Jobs in Dubai, Work Abroad

Hi Today here I'm talking about my friend living in Dubai & share his experience about jobs in Dubai we're going to be talking about what we wish we had known before starting our job search in Dubai.

My Experience

Since we moved to Dubai about seven years ago and have worked in recruitment since then and in helping people find their jobs and I think there's a lot of things that we realized that we did wrong in that initial job search so we want to share a lot of that with you and hopefully you won't make the same mistakes that we did okay so Readers what's the first thing that you wish you had known before moving to Dubai and looking for a job I think the first thing the biggest thing for me was when I arrived I believe that applying for the most jobs I possibly could will just increase my chances of getting a job as quickly as possible. I remember sitting in, I think it was to buy more in Tim Hortons drinking tons of French vanilla and applying for literally every single job that came up which I thought I might suit even if it didn't really fit my expertise and I would sit there on all the job boards and just hit refresh and see what came up and as soon as something came up.

I would hit apply

I think I also thought that if I was a first to apply for a role I'd be more likely to be seen by the recruiter or the hiring manager and called for interview yeah I totally did that too I applied for everything even if it had one word which matched what I was looking for and I think I thought that if recruiters saw my name a lot even if I wasn't right for the role it would mean they would be thinking of me as a candidate and maybe they would have other roles for me but once I worked in recruitment I realized that it just doesn't work like that no in fact the opposite is completely true I what I realized in the end worst and later on when I was working in recruitment a targeted approach is much more likely to actually find me a job and so when I we decided on what it was I wanted to do which was ultimately to get into recruitment I was unable to apply literally for the roles that were treatment roles.

That's hard targeted approach 

ultimately got me the job that I wanted yeah so we wish that we known not to apply for every single thing but to narrow our search criteria spend the time on those specific roles and you're much more likely to get a job that way one thing I really wish I have known was that is so important to tailor your CV from each job that you apply for which is much easier to do when you are applying for fewer jobs and it's much better to have a CV that really matches to the job you are applying for rather than a generic CV that you're just sending everywhere and I think if I'd realized that sooner I would have stood better chances of finding a job here in Dubai but the problem is someone like to buy and probably in most cities around the world actually people think these days of job boards are your only or your best option of finding a job the reality is because everybody thinks that

Everybody's using job boards

and they're so easy as well you can just upload your CV see the job click apply and it takes seconds and that's a problem you end up applying to every single job with the CV that you've previously uploaded to that job board and so your same CV goes for every role and it's not tailored in any way to the job that you're actually going for so the best thing to do is if you find a job that really excites you that matches your skills and experience is to review your CV for that role make sure that your CV is including all of the relevant experience you have for that particular position that that experience is really highlighted on your CV so it's right there at the top it grabs the person's attention and then see if you can find the is hiring for that role and email them your CV directly with even a little note to say this is why I think I'm such a good thing for this role and it takes a bit more time but the results are going to be so much better if you do that rather than just hitting apply apply apply apply with the same generic CV so another thing I wish I'd realized when I first moved to Dubai to find a job is that there are recruiters in the city and actually in any major city who do specialize in different industries so if you're looking for a job in healthcare.

There will be recruiters in Dubai

who will specialize in that industry and you're able to work with maybe one two or maybe maximum three recruiters to find the jobs that really do match your expertise and help you to get the CV directly to the hiring manager that's such a good piece of advice because not only can these recruiters get your CV to the right people but especially if you're relocating from another country like we did they are such a valuable source of information and they will know what the average salaries are for your role they'll be able to tell you whether your skill set is in demand or whether your chances are really very slim of finding a job in the industry that you're looking for so you know before you even start applying in another country if you can reach out to a recruiter who is a specialist who can give you that advice and really guide you in the right direction you know what else I wish I had known is to get a local number as soon as possible I don't know how many days I left it but it definitely wasn't the first thing on my list to go to the mall and get it to by number but it's really important to do that because it shows that you are indeed on the ground yeah it also makes you a lot more contact able by recruiters or hiring managers. and I remember being quite nervous to use my phone because it was costing me so much money spending time just wherever there was wi-fi and as soon as you've got a local number local minutes you're able to do your job searching on the go and it's just a really important thing to do right away and it's really easy in Dubai it means going down to your local mall take your passport with you because 

