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Hi Everyone,

I have received a job offer for the position of a Senior Research Executive based in Dubai. They have offered 197,000 AED yearly. This is inclusive of accommodation, fuel and car allowance etc. Plus they have offered annual return tickets for my wife and myself and medical insurance. Also a one of furnishing allowance for 20,000 AED to be written of over 36 months.

We are a family of two and are moving from New Zealand to Dubai for the first time. Can someone please advice if this salary is good enough to start and have a comfortable life and save some money at the same time?

Your advice will be greatly appreciated. We are nervous about our move.

Thank,
Raghav
=darkblue][/color]

I say your offer is fair... I wont call it good, but average.

I dont think you will be able to save money! however, you can make a leaving with your current package and enjoy living in the country.

it depends how much you will pay rent and later a car...

if your wife finds a job, then things will be alright for the family.

I never been in New Zealand, but I believe Dubai is way more expensive.

raghav wrote:Hi Everyone,

I have received a job offer for the position of a Senior Research Executive based in Dubai. They have offered 197,000 AED yearly. This is inclusive of accommodation, fuel and car allowance etc. Plus they have offered annual return tickets for my wife and myself and medical insurance. Also a one of furnishing allowance for 20,000 AED to be written of over 36 months.

We are a family of two and are moving from New Zealand to Dubai for the first time. Can someone please advice if this salary is good enough to start and have a comfortable life and save some money at the same time?

Your advice will be greatly appreciated. We are nervous about our move.

Thank,
Raghav
=darkblue][/color]

I think the salary is kind of low for a family of 2 used to living standars in NZ (mind you I've only been there on holiday). Housing by far will take the most out of your budget. For a decent place it would be at least 50% of your salary. Then you need a car (or two if your wife wants to get around).

I tend to conver salaries to a US$ amount and then see whether that is a good salary for big city prices (Dubai). In your case that salary translates to 53K us$ and god know the dollar doesn't got to far this days.

It is all relative and depends on what sort of job(s) you guys have in NZ. If your have been offer an "executive" position I would imagine you would have a decent job/salary in NZ. Would you give up an ok job in a green and pleasent environment for a not so green and quite hot environment that is quite expensive? Specially if your salary would be the same or just slightly above?

Housing will be your biggest nut and if your wife works now and won't be working in Dubai she might go stir crazy unless she finds a job.

Good luck.

Now if you were making 197K per month life might be a little bit different and you could even afford a villa (going fof 350K) - outrageous!

Thanks a lot guys. This is very helpful. Now here is something you will definately die laughing at...this company offered me 13400AED p/m prior to this offer which i declined.
This is an MNC, probably number one in its industry. I am not sure if they are taking a chance by making offers like this and expecting me to accept or this is what my qualifications and experience are worth over there ?
Having negotiated a little bit already (this has being going on for 3 months now) do you think i can negotiate more, if yes....any advice on how ?

Or should i just start looking for jobs again. It seems extremely difficult getting an interview there or maybe i am looking at all the wrong places.

Thanks again Concord and quatroporte. I will look forward to hearing from

raghav wrote:They have offered 197,000 AED yearly. This is inclusive of accommodation, fuel and car allowance etc.

About 16,000 per month. Sounds not bad in NZ dollars but if you have to pay for accommodation yourself, that leaves you with with approximately 0 dhs per month for everything else. Maybe 2000 dhs per month if you find a 2 bedroom apartment to live in.

Here's a rough guide to living costs in Dubai.

mate..
don't want to discourage you!! but you should negotiate for a better bargain..
I've moved to dubai 6 months back.. n this city is far too expensive.. esp. housing.. (of course depending upon where you choose to live..)..
but even if u choose a nice 1 BHK smewhere in greens/marina/jbr, it will set u back by 100K..
in the remaining half, you would need to manage ur car, utilities, entertainment etc...

not an easy task...

so push a bit harder..

cheers!

It would help if you could say how old you are, what line of work you're in and what position you have in the company - but frankly I think this is a terrible offer and you'll struggle to get by on 16K a month.

Your rent is going to be a minimum of 100K a year - and that's for a small one-bedroom flat. On top of that let's say 25K for a car, and around 12K for utilities. That leaves you with 60K or 5K a month. You're not exactly going to be living it up, and you're certainly not going to be saving anything.

Of course, if your wife is also going to be earning about 200K, then you'll be in a much better situation. You could stretch to a two-bedroom flat then and still have a reasonable amount to live on. You're still not going to be saving a lot, though.

Don't mind if I chime in. That current proposal works out to 68,000 NZD net. Not bad, depending 0on your tax situation. Everyone moves here for a better lifestyle, right? Figure out what you want with a comfortable life style, then add 10-15%, and that should be a good target. A nice apartment will be around 130K dhs and a villa will be around 145k. Will your partner work? These are all factors in the decision.

At your current offer you will spend about 65% on accommodation, never mind utilities and transport. I think you are being low-balled. UNLESS you are young, minimal experience, then you could live in a studio and pay your dues. If you are happy doing a shared accommodation thing, you could bring costs down as well.

Hi Guys,
Thanks so much for your advice. I agree with you all. Keeping all your advice in mind, I tried to negotiate further today, asking for 17500 AED basic plus 130K yearly for housing and 1750 AED per month for car+ fuel. I have been turned down and informed there will be no further negotiation.
So I guess it is back to searching jobs for me. The problem I have faced is that over 3 months of applying I have not received a single call or response from any of the consultants or jobs applied over job sites. This particular company I contacted directly from their website. Am I looking at the wrong places? Any suggestions?

Cheers

raghav wrote:Hi Guys,
Thanks so much for your advice. I agree with you all. Keeping all your advice in mind, I tried to negotiate further today, asking for 17500 AED basic plus 130K yearly for housing and 1750 AED per month for car+ fuel. I have been turned down and informed there will be no further negotiation.
So I guess it is back to searching jobs for me. The problem I have faced is that over 3 months of applying I have not received a single call or response from any of the consultants or jobs applied over job sites. This particular company I contacted directly from their website. Am I looking at the wrong places? Any suggestions?

Cheers

if the job you applied for is a senior management position then the requirements you asked above are spot on (and you can go even more higher)

however, you can go down to 13k-14k/m as a basic salary and your housing can go down to 80k-100k/year... you dont have to live in a villa or in a luxury apartment at first...

honestly, there is only one thing really to worry about is the housing... if you are a flexible person, you can choose to live in the nearby cities where the price will go less by almost 50% (true, you will face trafic, but most of us got used to it)

its like getting an offer in london, you dont have to live in Central london and pay the extra-ordinary rents!!! (if you know what I mean)

hi raghav, to be honest and for a senior r.e. that is already a good offer. i know of a few research managers (client) who get paid as much), with their analysts getting half of that.

good luck on your move.

Thanks a lot guys. All advice and suggestions are really appreciated. Any decision i make now will be a well informed one. I will know exactly what i should expect when i get there.

PS. I will be in touch again before i come over.