Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

Hi all,

I know that the topic has been touched many times, but please do advise if you can.

I'm coming to Dubai (from the UK) with my partner in two weeks time to look for jobs. Myself, have secured an interview already with an international Co. in the Legal industry (am master's graduate in Law), but also have a good mixture of commercial experience, i.e. Banking, Asset Mgmt (3 yrs in total). Speak a few languages also.

I will however try to go for jobs in other industries such as Banking and Finance, Investments, Consultancy (applying mainly for Multinationals) as my experience will allow me to.

The only problem is that I have no idea as to how much salary/package one with my profile should really expect to get in Dubai. We've researched intensively on the web, but it seems to vary from one industry to another...

I can appreciate this aspect, however I would have much preferred to have some clues to guide us through this process... So that I know at least what is considered 'low' and what is considered 'reasonable'...

Anyways, I will be definitely asking for enough housing allowance as we know about the in sane rental prices there+utilities+medical care+return tickets ...


But what salary would be reasonable to expect?? I know that nobody can give an exact answer as this depends on many factors...
I was thinking however that a basic salary of UAE15000/m (without benefits) would be ok to start with...?? Or is that too low..??!

Would very grateful for your opinion guys. Thanks a lot.

Yes, 15,000 AED outside of the other allowances is a good base salary.

Thank you Kanelli,

I also thought that the figure is a fairly reasonable one for the start - I wouldn't like to accept any lower...

Any other thoughts anybody?

Thanks.

In a what i consider a "true profession" you should really be looking at 20k minimum. If you convert this to £'s thats only £36k a year.

In looking at salaries, always remember what you would expect to earn in the UK as the benchmark.

Hi arniegang,

Well you are absolutely right here. I know the benchmark here in the UK for professionals with my type of backgroung, however I did not know precisely how it worked there. 20K sounds better to me... I was thinking that 15K is ok-ish, but really not quite fair enough for what I have to offer.

I would't want to sell myself short to anyone there, my view here is to move up professionally not just a side step.

So yes, I would look more toward the 20K offer + benefits.

Thanks again.

M.

brush up on your uae legal knowledge before the interview - it's quiet simplistic, but differs considerably from what you will have been used to.

you could get hold of copies of say the federal law on labour and federal company laws from most of the book shops for a crash course before your interview.

agree with arnie, 20k minimum

dbxsoul wrote:you could get hold of copies of say the federal law on labour and federal company laws from most of the book shops for a crash course before your interview.

I've seen it online too, or bits of it anyway. Number 8 is the one that seems to be most relevant to employment contracts.

UAE government has a spunky new website at http://www.government.ae/gov/en/index.jsp but the bits on labor aren't all there when I checked - there's a link to a labor law PDF which returns an error.

Ministry of labor website is http://www.mol.gov.ae/ but is in Arabic and I can't find an English version (most govt websites usually have one).

wow. you guys are good with the salary predictions. i work in the recruitment industry here in dubai and i could never guess his salary from the very brief info he provided!!! You should come and work for me!!!

Thanks CH

Those of us from CDN, GB, Aussie etc have idea's of salaries linked to certain industries/professions.

So the benchmark figures are already in place. He stated he was in the legal prof etc, so its was easy to estimate on what sort of salary he could expect as a minimum.

This differs in Dubai because recruitment and salary is not based on whether someone is "qualified" for the job. As you know the benchmark is the nationality and how little they can pay or get away with.

In the UK, the person is paid according to his or her credentials and experience.

cool. thanks for the explanation arniegang.

Ch,

As arniegang mentioned, I was more looking at a banchmark for somebody with my type of profile, background etc...

Also, I think that I have said enough about myself (on a forum) to give some people the ability to have an approx. guess as to what I shall expect while there in Dubai. Of course, whilst nobody can state exactly what one is worth, at least they could use some type of benchmarh that is comparable with the ones in UK, USA, AUS etc... That's all I have asked for. And my guess was more or less similar to theirs. I wanted to ask people who already have a feel for Dubai...

NB. I hope that you didn't really expect me to place a full CV outlining my skills set on a forum, did you..??!!

M.

no dude i didnt. i really was impressed by everyone's ability to make such a guess with the info provided.

i'm in recruitment and i've found that there's a very wide range of salaries here for the same job - it almost seems like employers make up salaries, no real consistency! dont know why - i guess its something to do with how immature and fast growing the market is.

anyway, hope you find something cool here

ch wrote:no dude i didnt. i really was impressed by everyone's ability to make such a guess with the info provided.

i'm in recruitment and i've found that there's a very wide range of salaries here for the same job - it almost seems like employers make up salaries, no real consistency! dont know why - i guess its something to do with how immature and fast growing the market is.

anyway, hope you find something cool here

Rule of thumb would be same salary at home (before tax) plus some perks eg housing, medical, school fees and shipping and relocation of family and household goods. Personally we know we can survive on that and I am Australian BTW.

Dave, the IT industry is a whole different can of worms. In most cases you will not earn as much here in support type roles as you would in a (western) home country.

yes we call it the I squared .. Indian Invasion