Dubai Employment: How to Conduct Your Search

You have been hearing a lot about Dubai and you wonder how it is going to be like to work in Dubai. Perhaps you have visited Dubai or perhaps you have only seen it in pictures. Regardless, you want to explore employment opportunities in this exotic place. But you have tens of unanswered questions!

Very well.

We’ll try to address the most important questions that Dubai employment seekers face, and we will try to outline an effective strategy for Dubai employment seekers. Let’s begin!

First: nothing about your job search should be generic. Be specific in every aspect of your job search. Being specific will help you focus your job search effort and energy. Being too broad will scatter your efforts all over and will make you ineffective. So:

Define Yourself

Make sure that you define yourself very clearly and precisely. Don’t just be an “aircraft engineer.” Define the exact types of aircraft that you specialize in and know what makes you different. You got to be different to win in your job search. Then…

Define Your Industry

Say you are a Web programmer. You may think that you can work for any company that requires any help with the Web (and that maybe true), but if you approach your job search with this mindset, you’ll hardly get any where. Here is what you should do instead: define yourself further as a “Web Programmer for Hospitality and Hotels Websites” Now, when one of the thousands hotels and tourism agencies in Dubai is looking for a Web programmer/developer, do you think they will consider the guy who put down “.NET Web Programmer with 3-yrs Experience” or you?

Make a List of Dubai Companies

Once you have defined yourself and your industry, it’s time that you delve in deeper. Make a list of the companies that you would like to work for in Dubai.

Visit our guide on companies in Dubai to learn how you can find the contact information of companies in Dubai.

Once you have identified the companies that you want to work for, call them, introduce yourself, and get to know the person who will be your introductory point of contact in the company.

Utilize Recruitment Agencies

Speak to recruitment agents, describe to them your specific expertise and specific industry, and ask them to contact companies on your behalf.

Next:

What you have done so far should have given you an idea of the nature of the job search in Dubai. Now it is time for the next inevitable step for the serious job seeker, which is coming over to Dubai.

You Have 30 Days in Dubai

Frankly speaking, the candidates pools for most employment sectors in Dubai are overflowing. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality of these candidates is high; it just means that there is a lot of distracting noise. Because of that, there is little incentive for companies to incur the extra cost of hiring people from outside.That’s why, if you are serious about working in Dubai, it is highly recommended that you come over here. If you are here, companies will be much more likely to invite you for an interview.

(Note: read our recruitment process guide to learn more on whether you really have to come here on your own.)

You can apply for a Dubai visit visa that would allow you to stay in Dubai for 30 days. For certain nationalities the visa can be obtained in Dubai’s International Airport (DXB), which is very convenient. Of course, before you come here, you should have also tried to arrange for a few interviews from your current place.

The strategies that we have outlined in the beginning of your job search are still relevant in this stage. Continue to contact companies by phone when you are in Dubai. But this time, persist in asking for an immediate interview. Make them know that they will miss out on you if they are unable to invite you over now.

In conclusion, focus your effort and know exactly where you want to work in Dubai. Once you have done that, start to warm up your job search in Dubai by making phone calls and establishing contacts while you are still outside of Dubai. Once you have done that and still have the serious intention of working in Dubai, come over to Dubai and continue to pursue the job opportunities that you have uncovered and the ones that you are uncovering while you are here.