Every content and comments have already moved there, so we’re keeping all your valuable feedback up until now.

You can find it at: http://movingtodubainow.com

It already as some great new content, check it out!

Cheers!

I must admit I haven’t thought it over in detail.. actually I built these when I got sick and tired of creating a different cover letter for every job I applied, which have certainly been a few. Felt that doing a new cover letter for each was being quite unproductive and also that some times I forgot to include something, which might decrease my chances of getting a reply.

My cover letters all look pretty much the same, I have two templates I use and I just adjust the job I’m applying to, and maybe a paragraph if there is something specific I want to add about that job.

Here it is, let me know what you think. Don’t hold yourself, do let me know your honest opinion, help me improve it!

Template 1 – Project/Program Manager:

Hi,

saw your opening for a __________. My career has been rich in project and program management as you can see in my CV which I’m sending attached.

Since I left college, almost 10 years ago, I have been responsible for increasingly larger projects, and in the last 5 years also for program management.

Being quite skilled at this, I’m currently doing precisely doing the job you describe, a “___________”, being responsible for program management of an entire new area in my current company, where I’m Program Manager for Internationalization Expansion.

This is currently the larger and most important program in the company (a 30,000 employee company, with revenues over 4 billion dollar annually).

I’m currently looking for opportunities abroad, as I would like to internationalize my career, and I’m ready for a quick relocation.

Thank you in advance for your time, I’ll be looking forward for a positive answer.

Best regards,

and Template 2 – IT Manager:

Hi,

saw your opening for a IT Director. My career has evolved in IT management as you can see in my CV which I’m sending attached.

Since I finished my IT Engineering Degree, almost 10 years ago, I have been responsible for increasingly larger IT areas, and in the last 2 years head of the entire E-Commerce IT Management.

My current responsabilities include Product Management, Program Management and Service Management. I have a very clear vision of IT as a service for supporting business, being a certified ITIL Manager, so customer focus is my primary way of work, assuring a clear understanding of business needs, and working with internal and outsourcing teams in finding the best cost effective solutions.

Being quite skilled at my work, I’m also responsible for the strategic vision of IT architecture, where I’m currently Program Manager for the single largest program underway in the company (30,000 employees company, with over 4 billion revenues yearly), the International Expansion Program.

I also have strong communication skills, and I’m able to establish good networks with the surrounding environment. I’m currently responsible for setting and maintaining University partnerships for R&D and recruiting.

I’m currently looking for opportunities abroad, as I would like to internationalize my career, and I’m ready for a quick relocation.

Thank you in advance for your time, I’ll be looking forward for a positive answer.

Best regards,

Well, there you go, your turn now

By the way, thank you for all the feedback on the Resumes, I’m finishing up all the changes you suggested, hopefully will be done and updated here by today.

Cheers!

This was not even the case a few years ago, 2006 to be more precise, when the weekend was in thursdays/fridays, but somehow they decided to align at least one day with western countries in order to simplify interaction.

But one other fact come to my attention now, which really got me thinking wether I’ll want to really move into Dubai

 “.working in Dubai means long hours with 12-hour days and six-day working weeks the norm…”

Does any one knows if this in fact real? Or is it just a way to scare expatriates away?

Let us know!

• Basic Salary (Non-Taxable)
• Housing Allowance or Company Provided Flat
• Furniture Allowance
• Utilities Allowance (Water/Elec/Gas/Internet)
• Rellocation Allowance (Only if moving within the same company from one location to another) to compensate you for possibe losses
• Transporation or Car Allowance, otherwise a company provided car, including paid service, car wash, and mileage
• Schooling allowance upto 3 kids maximum (criteria is different based on company, ex. They can put a cap for each child)
• Insurances: Medical (Make sure Dental is included)
• Life/Disability insurance if job’s risks are associated upto 24 months basic salary for death and 12 months for partial disability
• One Round trip tickets for family on economy class mostly per year
• Vacation is 22 days for Middle Management % 30 Days for Upper One (Calendar days)
• Bonuses if applicable
• Stock Options or Discounted Stocks
• Club membership at discounted rate (corporate rate)

From what I have found across the net, getting there with less than 25/30k AED per month is probably not a good business, since living costs in Dubai are pretty expensive.

Housing seems to be a must, since housing really is a problem there. At least it was up until the economic crysis began – now it seems that there are a lot of people being able to get into better houses, since many are fleeing out of Dubai.

