# British expats!!..help :-(



## londoner2 (Apr 14, 2013)

Hi everyone


I'm a UK resident, currently living in East London.
Me, My husband and brother are travelling to Dubai in 2 weeks...I really don't want to come back and doing SERIOUS job hunting....(accomendation is no probs)

But after going through soo many jobsites (Yes the Good recommended ones like Bayt and Dubizzle) its seems that 
1) You need to be Indian/Filino
2) Arabic speaking
3)Good looking (wtf??)

TO GET ANY BLOODY JOB!....

I have a degree (A Masters degree actually..im Pharmacist, but the pharmacists need pass exams and special license etc..Which could be looonnng process)

Basically I need a job now...ANYTHING, ANY SALARY, ANY PLACE UAE...
BUT IT SEEMS I CANT EVEN BE A CLEANER BECAUSE IM NOT "INDIAN"

why does ur passport matter if you can do the job?? surely anybody could Clean!!

What sort of jobs could Brit with good education background, English-speaking (No arabic) with loads of work experience (im 28, pharmacy manager for 5yrs) get??

Yes I am FEMALE is that helps (They seem to like ladies!) but i'm NO Kate Moss or Cheryl Cole so point (3) I would probably fail!....loooooolz


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## Ad Rem (Apr 12, 2013)

Surely, anybody with any passport can clean ... but NOT FOR THE SAME MONEY! :lol:
They would be expecting that they need to pay u more, bcs of ur Brit passport. 

From what I know, ur passport is highly effective in UAE ... I ll leave my British acquaintances to elaborate on that, as I am not from the "lucky group"


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

would you clean for around 75p / hour?


(didn't think so)

careful when you say 'ANY JOB'
Minimium wage is a foreign concept here..


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

There is a burgeoning health care sector in the UAE.

If you have a master's plus experience forget about Bayt and Dubizzle. Those are mostly low end or junior admin positions which really don't suit western expats. Bayt has a weird process for scoring applicants and screening them out before passing along CVs to the recruiting company, and seems to be utilised mostly by non-western companies. 

Look at careerjet and Linkedin and get in touch with the better recruitment agencies. Some will specialise in the health care sector. I can't speak about pharmacy but some kind of health care admin role seems reasonably plausible for you. 

Job roles can be segregated by nationality. Most pharmacists in the UAE seem to be from either Egypt, Syria, Pakistan or India because they're willing to accept lower salaries than western trained pharmacists. 

Finding a job is luck of the draw. You may find something quickly. Or it may take you a year.



londoner2 said:


> Hi everyone
> 
> 
> I'm a UK resident, currently living in East London.
> ...


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## Tropicana (Apr 29, 2010)

londoner2 said:


> why does ur passport matter if you can do the job?? surely anybody could Clean!!


Because at the end of the day it is your passport and your ethnicity that determines everything about you; from what your skills are, to what food you eat, to what dress you were. 


People wil make sweeping generalizations and then claim it is all right to generalize because the generalizatons hold true for most people.

You have the right background to demand a good enough job here; dont sell yourself short as you will find plenty of buyers wanting to buy at cheap; just like in Dubizzle classifieds where people will offer 200 dhs for something quoted at 800


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## Roadworrier (Jul 3, 2012)

Tropicana said:


> Because at the end of the day it is your passport and your ethnicity that determines everything about you; from what your skills are, to what food you eat, to what dress you were.
> 
> People wil make sweeping generalizations and then claim it is all right to generalize because the generalizatons hold true for most people.
> 
> You have the right background to demand a good enough job here; dont sell yourself short as you will find plenty of buyers wanting to buy at cheap; just like in Dubizzle classifieds where people will offer 200 dhs for something quoted at 800


If you are a pharmacist, I think you would have a better shot than as a medical assistant or nurse. We are American and 2 dozen CV's sent or provided in person resulted in not one single solitary interview for my wife, nor a single call back or even response. When you consider that new hospitals fill their staffing by flying planeloads of cheap labor from certain Eastern Hemisphere countries, put them all in crowded apartments and bus them to work where they might put in 200 hrs a month for peanut salaries, you see that certain professions are associated with specific passports. No getting around that. This is not the US or UK or Canada where laws make a sincere attempt to open up opportunities and paths to citizenship, etc. Here, we are guests, a necessary evil since there are not enough citizens to support the growth of the country and even fewer who would actually work in a position that doesn't involve being a boss, owner, desk worker, government bureaucrat, or coffee drinking leisure class member.


