The best way to find a job in Dubai / UAE is to be here in person when you are looking for one. You can approach employers directly when they advertise the job vacancy or go through the recruitment agency. Several job vacancies are advertised each week in appointment pages of leading newspapers.
Job vacancies and employment opportunities are published daily in the newspapers - Gulf News and Khaleej Times. They carry employment opportunities in their appointments pages, which are also posted online. Besides, their classifieds sections also consist of a good number of job opportunities.
There are several recruitment agencies in UAE that offer jobs in UAE as well as jobs in the Gulf / Middle East They range from the 2-employee shops to large agencies. Leading recruitment agencies in UAE include Clarendon Parker, Mosaic, BAC-ME and SOS Recruitment. Most of them operate their own web sites, where you will find jobs in the Gulf and Middle East jobs as well.
There are ample jobs in Marketing, Advertising, Media and PR in the UAE. Each day, there are several job vacancies advertised in the newspapers. The job market is led by the expansive marketing services industry in the Middle East.
The world's top advertising agencies and PR firms are present here with a mix of their global and local / regional clients. If you are looking for sales jobs in Dubai or marketing jobs in UAE with product companies, there are huge opportunities especially with the technology companies that have set up base in Dubai of late. Banking jobs in the UAE are also on the rise with financial services industry growing at a very high rate.
Most companies, not all, though, administer their marketing for the entire Middle East from Dubai. Needless to say, their ad agencies, market research agencies and PR agencies also follow the same route. Typically, Advertising and PR agencies would have their regional headquarter based in Dubai with offices across Riyadh, Jeddah, Qatar, Bahrain, Muscat, Beirut Damascus, Cairo. A few throw in London and Paris office addresses also on their visiting cards.
Dubai Media City, designed to give media businesses the ''Freedom to Create', energized the media industry in the region. Leading global players such as Associated Press, Bertelsmann, CNN, CNBC, International Advertising Association (IAA), McGraw-Hill Platts, Sony and Reuters rub shoulders with regionally reputed companies like Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Saudi Research and Publishing (SRPC) and Taj TV. Alongside nestle a large number of entrepreneurial set ups especially in the advertising, printing and publishing industries.
Dubai Internet City is perhaps the flag bearer of the new age economy that Dubai has embarked upon. As is published on their web site, Dubai Internet City is a strategic base for companies targeting emerging markets in a vast region extending from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent, and Africa to the CIS countries, covering 1.6 billion people with GDP $ 1.1 trillion.
Global ICT giants that have set up base here include Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Siemens, Canon, Logica, Sony Ericsson and Cisco among others. If you are looking for a job in Software Development, Business Services, Web Based & e-Commerce, Consultancy, Education & Training, Sales & Marketing and Back Office Operations, Dubai Internet City is the place you should head to.
Remember the purpose of the CV is to get you an interview. A good interview will get you the job. Recruiters in UAE, as elsewhere in the world, are extremely busy. The onus is upon you to capture their attention in the first 30 seconds. The one minute decides whether you will be called or not. This is best done by highlighting your suitability for the job advertised. Tell the employer what you will bring to the company in a quick & easy format. Tell the recruiter you are the right person for the job. Make the recruiter call you for the interview.
Remember that the employers in Dubai may come from a variety of backgrounds and nationalities. It is important that they appreciate your suitability from the CV itself. Standards of education differ from country to country. Merely stating the title of your degree isn't adequate. Recruitment companies in UAE may not be familiar with names and credentials of your degrees and colleges or the company you are working for in your country. Be sufficiently elaborate. Do not send a CV you would send to a company within your country.
If you you're counting on your educational background to get a job, it's important to provide the reader with details about your studies and any related projects and experience. For experienced professionals, educational background takes a back seat compared with the experience they bring to he job. However if you are a recent graduate and are counting upon your educational credentials to get the job, do give a clear understanding of your subjects and specializations.
Computer and language skills are very important in a tech savvy country such as the UAE. Take care to describe your skill levels in detail.
Research the job you are applying for. First, read the job description well. The idea is to send the most appropriate CV that strongly highlight applicable skills and experiences. The only way to get an interview call is to make them obvious to the employer at first glance. If there is not much in the form of a job description, use the Internet to find similar positions and read the job description in there to help you make a start.
Visit the company's web site to learn as much as you can about the organization's mission & values and products & services. Try and figure out the terminology they use for it can be a good indicator of the company's culture.
