christele

Hello,

I have a MBA in international business with 10 years experience in one of the most important telecommunication provider in the world as Key account manager . I am a female, fluent in English.

My husband will work in Abu Dhabi as he has a really great great offer ( but no allowances, just salary) and I will follow him. So I tried to get a job there. My company does agree to send me there and work for them, which is great but I will not be an expatriate. I will work for the mother company, but I will be registered in an existing subsidary in UAE who will sign a local contract with me.... I can understand by law their concern, they do not send someone alone...BUT

We have 3 kids.

What do you think my package could be with my experience as an expatriate?
What can the salary be if a local contract?
How big will be the difference? Can I negociate allowances if local contract or it is really optimistic...?

I am interested to know what you think about that. I am scared of this local contract.

Thanks.

Christele

Bob

Welcome to BE...and have a search through the forums as there's been fair amount of discussions for packages, and also in the wiki....but with kids, you'd want a hefty package because schooling isn't cheap

christele

Hello,

Can you really negociate a school allowance when on a local contract?

Thanks.

Christele

Eeyore

You'll just have to try it. The first thing you need to say to them is that you have three children and so you'll be wanting school fees paid for all of them. If they won't agree to that, then you'll just have to consider if you and your husband can afford the fees out of your combined salaries - always bearing in mind that you can't pay school fees monthly, you have to pay for each term in full in advance, so if your kids are aged 11 or upwards, you'll be needing to find about AED 30K in a lump sum at the start of each term.

You'll also be needing a 4-bed villa, which will cost you a fortune not only in rent but in power/water/summer aircon too. Will your husband's company give him an advance on his salary to pay his rent? Otherwise the first thing he's going to have to do is find about AED 250K in a lump sum before you can move into a villa.

Thinking conservatively, if you have no separately-paid allowances for rent, school fees etc, I'd say your total monthly income would need to be a *minimum* of 50K-60K for you to enjoy a reasonable life out here (after all, if you divide just your annual rent and school fees equally across the year, that works out to 30K per month, before you consider food, clothes, utility bills, etc). Does that tally with what you're expecting to get?

IndieG

Absolutely. Rent for a villa and school fees for three kids would easily come to AED 30k a month.

Christele,

If I were you I would just ask for as fat a basic salary you can get and not worry about allowances.

IG