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## Tropicana (Apr 29, 2010)

Roadworrier said:


> If you are a pharmacist, I think you would have a better shot than as a medical assistant or nurse. We are American and 2 dozen CV's sent or provided in person resulted in not one single solitary interview for my wife, nor a single call back or even response. When you consider that new hospitals fill their staffing by flying planeloads of cheap labor from certain Eastern Hemisphere countries, put them all in crowded apartments and bus them to work where they might put in 200 hrs a month for peanut salaries,


I am not sure nurses are kept in crowded apartments, medical clerks maybe, but I have seen nurses drive to work and rent apartments on their own, or maybe times have changed ?


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## coconut_shy (Feb 3, 2013)

londoner2 said:


> Hi everyone
> 
> 
> I'm a UK resident, currently living in East London.
> ...




Ha Ha! I'm sure you will be fine. If you have a Masters and solid work experience, rather than work in a hospital have you considered applying for a management position within the pharmaceutical companies in Dubai? I have seen advertisements for quality assurance and project management/advisory roles. You don't necessarily have to have DHA registration to apply for these.

Coming from the UK healthcare sector myself, its worth noting that the UAE health sector is pretty new; still developing and evolving so the procedures etc you take as standard UK good practice may not necessarily be applied/followed here. 

Also, I have noted that people enter the healthcare sector here in sometimes lower paid positions and rapidly move up the ranks. In other words, they find their own level eventually. It may be a tad unrealistic to expect to step straight into an equivalent position in the UAE when you don't have UAE experience. 

If you are coming with your husband, you may be able to undertake temporary secretarial work if he sponsors you. I have no idea what the salary is for these types of positions but I know the recruitment agent Kershaw Leonard has vacancies like this.

Finally, I would second the other posters- LinkedIn is key, also meeting people whilst you are here. Good Luck :fingerscrossed:


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## londoner2 (Apr 14, 2013)

Thank you all for the replies. Maybe it's best to start my search in person once i get to Dubai. 
Honestly I wouldn't mind doing admin/receptionist work in the healthcare sector or else where. and Im not expecting the British Salary, jst enough for rent and food!!
I have got management experience and can sale medicines easily (worked with enough medical reps in my life!) but again the only advert i came accross for medical reps said "Indian Only"!!

I put Pharmacy on one side because after reading the process of getting a DHA license...it costs lots of money and could take months. I will bring my papers anyways and start that process once I get settle. 
But priority will be my living costs and I need a job before I can even afford the application/exam fee for DHA.

My brother does not have a degree, but good A-levels and years of working in customer service advisor roles call centres for many different companies.

once I am in Dubai, any good agencies I can my CV to?? or best to go directly to companies?


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## saraswat (Apr 28, 2012)

Good info here :
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/du...ai/139533-how-find-jobs-dubai-uae-thread.html

Btw being disqualified for jobs on the mere basis of nationality, regardless of other factors is something you should just be prepared for ... not going to try and explain the reasoning, or discredit the practice ... its the way it is here and I am fairly certain none on this forum are in a position to do be able to do anything about it ... just roll with it ....


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## IzzyBella (Mar 11, 2013)

londoner2 said:


> Im not expecting the British Salary, jst enough for rent and food!!


Good luck with that. You do realise that rent here is extortionate, even compared to UK prices. Our 3 bedroom FLAT is costing us approx £32k/annum. That's just rent.

Yes, there are cheaper places to live. However, if you're expecting someone to pay for your residency visa, etc. Then you really ought to expect a lower wage.

Although, I'm pretty sure you'll do fine as a pharmacist, should you actually make a bigger effort to find a job yourself. Not every job is advertised on Dubizzle. In fact, mostly it's used for cheaper companies/single employers as it's free.

How would you search for a job in London? Apply the same method here as you would there.


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## Krom (Apr 7, 2013)

londoner2 said:


> Thank you all for the replies. Maybe it's best to start my search in person once i get to Dubai.
> Honestly I wouldn't mind doing admin/receptionist work in the healthcare sector or else where. and Im not expecting the British Salary, jst enough for rent and food!!
> I have got management experience and can sale medicines easily (worked with enough medical reps in my life!) but again the only advert i came accross for medical reps said "Indian Only"!!
> 
> ...


Londoner2, honestly, if you're a pharmacist, either:

1. Look to one of the hospitals in the Dubai/Abu Dhabi area. They will have an onsite pharmacy. Try and get a job through them (e.g. Al-Rahba hospital).

2. Look to the IT companies out in Dubai/Abu Dhabi that have healthcare branches (e.g. Cerner/Dell). They look for change management people who have an expertise in particular healthcare practices (pharmacy/nursing/clinical background).

One of these may be able to help you on the job front. If you're prepared to travel to Abu Dhabi from Dubai for work.

Good luck with your search.


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