You may choose the chronological or the functional format of writing the CV. UAE shows no preference for any of the format though the chronological format is perhaps more common than the functional format.
Chronological formats helps if the job you are applying for is directly related to your most recent job. However, if you do not have the experience demanded by the job in direct terms, u are better off choosing a functional resume to show case your abilities that your prospective employer is looking for
Most people think it is enough to describe your job responsibilities. They tend to reserve their accomplishments for the Interview. What if u don't get an interview at all because you didn't write your accomplishments?
Potential employers are looking for results-oriented employees who save time, reduce costs, or streamline procedures. It is necessary for you to explain how your employment at your previous company contributed to the growth of that company.
Recruiters often take less than a minute to read a CV. To make the most of it, consider a highlight section right at the beginning of your resume. This way, the recruiter stands to be impressed a bit quicker. Even if this overlaps with your covering letter in parts, worry not. The recruiter may not have read the cover letter at all!
An error-free resume is crucial to being selected for the Interview. Avoid typos, misprints, and grammatical errors. Read. Re-read. Proof read. Show it to a friend. Don't just depend upon Microsoft word spell check!
An average length for a resume or CV is two pages, regardless of the country or position. Limit yourself to 2 pages. Going into three pages may not get you sufficient time from the recruiter. To do this however, do not shrink your font size to unreadable levels nor print your resume on both sides of the paper.
It is a good idea to provide references if you can of professionals in the UAE who can vouch for your suitability for the job in question. It becomes important in the UAE because there isn't much in common with a Indian hirer and a Scottish applicant as an example. If you are giving references, do state them. If you aren't, do not write "References to provided upon request
For each vacancy advertised, the number of resumes received can be in hundreds and thousands. When that happens, a typical recruiter can not spend, at maximum, more than 30-45 seconds on each resume while short listing from the initial lot.
If your resume does not get selected at this stage, YOU have been dropped from the selection process! While courtesy demands that those whose applications have not been accepted be notified appropriately, it becomes very difficult for recruiters to reach each and every applicant with a regret letter or email. The practice therefore has become that you would hear from them if your application has been found suitable and you are called for stage 2 of the hiring process. Not otherwise.
If you are already in the UAE, telling the employer of our Visa details is a good practice. If you aren't yet visiting the country, you may keep him informed of your plans for the same.
Do make it easy for the person to give you a call or write back to you by highlighting your contact details. If it is possible, do provide a local contact to make it easier for the employer to get in touch with you.
Of course, you will need to do some homework before landing here. Find the kind of jobs available in the Middle East for people with your educational background. Find the levels of salaries that are usually offered in Dubai for these kinds of jobs. For some professions, it is mandatory to appear for local examinations to get a license to work here. Because of the nature of the economic environment here, certain jobs that may be high in demand in other countries may not find the same demand here - case in point being that of a tax consultant or a criminal lawyer.
Make it a point to get your educational certificates attested before coming here to save you time and hassle of doing it after you secure a job here in Dubai. Please find the procedure of attestation of your certificates from local UAE consulate in your city.
The best time to visit the UAE is from October up until May. Daytime temperatures are ideal during November, December, January and February (around 24C) although the evenings may be a little cool (13C). Keep way during the June–September if you cannot bear hot and humid climates of up to 40C. However, remember that hotels, shops, in fact all buildings, cars, buses etc are air-conditioned.
Check out for information concerning visa requirements when you are ready to travel because visa regulations are subject to change and should always be checked with you travel agent or nearest UAE embassy before traveling citizens of some 33 countries are given a Visa on arrival.
Citizens from other countries have to obtain a visa. The transit visa allows you to stay in the country for up to 14 days. To stay longer than that, which would usually be the case, you must obtain a visit visa in advance through a sponsor. The sponsor can be your travel agency, your hotel, the company or department with which you are doing business in the UAE, or an individual (e.g.. a relative or friend resident in the UAE). A hotel will only provide a visa if you are a guest. For an individual to sponsor a visit visa, he or she must earn over Dh4000 per month and hold a valid residence visa. Note that your airline may require evidence (e.g. a photocopy) before departure that a valid visa awaits you on arrival.
The Visit visa entitles the holder to stay in the country for 60 days and may be renewed once for an additional period of 30 days for a fee of Dh500. For more information contact the nearest embassy of consulate of the UAE in your country.