In Dubai, No Job, What Do I Do?

It's more like showing up at someone's birthday party uninvited. What would you do? Look for someone you know? You won't be getting a piece of that birthday cake anytime soon. So do you flip a coin and just go to Dubai because you have a gut feeling, or do you plan your trip? If your answer was "Plan", then you have opted to read my multi-layered suggestions.

While tracking and sorting messages from our database we concluded that 106 out of our seven figure candidates registered with Jobsindubai.com decided to go to Dubai in the year 2007 without securing a job first. Only 30 were successful in getting placements in their preferred work zone. Candidates were a mix from countries such as Canada, USA, Australia, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. They were mid-level management with a degree and an above average risk tolerance. So then why did only 30 secure employment?Before I answer that question, let's consider the uncertainty factor here. How did they prepare their trip to Dubai and find work? Some cashed in their paid vacation days; others relinquished their post, few of them traveled with limited cash in their pockets. Which one of these would best describe you?

None of the above, I hope. Before you decide to go to Dubai scraping off your left over leave time and money, you need to be in the "System". With that I mean, you must first be in touch with an employer or have a friend who can refer you to them directly.Time unquestionably flies when you are in Dubai, because its fun. You have places to go, things to buy, beaches to see and all that can gobble some of your leave time. You need approximately 60 days before you can start building a solid lead that can materialize so that you can make headway.

30 out of the 106 did just that. They had friends or relatives in Dubai that were contacted ahead of time. They did not call the employers directly, but make sure the employer was somewhat aware of their arrival by having their friends refer their resumes to the Human Resources or hiring manager ahead of time. So let's say you are not one of those fortunate ones to have friends in Dubai, and since you are already in Dubai now and need help, what do you do? Let's go back a few steps here and find out what impression does a prospective employer have about you if you intruded up unprepared. Not a good one indeed. You are unprepared (repeated deliberately), you lack the skills to research, and network, and to a sad realization - you might not be getting an interview call either.

Don't start off by dropping resumes to job agencies and companies directly, no hard copies and not floppy disks please. Now-a-days they prefer an emailed resume, since hard copy resumes in Dubai are looked upon like vacant land, very few people have them and it's hard to find. You might as well label your resume "Trash Can" before you hand it out to a reception desk. Hard copy resumes are good only if you show up at an interview; this gives the interviewer a second chances to glance through your experience and consider you, and they don't mind having an extra copy in front of them. It also makes you look prepared and keen for the job.

So now you have gone directly to most employers, and you have emailed resumes to addresses on every business card that you nicked off the front desk. You have done your follow up calls diligently. While you are spending the nights pondering your next move or taking advice from family abroad, you must try other avenues, why miss an additional chance if there is one. You should go to hang-out-places, make friends, and start networking.

Research by Career Management Consultants suggests that networking increases your chances of getting hired by 30%. You can build that network while you are in Dubai and who knows, your next trip to Dubai would be less scandalous. Try a few places from this list and you might find a little luck in your job hunt : Irish Village, QD's, Rock Bottom Café, Zinc, Barasti Bar, Aussie Legends, Go West (Ironic), Dubai Marine, Jumeirah Beach, Jimy Dix, Uptown, Trader Vic's, Koubba, Century Village, The Alamo, Fabber Magee's, Boardwalk, Studio One, Scarlett's, and Spike Bar.

So now you have casted your self away to see what comes back. And if against all odds you happen to secure a job in your first week visiting, then Heads, YOU WIN!

Resume And Content

Résumés have become the business card of the job search. Each day terabytes of data is transferred over the Internet to corporations by individuals looking for the right break. The Job Seekers' goals are to impress employers, but what are the employers really looking for in their candidates? Are their methods of assessing candidates right and unbiased? You will find unlimited articles on this beaten-up subject over the Internet. I am not going to offer you anything different, the information you will read here is something JID staff has put together over time with their experience in searching and supplying employers with millions of resumes during their six years in the Middle East. Information below might be beneficial for you, or it could be something you might already know and use it for your successful job searches.   

Resume Layout And Design

A résumé must express your creativity regardless of the industry you belong to. It is the only opportunity for the author to present information that they think is priority. You can compare résumés to advertisements in the news papers or magazines, where would you like the reader’s eyes to go? How should you write information that grabs the most attention? Studies by job-search experts suggest that the average examiner spends no more than forty-five seconds in reviewing a résumé before deciding the fate of its owner. 

Even though applications allow no creativity what so ever, applications and résumé are both very important to employers. Each has its advantages and disadvantages which employers consider very carefully depending on what factors are going to help them in making a decision. "It seems that every job I interview for has me fill out an application. Why when they have my résumé would they need me to also fill out a job application?” Companies keep the applications on file. The applications are generally legal documents that require the applicant's signature.  

