# single american female would like to move to Dubai



## cdd (Aug 25, 2011)

Hi all

Have been reading the forum and there is a lot of very useful information. Thank you for helping those of us yet to make the leap to move there.

My question is can I actually support myself if I move there. I have a 4 year degree from a us university and have managed employee benefit plans in multi -national companies for the last 11 years but I have no experience specific to the U.A.E.

I would need to make about AED 35000/month to be able to support myself and an elderly parent back home. Is this possible or am I dreaming the impossible.

Thank you so much for your advice and wisdom

Cdd


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## craignewcastle (Aug 9, 2011)

Your gonna have to find a really good job to pay that wage each month! Good luck tho


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## tarek.m2day (Aug 18, 2011)

Nothing called dream in uae


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## ReggieDXB007 (Mar 10, 2011)

Can you explain a little more what your job entails? Sorry for my ignorance but does this mean that you work in an HR capacity, or in a Financial Sector capacity? Are you, say a technical person within an insurance company?


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## CVDS (May 10, 2011)

cdd said:


> Hi all
> 
> Have been reading the forum and there is a lot of very useful information. Thank you for helping those of us yet to make the leap to move there.
> 
> ...



If it helps you I hold two undergraduate degrees and one Master's and did not have any specific experience to the UAE either- I decided to start out as a teacher and I with my advanced degrees am currently only making 9000 aed a month-


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

CVDS said:


> If it helps you I hold two undergraduate degrees and one Master's and did not have any specific experience to the UAE either- I decided to start out as a teacher and I with my advanced degrees am currently only making 9000 aed a month-


The sad reality is that almost everyone has at least one degree here and some form of professional qualification, so degrees are not exactly worth that much, especially when you consider that some employers ask a degree of even their receptionists!!

The salary will almost always come down to the passport you carry, whether you have local experience or not (for some professions, it's not necessarily a requirement), skin colour in some instances, who you know as opposed to what you know and your negotiating skills. I have come across some people who simply had the gift of the gab and managed to talk themselves into positions that they had no realistic chance of holding on to. They lasted six month but importantly managed to take home a six figure salary each month - made all the difference to their bank balance.


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## koussay (Aug 24, 2011)

cdd said:


> Hi all
> 
> Have been reading the forum and there is a lot of very useful information. Thank you for helping those of us yet to make the leap to move there.
> 
> ...


I heard its possible, try qatar as well they got good pay


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## cdd (Aug 25, 2011)

ReggieDXB007 said:


> Can you explain a little more what your job entails? Sorry for my ignorance but does this mean that you work in an HR capacity, or in a Financial Sector capacity? Are you, say a technical person within an insurance company?



I guess it is both. The plans I managed were predominately self funded so we not only worked with the insurance side and the technical aspects of setting up plans and claims processing but also the financial side in plan pricing and cost allocations of the trusts set up to pay plan expenses. I cut and past my resume below. Probably way more information than you wanted but it sort of explains my background. 

Company 1

•	Oversight of staff responsible for daily administration of medical, Rx, life, dental, LTD, COBRA
•	Responsible for annual plan design changes, COBRA rates and Retiree premiums
•	Responsible for quarterly review of claims analysis, plan experience and cost projections
•	Oversight of negotiation of performance guarantees and other miscellaneous agreements
•	Worked with internal accounting group to develop annual employee pricing increases
•	Performance of retirement calculations for plan participants
•	Assisted in determining retiree medical valuations and employee funding strategies
•	Implemented several HMO’s and prepared annual HMO RFP’s and renewals
•	Worked closely with HRIS and internal technical teams to maintain PeopleSoft regulatory compliance 
•	Oversight of 5500 filings for health plans
•	Acted as primary contact for third party vendors 
•	Employee contact for benefit questions and enrollment assistance
•	Interfaced with communications to develop communication pieces to include OE materials
•	Participated in Annual Enrollment development and processes 
•	Responsible for employee development and salary reviews for staff


