Attalla wrote:Hi dbxsoul
Thank you for all of your postings and helpful insight.
I am now a student in the US and will graduate with a BS in Business Management on December 19th. I am very interested in working in Dubai.
What do you recommend I do to find an entry-level position in Dubai. what are some recruitment firms for entry-level positions. I have some professional experience as a real estate agent for a year and i worked at a restaurant helping with management as a bartender for 2 years while earning my degree. I am 23 years old and I speak arabic and english very well.
could you please tell me when I should start looking for a job? and how much i should expect to get paid? what are my chances of finding a job?
your response is of great value to me as I am trying to take the first step in my professional career.
Thank you for your time
Hi there,
First off I should make something quiet clear (and I say this with the best intentions), Dubai doesn’t market it’s self as a proving or training ground for fresh graduates; on the contrary, some of the regulations actually count against people looking for short-term employment (as well as vacation jobs).
Doing business in the Middle East is fairly demanding and cut-throat at times; in many instances companies cannot afford to put “green” staff on the firing line as it can cost them financially. New graduates are often naïve and too trusting and readily taken advantage of, heck even seasoned business people are often taken for a ride in Dubai!
Business in the UAE is extremely money focused and everything is focused on profit. In a modern “western” economy money is only one aspect of business, the long term training and investment in the well being of staff is also largely factored into the “over all business strategy”. In the UAE you are a contract worker, a number on the payroll and there is definitely no interest in developing your skills for when you leave the country (unless you are a UAE national). Most employers in the UAE are of the opinion that they are buying your skills, talent and intellectual property, they are paying you for the use of these things and that is as far as the contract extends.
Partly, for the reasons above there are no agencies specifically dealing with entrance positions, so your best option would be trying to get an agency that is more focused on business or managerial placements.
The practical experience you have definitely counts in your favour, any experience does; how you present it on your cv is the crucial issue. Your restaurant and bartending experience needs to be looked at, the core issues of the job extracted and highlighted: customer skills, working as part of a team, handling money, fiscal responsibility, service orientation etc. etc.
Salaries are normally related to qualification and experience; local employers prefer “local knowledge” and normally people with local knowledge are already employed by someone else.
A big plus in your favour is being conversant in Arabic.
Some regional business advice is: never let your guard down, never take your eye off the “ball”, always make sure you know where the money is coming from or going to irrespective of the client, always get a deposit, you will be able to count the number of people you can trust implicitly on one hand, never play your full hand – always keep something in reserve. Lastly, don’t be soft or you’ll get walked on.