Back to the résumé; job agencies or employers would have you think your resume goes into a database when you send it across, well it does, but not quiet the way you would imagine it. All résumés in the mail are scanned using optical character-recognition software. This program runs the employer round about $10,000 to $85,000 USD. It simply translates the codes assigned by the clerk that scans the documents identifying the position that is being sought. It sorts your qualifications and information relevant to the organization's need. The scanned résumé is then electronically stored on a database. Here is where the age old question is left unanswered. How reliable is this software that decides my fate? What font size should I use so that my resume can be easily found? Can I send in multiple résumés to improve my chances? 

At this juncture, the best possible answer to that would be to focus immensely on online recruitment agencies that you know are reputable and have employers search key words online instead of crummy software being used on your resume that you are unaware of. The disadvantages of software that uses optical-character scans are that they eliminate applications that don't fit a particular profile, and also preclude the consideration of qualified candidates because they didn't use the right keywords in their resume or application material. 

Even though pricy new technologies and hiring tools might have solved this dilemma, it would still demand human intervention when performing sorting and categorizing and with that comes cost and a turnaround time. Important factors such as these have led the Traditional Recruiters leaning more towards agencies with online capabilities for assistance. Online agencies such as ours wouldn't have advanced as much if it were not for Traditional Recruitment Agencies that give us the bulk of the business. 

That way the key words would not escape a search request provided you filled a form while registering that had text boxes to add your résumé contents. To prove this theory right you can search the Jobs In Dubai website using this link http://www.jobsindubai.com/candidate_search.asp Try options such as "Name" or "Professionals" and then search for a word, for e.g. a name, the search results would display exactly what you type in the search box, provided these words do exist. I have even tried searching for a "Cat" with no pun intended. The search results exhibits every candidates profiles with the word CAT in sequence from categories such as Pharmacists, Financial Analysts and so on.

Contents Of Your Resume 

While it is common knowledge you must have a résumé before you make overtures to a website, but what would you like to have highlighted depends upon the criteria determined ahead of time. I can speak from my personal experience where we were in search of a Treasury Manager that was to be considered in one of the Emirates prominent Oil and Gas companies. Since this position paid AED 29,000 and it was also advertised on more than one medium, it was up for grabs by any and every recruiter that asserted himself as guru.  

This position took 15 days to fill and Jobs In Dubai was the first agency to submit four potential candidates before any other agency sorted our résumés. How did we do it? Very simple, we searched the resume content for only the word "Treasury" and it was all done online. The search sorted out over three million resumes to find 200 potential candidates that have highlighted this word in their objective which was then singled out by our database query. This word was reiterated many times by those four resumes and it also highlighted pertinent experience and education and all that could hardly be missed.  

My point here is to explain to you how important it is to have relevant keywords in your résumé. You must only put words that best describes what you are looking for and providing an agency a "general" resume would only minimize your chances of getting hired. Focus on "your" word. 

Q. How important are my objectives?

Answer. Well how important is a job for you?  

Objective is chief, and the only way an employer can compare you to job postings in less time. It sets you apart from every meaningless résumé that uses vague statements such as “Seeking a position that uses my skills and experience,"  

But writing objectives can be tricky. Make sure you fit the job you are applying for. Think of it as someone looking at a map. The objective dumped in a paragraph must lead them somewhere, which in your case would be relevant experience and education expressed, working in conjunction with the "word" in your objective. 

Technologies And What's Cool 

If you are emailing a résumé to a company PDF's might not be the best choice when attaching it to an email because of the size restrictions for many email clients. I wouldn't recommend PDF unless you are sure your employer is using Yahoo, MSN or Google Aps – that is my personal favorite. One of the newer methods used in recent years have been personal websites and links to them, or blogs and even Word Press at many instances. Minor disadvantages to complete failure would comprise of issues such as, website down, blogs with personal messages, ad banners on free hosted portals that can come in the way of your message etc,. I have also seen Flash Paper used for a résumé, although cool, but it might not be browser friendly on certain older Internet Explorer browsers especially if active X is disabled because of a company's strict security code.  

Action Words 

Here is a list of some action words you might want to use on your objective and experience.  

 

 

Achieved Acquired Adapted Addressed Administered Analyzed Anticipated Assembled Assisted Audited Budgeted Calculated Centralized Changed Collaborated Composed Condensed Conducted Constructed Contracted Converted Coordinated Created Cultivated Demonstrated Designed Developed Devised Discovered Doubled

Drafted Edited Eliminated Enforced Established Evaluated Expanded Explained Forecasted Formed Founded Generated Guided Hired Implemented Improved Informed Insured Interpreted Interviewed Launched Maintained Managed Marketed Minimized Motivated Negotiated Obtained Operated Organized

Originated Oversaw Performed Planned Prevented Produced Programmed Promoted Provided Publicized Published Recruited Reorganized Reported Researched Resolved Reviewed Selected Separated Set up Simplified Solved Surveyed Staffed Supervise Taught Tested Trained Used

For more advise on resumes and resume creation. You can check out one of our paid services called the Gold Member located at this link http://www.jobsindubai.com/goldmember.asp or email accepted@jobsindubai.com