Company 2

•	Directed administration of 26 different health care plans in a mixed ASO/fully insured environment
•	Managed day to day relations with third party vendors including medical, life, dental, STD and LTD 
•	Designed and administered Dependent Eligibility Audit 
•	Assisted with implementation of Medicare Part D Plan
•	Implemented generics first program and other drug safety initiatives with PBM
•	Oversight of $600 million in annual expenditures
•	Determined and implemented cost saving initiatives - $27M in annual savings to plans 
•	Experience with expatriates and coordination of benefits to home plans
•	Negotiated contracts, fees, performance guarantees and other miscellaneous agreements
•	Implemented plan strategies for both actives and retirees
•	Ensured vendors compliance with established administrative quality measures
•	Determined processes and efficiencies and benchmarked vendors against industry
•	Oversight of audits on claims payments and processing procedures
•	Conducted open enrollment meetings
•	Member of appeals staff for medical, dental, Rx, vision, and disability appeals
•	Drafted Summary Plan Descriptions
•	Integration of acquisitions into existing and stand alone plans
•	Oversight of appeals procedures with various vendors

Company 3

•	Managed design and implementation of HRMS system for benefits group
•	Developed and implemented cost containment strategies
•	Translated contractual language into working benefit programs 
•	Administered union and non-union plans in US and Canada
•	Experience with Ceridian and ADP payroll processes and reporting
•	Implemented strategies to resolve vendor related issues
•	Supervised small healthcare staff
•	Responsible for a $17.7 million Health/Welfare and Pension budget
•	Trained both internal and remote site staff 
•	Managed merger of acquisitions into existing benefit plans
•	Wrote procedural manuals detailing departmental functions and billing procedures 
•	Performed on-site audits of benefits procedures and expenditures
•	Responded to member inquiries of escalated issues


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## cdd (Aug 25, 2011)

*Hmmmm.*



Maz25 said:


> The sad reality is that almost everyone has at least one degree here and some form of professional qualification, so degrees are not exactly worth that much, especially when you consider that some employers ask a degree of even their receptionists!!
> 
> The salary will almost always come down to the passport you carry, whether you have local experience or not (for some professions, it's not necessarily a requirement), skin colour in some instances, who you know as opposed to what you know and your negotiating skills. I have come across some people who simply had the gift of the gab and managed to talk themselves into positions that they had no realistic chance of holding on to. They lasted six month but importantly managed to take home a six figure salary each month - made all the difference to their bank balance.



I have a US Passport, will that help?

I have been combing through the jobs and I see a lot of jobs for Personal Assistants but it seems to be very different than what would you expect, at least as an American. Some of the job descriptions seem more as though they are operational managers and some of them, depending on the website you find them on, seem to be code for paid mistress. Am I misinterpreting these?


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## ReggieDXB007 (Mar 10, 2011)

Thnks for the information - looks very impressive to me at any rate and goes some way to explain the ambiguity. Hoping to meet up with a friend in the insurance business so will ask him and report back.


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## cdd (Aug 25, 2011)

*Thank you so much.*



ReggieDXB007 said:


> Thnks for the information - looks very impressive to me at any rate and goes some way to explain the ambiguity. Hoping to meet up with a friend in the insurance business so will ask him and report back.


Thank you so much. Any assistance and advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your feedback on my resume. I really have no comparison as to how my job background would compare with other expats and whether I would even be a viable job candidate. 

There is a Health Insurance Conference in September in Abu Dhabi. I am thinking of attending to hopefully make some business contacts. Is that proper? It would be the appropriate thing to do in the US breaking into a new market in a new city but I have no idea what is appropriate business protocol in the U.A.E. I don't want to make my first step a giant blunder.

Any advice from those who have already navigated through this would really be helpful and very much appreicated.


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## CVDS (May 10, 2011)

Honey-
In the Arab world it isn't always "WHAT you know, but WHO you know". I say come to the conference and make as many contacts as you can- You never know what will happen!


Good Luck!



cdd said:


> Thank you so much. Any assistance and advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your feedback on my resume. I really have no comparison as to how my job background would compare with other expats and whether I would even be a viable job candidate.
> 
> There is a Health Insurance Conference in September in Abu Dhabi. I am thinking of attending to hopefully make some business contacts. Is that proper? It would be the appropriate thing to do in the US breaking into a new market in a new city but I have no idea what is appropriate business protocol in the U.A.E. I don't want to make my first step a giant blunder.
> 
> Any advice from those who have already navigated through this would really be helpful and very much appreicated.


