UAE - Dubai

[Kris Reid]

I am looking at working in Dubai. If any one has been there, lived there or worked there, can you help give me an idea of the place?

What is the work like?
I have read that they work 40-48 hours a week. IS this accurate?
Is it safe for White people?
What is working like for woman?
What is the housing like?
People like?

Thanks

[Mohan Karthick]

In Middle east Dubai is the nice place to work, Its good city and almost from all country people are working here and its also safe along with great environment. Working hours which depend on company to company and manager to manager but rest of the things are fine.

However I am also waiting for some more inputs regarding good IT Company and job. ,salary and profile etc. My friends are working there, but in non IT Company, though work pressure is more due to heavy competition among team members.

The draw back when ever you get selected , go for best facilities(house, car etc) along with salary as your passport is kept with the company so if you want to leave company prior to notice period then, you can enter up to 1 year at Dubai. Changing company for good salary is not at all possible

[Mohan Karthick]

you can't enter to Dubai again, upto 1 year.

[Vishwa Kumba]

Originally posted by Mohan Karthick:
The draw back when ever you get selected , go for best facilities(house, car etc) along with salary as your passport is kept with the company so if you want to leave company prior to notice period then, you can enter up to 1 year at Dubai. Changing company for good salary is not at all possible

Are you sure all Dubai companies take their employee's passports or is it some mean bodyshoppers? I thought possessing somebody else's passport is not legal in any country!

[Sadanand Murthy]

Originally posted by Mohan Karthick:
The draw back when ever you get selected , go for best facilities(house, car etc) along with salary as your passport is kept with the company

My brother, who is a chartered accountant is in Kuwait & his company has not taken his passport. His wife works there in some IT company. His company pays them round-trip ticket once a year to his home town with a month-long vacation. Kuwait is also a very liberal compared to the other Arab countries.

So, the passport policy very likely depends on the company. Before moving there, I'd recommend that one find out what the passport policy is and if the holding hostage of the passport by the company is even legal in that country.

[Kris Reid]

Thanks for the comments

Has anyone had any IT experiences they can share?

[Anand Prabhu]

I did work in Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai,UAE for a while. Bahrain and Dubai are pretty liberal compared to the rest of the gulf countries. Kuwait is a very rich country. As far as companies keeping the employee's passports, this is a common practice in Asian companies(especially Indian, Pakistani and Arab ones). The Western companies are very flexible and offer good working environments. The people are very friendly. The only thing I do not know is the ground situation (especially after the Iraq war) for Westerners. But the best part is that the salary is not taxed. If the company says that they will pay you 5000 dhirams, that is what you get in hand. And if one can control expenses, one can save quite a lot. And, do not forget the furnace like summers balanced by a couple of months of the most pleasant winters that I have seen in any part of the world.