Nov 15, 2007
After reading your post (and reply) I’ve been searching for a good analogy of what it is like to work in Dubai. This is as close as I can get, so it’s not 100% accurate, but I’m pretty sure you can draw parallels between the two and extrapolate from there.
Take Disney Land in Florida, most people know about it or have seem pictures of it, looks impressive, filled with fun things to do, exotic rides, imaginary buildings, busy, bustling, reputation for high standards of customer service and maintenance etc.
Wow, to work there and be part of all that! So you look for and finally find a job, the screening process is long and intense as they have high expectations of their employees. Take it one step further, Disney Land now offers tax free packages to it employees, even better, more people want to work there and get their piece of the action.
You get a job, and after your first day at work you realise something….
All those happy smiling faces that you saw in the pictures, people walking about eating ice cream, riding those rides and having a good time… they were the paying customers, not the employees! The employees have a small staff room tucked away out of sight; they don’t eat ice cream and popcorn for breakfast, lunch and dinner; the employees work long hours to keep the customers happy, the employees have to endure the endless abuse from snotty tourists, the employees don’t get to go on the rides while they are at work!
The employees can however when they have a day off come to Disney Land and enjoy the rides, food and adventure – but they must pay for it, just like all the other customers. The employee may just to see how it feels spend one or two of his/ her off days at the park to experience the rides, but somehow the magic has worn off.
You don’t see a huge stuffed Donald Duck walking up to greet you, you know that it’s actually Bert inside a costume, the same old Bert who sits at the other end of the staff canteen, belching, puffing on his smoke and scratching his backside…. You know walking past an authentic looking 14th centaury castle with neatly clipped hedges, colourful banners and turret, that it actually a façade attached to an ugly steel framework that the customers can’t see from the outside.
Where’s the magic now?
Okay, well maybe the above analogy does stretch things slightly and needs to be taken with a pinch of salt : )
As to your questions:
1. The visa is dependant on what passport you hold.
2. Racism, may be a little extreme a term to use as it is not always an issue of colour or even ethnicity; “ethnic bias” or maybe even “social casting” may be more correct terms in the circumstances, but yes it does exist and it can affect your earning potential. To go elaborate a little - you also find it within certain ethnic groups living within Dubai, so it really makes for an interesting case study – you find it between different casts in the Indian and Pakistani residents, between Arabs of different backgrounds and origins, even between British of different social backgrounds etc… it’s really a social and cultural melting pot!
3. Many of the large multi-nationals have offices in the Free zones, this way they can maintain a regional office/ presence, but not have to have the involvement of a local sponsor. In your position, accounting crosses most sectors of the economy and you are not really restricted to any particular industry sector. Possibly look at some of the larger names, Microsoft, CNN, KPMG etc.. Another company I ran across a while back Kaiser & Associates (or was it Kaiser Associates), actually make use of young accounting and business graduates to do most of their consulting work and have offices in Dubai, I think however they will only employ (and train) them for a period of 2 years – it was some kind of extended internship program.
4. CV is preferred here as resumes are a little to “bare-bones” if you consider that you would be employing a person basically on an interview and a piece of paper he presents you. Keep this to between 3 and 4 pages, but you could go to 5 depending on your experience.
- dbxsoul
- Honored Member
-
- Posts: 1626
- Location: Dubai