bad industry for westerners around here, and like face said, for every you there are 20 indians that will work twice as hard for 1/4 the wage, and with just as much experience and knowledge.

Face81

oh and that too.

TA5

Although, as stated in your username, if you make a good poutine i think you could corner the market here pretty well, that stuff is FANTASTIC.

Adan

70-80 hours per week? Is this the average work week for expats in Dubai???

TA5

I can tell you for most it is more than 40, this is not the place to go if you enjoy sitting behind a desk 8 hours a day with a 1 hour lunch break in the middle, plenty of no-brainers in this country to fill those jobs.

Basically, you can make alot of money in this country, given that it is tax free and businesses that couldn't normally survive in the real world can thrive here based on how much money the gov't throws at everything.

But in order to make alot of money here you have to be willing to go the distance in a job, any company that hires a westerner is looking to do that for one reason, basically that we have different ways of approaching things and different work ethic, goals, drive, and management theories that, basically, the big country 'east' of here (not naming names ha) doesn't produce. Most of the companies here are growing and are looking for people that will put in those 70-80 hour weeks and work 5.5-6 day a week (if you didn't know, the only real day of weekend is friday, and many if not most companies here work 6 day work weeks with one day of weekend).

35-40 hour a week desk jobs are normally filled by indians without any of the above mentioned qualities, and filled at salaries generally 50-75% lower than you would receive in the same job in the UK or US. I'm not saying that many indians don't have strong work ethics, just not a majority, and even then, their mgmt theories are very dissimilar to those proven to work in the west.

If you can stomach it, its really a great time here, at least among my group of friends here, we've come to the conclusion that dubai is best taken as a 'work hard, play hard, rest later' place, definitely a great experience, but nowhere i would ever want to be for more than a couple years. I put in alot of hours in my job, but on the plus side, i'm 25, and i'm my own boss, so if we're not busy i do get time to enjoy myself, going to the beach, kiteboarding, destroying big red, etc. The one thing Dubai has going for it is a relative dearth of outdoor activities to partake in, unless you are one of the mingers who likes to get on the piss the second they walk out of the office that seem so prevalant here in dubai.

Adan

Thank you TA5 for that explanation!

Singlemom

55 to 65 hours a week...and i still find time to spend 6 hours in a bar!

poutine

Thanks very much for those precise feed-back's.

So,
From what I understand there is a lot of competition with indian IT workers. However there should be some room for project management position and a 7000-9000AED/month package for an average 70 hours/week is definitively not enough.

Anyway, I'll try to spread my CV and see what happen.
I'm sure other questions will pop up during the process.

Thanks again for your preciousssss remarks/opinions.

TA5,
I make very good poutine, however I doubt I will be able to find the ingredients in Dubai, especially the white cheese making "squich" "squich" under your teeth, mmmmm...

Bob

Why limit yourself to just dxb?

The middle east is pretty large, and yes, some not quite so desirable...but there are other countries you could look at....don't know what the IT field is like in bahrain or qatar, the other favoured spots...but there's jobs in lebanon, kuwait...and if you've got the balls, serious money to be made in iraq

shiva

yup life here is good BUT you WILL work your nuts off.

40hrs and 9-5 do NOT exist, if your skilled they will get the most out of you.

there is a dubai dream

what they dont tell you is that in order to get it you're probably going to have to work a lot of hours at high stress levels for it

MJC

Gentlemen,

I must agree and disagree with you all.

There are a good many opportunities here for Westerners as TA5 says. I'm lucky if I work more than 30 hours a week (although I am about to do a 4 week non-stop trip that takes in NYC, Mineapolis, Vancouver, Korea, Japan) for which I will not officially get time off in lieu for (officially).

You need to show any prospective employer that you are worth the 2-4X additional salary. I got my job by researching where (in the world) the company was BAD at getting contracts and showed them how I could make a difference, and increse their bottom line. I would suggest that you do this too.

Good Luck

MJC

Happiness

I work 44 hours a week, spread over five days between the hours of 8.30 till 5.30pm..so these jobs do exist.

The best thing to do is register with really good agencies that deal with international/reputable companies. These agencies specialise in filtering out all of the hundreds of rubbish jobs.If you go with a good agency, they wouldn't accept clients who don't offer their employees above a certain salary. I know agencies that have turned down a multinational company ( Unilever), as the salaries that this company were offering was too low, a good agency has a mininimum of 6K plus perks and thats just for a basic admin role, for more specialised positions, your looking at AT LEAST 10k plus perks.


Most of the consultants who work in these agencies are from UK/Aus/SAf/US and can be really helpful if they feel you would be suitable for one of their clients.

You have to find these agencies (the best ones are in the FAQs) and apply with a covering letter explaining your circumstance and the dates that you will be in Dubai and just prove yourself enough to get some meetings/interviews set up for the period that you will be in Dubai.

It will take time to find the right job and it will not be easy (especially in the IT sector), but the jobs do exist. You need to state clearly to the consultants from recruitment agencies what you are looking for when you meet up with them.

Not easy...but can be done