You will need ID

because your number will be registered to you and just get a pay-as-you-go sim you don't even have to sign up for a contract and then you're good to go the reality isn't a city like to buy now the best jobs come through relationships and through networking it's just kind of how it works and I think what we realized after a while out here is it because a majority of the population is an expat everybody's moved from somewhere people remember what it's like to move here from a foreign country to have no friends or family around and they're open to having a coffee with you and sitting down and chatting the job I took in the end was with a friend that I started to get to know when I first moved here three months down the line I ended up working with him in his company if you move to a country like the UAE or move to a city like Dubai begin to think about who you already know on the ground get in touch with them or look at who's already in your Linked in Network find their number or their email address and offer to take them for a coffee just to chat to them since then I've seen statistics even about

How hiring managers and companies prefer to hire people

who have been referred to them when someone's been referred to you by someone that you trust you're much more likely to instantly like that person and want to consider hiring them and helping them so you really need to utilize your network so even if it's a weak link and not someone that you know very well any point of connection that you can find can really really help just to make that approach and get that referral into a business. 

One thing I really wish

I realized earlier on is how important LinkedIn is in finding a job and I wish that I'd set up my LinkedIn account sooner and started building my network into by sooner because it's huge into by LinkedIn I mean everybody uses it yeah and that's one of the first place companies are going to look if they're looking for somebody so it's really important that you have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile but also that you're connected in with lots of people in the region you're applying for so what's quite easy to happen is that you have a really clear great pool of connections in your home country but not have that same network in the country you're applying for and it can take quite a lot of time to build that up so if you're thinking of relocating in six months or a year now is a really good time to start laying that groundwork start linking in with people in that country that you want to be based at so that when you do eventually decide to move and start making those approaches you're already connected to a lot more people which means a lot more people are second connections.

LinkedIn doesn't let you reach out to third connections

so you really want as many first and second connections as possible and you know if you're not sure how to do this there's lots of people that can help you with your LinkedIn page I offer that service there's other people out there who can show you how to do it and how to make sure that recruiters can find you on LinkedIn and can teach you how to network on LinkedIn as well so when you send your LinkedIn request there's an option to add a personal note you only have 300 characters so it's not much but it's enough just to give the reason why you're linking in and again although it's more work I think that's the overall message of this video is that it's better to spend more time on these approaches be more thoughtful about job search rather than having a scatter gun approach where you're just putting lots of things out there and hoping for the best I think the last thing I wish I kind of known will be bush we know when we moved here is that be prepared to negotiate your salary offer is normal it's part of the process yeah I think especially when you're relocating to another country you feel like you don't really want to ask for too much because you're just grateful that you've got a job offer but into by 

Everybody negotiates

companies expect that when they make you an offer so usually they will offer a bit lower than what they have in mind that they're going to pay you so if you don't ask you don't get and the worst thing that can happen is that they say no but the original effect will still be available to you and that's where the research really helps because if you can go to them and say you know I've done my research this is what the average is for my industry for someone with my years of experience and put that case to them that's going to be a really strong place to negotiate from so you know when you're negotiating it's not about well you know I've got my eye on this really expensive apartment so I

Need more money

it's not about why you want more but it's about what you're bringing to the company and why that is worth more to them and what is fair so that's the place that you should come from when you're negotiating it's not always about the cash that you're paid either here in Dubai the full benefits packages is often more complicated than it is in other countries so they may or may not pay your kids education for example or maybe different levels of healthcare that you can get and sometimes companies are prepared to pay sign-on bonuses even if they're not able to push your basic salary higher so it's worth asking for these things we're thinking outside of the box and as worth getting some advice from an expert as well when you come to negotiate so we really hope that you found this video helpful and that by sharing some of the things that we wish we have known and some of the ways that we went wrong in our job search that you can avoid those mistakes and look if you've got any other questions perhaps something that you wish we had covered in this video then just drop them in the comments below we will be checking those comments answering any questions that you have and you know if there's any other topics that you want us to cover then let us know as well so I really want to wish you all the best out there and we look forward to seeing you next year here in UAE.