Middle East Expectations
 

Hi everyone,

I’m new to this forum.

I wanted to ask a couple of questions to our fellow members that have moved from the UK to the Middle-East to get an idea of how viable it might be for someone in my situation.

I live in London, have my own flat here (on mortgage but repayments are really low (£600/m).

I have a really good living situation, really good support network, family nearby etc.

I have a wife and 2 young children (7 and 2 years old)

I have a good job that comes with a very high salary and a lot of respect and responsibility. (Salary c.£100k) not really a big fan of the 40% tax rate on a large proportion of my salary.

I would say I am pretty much at the height of my profession as a Head of Service within Local Government with over 10 years of experience in virtually every main area of work relating to business. I won’t go too much into my field but I wanted to ask..

What can I realistically expect as a salary range for my knowledge and experience assuming I would like to come in at a Director level role or Chief Executive or any relevant C-Suite Role (Chief Technical Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Cyber-Security Officer - (Ive just mentioned IT ones because I like them but I can provide strategic direction at that level for pretty much most organisations)

I also wanted to ask what costs are like and accommodation etc?

Re: Middle East Expectations
 

Hi.
I can see no one reply here mate. It might be the case not many people are in your situation with very good salary in UK. I am about to move in KSA so can share my thoughts.
My wife and me joined income is £105k. I took decision to move in KSA on a single status. The reason is I could save close to £5/6k/month tax free and still my wife income will cover the normal monthly expenses. Living in UK even on high salary is expensive and me personally can not save enough for safe future in UK.

In therms of expenses I have been told for single person (no family) SAR 15k is more than enough.

In my opinion there are two negatives which you have to consider.
1. Being away from family
2. Being disconnected from UK job market.

I can live with both negatives and this is why I took decision.

Re: Middle East Expectations
 

Ill answer from a UAE perspective ........ Difficult to give you a salary range without knowing more (which I appreciate is not easy on here).

Everyone here loves a work title and CEO/Director etc titles are banded around like confetti, it doesnt need to said it all depends what you are CEO of.

You will likely be up against stiff competition from many good people already in the region and the question I would ask you is what do you have over and above someone already here that makes it worthwhile a company bringing you here.

It also sounds like you are pretty happy and settled so why move here ?

There are many threads on this board and others about the cost of living so worth having a dig through but does somewhat depend on where you might move.