Well, today I finally did it, and it was quite simple in the end.

LinkedIn.com as some applications you can use in your profile, supported by external services. I already use TripIt to share my trips with my network and find out who’s gonna be there at the time. It’s quite useful really, and it already provided me the opportunity to get in touch with some old friends and so.

Well, there is an other application, named Box, which you can use to share files like, guess what.. Resumes!

That easy.. You simply Sign Up on the service, upload your Resume into the folder that is being shared, and there you, your Resume is available for anyone to grab a copy.

But with so many people looking for Dubai, it feels that some alternative places nearby are overlooked, and stay in the shadows of Dubai. Places like Abu Dhabi, Doha, and even Bahrain.

In Bayt.com for instance, where you can see wether a job posting already has too many viewer, it’s clear that these alternatives have less people looking at it. So it might be an interesting alternative.

Even more since job payments seem to match up, and working at one of these locations would bring you experience in Middle East environment and even (who knows?) some Arabic skills who can give you an edge in a future move to Dubai.

I’ve been looking at these alternatives, and taking into consideration parameters like job opportunities, remunerations, economic growth, liberal laws and stability, I’m currently ranking them in this order:

1. Dubai
2. Abu Dhabi – 100km from Dubai, capital of UAE, wealthiest emirate of UAE with largest per capita income, ranking 3rd in the world (after Luxembourg and Norway)
3. Bahrain – fastest growing economy and freest one in the Middle East
4. Doha (Qatar) – least free of them all, still apply the Sharia law in some issues; one the least-taxed sovereign states, following only Bahrain

How do you see this? Is this your ranking too?

Googling it, I’ve found that DIC stands for “Dubai Internet City” which seems to be a quite interesting project. Apparently, Dubai government as created a number of specific business campus, where companies in these areas can find better conditions for establishing and running their business.

A lot of other areas seam to be also focused by Dubai authorities, like Media (Dubai Media City), Outsource (Dubai Outsource Zone), Biothech (DuBiotech), Energy and Environment (Enpark), …

Having a look in the “careers” area of the DIC site, there isn’t currently none offer, but knowing which companies are present might be a good way to direct forward some Resumes and have a go. This also seems one of the places to go in a physical trip to Dubai. (and this jut made my start a new links area in the blog, the “Places to go in Dubai”; I’ll keep there a list of the places to go when going in a physical trip into Dubai to get a job)

By the way, it also seams to have a great location, right near the Palm Jumeirah. Check it out in google maps!

Apparently there is no standard format but some small things might give you an edge:

1. If you can speak Arabic – this one is pretty obvious, and I’m starting to feel that I’m not able to apply to a lot of jobs because of not speaking Arabic.. really oughta do something about that..
2. If you have a driving license valid in UAE (e.g. DL from USA etc.)
3. Highlight your middle east experience
4. Highlight the MultiNationals for whom you have worked for. Also indicate the global standing or Middle east standing of that organization. This applies to your countries local companies too.. e.g. XYZ LLC., 2nd largest Telecom company in the Middle east.
5. Every country has its own way of naming any post/work/industry etc. Make sure that you use clear words after going through various already similar open positions on various portals for middle east.
6. Unlike some Asian and other countries the positions here are more in line with European/Brit style. e.g. In India Assistant Manager may be a joining position but here it may be a mid level position.

I’ll be updating more information on this as I get more feedback. Make sure to follow!

Really hoped on getting more differences from the Management one, but couldn’t find that many differences. In fact I really feel that management is management, independently of what you are managing.

IT Managing has some specificities, and I believe is more structured than most other management disciplines, since it has been done historically by Engineers, who obviously have a natural tendency for organization. But still, management is management, and a good manager will do a good job in any area.

Well, anyway, hope this new CV will help me keeping all scenarios open, and getting more oportunities to arise.

Cheers!

I’ve opted for a not so standard format since I haven’t found any standard at all. There are a lot of “standards” in the internet but none seemed to be coherent from site to site. So I’ve decided to go with a proprietary format, self developed one.

May be a wrong move if recruiters do have a standard format to use, but since I’ve found none I believe there probably isn’t and having a somehow distinct one may give a slight edge.

You can find it here. Like I’ve shared before, I’m at crossroad in my career path, where I’m trying to switch from IT management to a more broad management career, so I’ve given it a focus on management skills, with very little reference to IT, which I hope will highlight my management skills enough to allow for the switch.

Please do let me know what you think. Any coments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!