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## INFAMOUS (Apr 19, 2011)

Are you good looking? That will help!


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## cdd (Aug 25, 2011)

CVDS and Infamous, thank you for your encouragement. I have not fully decided yet, but it is sounding more and more like a good idea to go to the conference. 

I have found two different UAE government websites that both look rathe official. They both indicate that US passport holders can get a visitors visa upon arrival, however one indicates a fee and the other one says there is no fee.. Anyone know which is correct? I would only be there for about a week at the end of September.


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## xchaos777 (Dec 15, 2010)

No fee...you can get a 30 day at passport control directly with US passport.

You can even do visa runs to the border to renew pretty much indefinitely.


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## ReggieDXB007 (Mar 10, 2011)

cdd said:


> Thank you so much. Any assistance and advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your feedback on my resume. I really have no comparison as to how my job background would compare with other expats and whether I would even be a viable job candidate.
> 
> There is a Health Insurance Conference in September in Abu Dhabi. I am thinking of attending to hopefully make some business contacts. Is that proper? It would be the appropriate thing to do in the US breaking into a new market in a new city but I have no idea what is appropriate business protocol in the U.A.E. I don't want to make my first step a giant blunder.
> 
> Any advice from those who have already navigated through this would really be helpful and very much appreicated.


Hello CDD,

I spoke to my insurance man and he tells me that most companies are brokerages and hence their technical teams are not that sophisticated. He did mention two companies however, one of them being ALICO, that do have large technical teams (albeit in Sharjah - not sure if this was ALICO or another) and indeed one company is relocating their team to the UAE is currently building that up.

I mentioned your salary expectations and he indicated that for the right experience and you certainly seem to have that in spades, this is not an issue.

If you'd like to send me a PM I'll send you my email address and you can send me your CV which I can forward to him to test the waters as it were.

Regarding a potential visit - definitely yes. Face time is very valuable here, although companies do take time to make a decision and trying to sort out an efficient meeting schedule is a little nightmarish. Also bear in mind that although this is the Middle East and some things are different, basic business principles apply and in a professional, business environment you will find that people tend to behave much as you are used to in the US (Ok mostly - I can hear people giggling at the back). 

Good luck with everything!


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## cdd (Aug 25, 2011)

ReggieDXB007 said:


> Hello CDD,
> 
> I spoke to my insurance man and he tells me that most companies are brokerages and hence their technical teams are not that sophisticated. He did mention two companies however, one of them being ALICO, that do have large technical teams (albeit in Sharjah - not sure if this was ALICO or another) and indeed one company is relocating their team to the UAE is currently building that up.
> 
> ...


Hi Reggie. I have pm you twice but my sent messages folder doesn't reflect it. Did you by chance get it regardless?


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## ReggieDXB007 (Mar 10, 2011)

cdd said:


> Hi Reggie. I have pm you twice but my sent messages folder doesn't reflect it. Did you by chance get it regardless?


Hi cdd - yes I received your PM and have responded via email...


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## Julep (Jul 31, 2011)

cdd, 

May I suggest that you look into large companies, like ADCB, Emirates and Etihad (in Abu Dhabi). Both have nice packages for (HR) specialists, but you would probably still be looking at something like 20,000-30,000 (including housing allowance) monthly. If you haven't yet posted your CV on monster ME, gulftalent, bayt, etc., doing so will make you visible to the headhunters and increase your chances since many companies work strictly with recruitment agencies. Still, go ahead and apply online and reapply often.

Lastly, you are probably aware that CV's look different here than the resumes used in the US. Employers often ask for passport photos, personal info such as your DOB, marital status, and in general more detailed descriptions of your experience. 

good luck!


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## Black Jack (Jul 24, 2011)

cdd said:


> I have a US Passport, will that help?
> 
> I have been combing through the jobs and I see a lot of jobs for Personal Assistants but it seems to be very different than what would you expect, at least as an American. Some of the job descriptions seem more as though they are operational managers and some of them, depending on the website you find them on, seem to be code for paid mistress. Am I misinterpreting these?


USA passport will hurt when it comes to Uncle SAM as you will have to pay the IRS tax on everything you earn above 90K or so just for the privilege of holding that wonderful booklet.


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