IT Jobs in Middle East

sticksman

Hi all,

I said I'd start by asking a few questions here. Basically, I'm in 3rd year of an Business and IT Development course in DIT. I am thinking, once graduated (fingers crossed) next year, of heading to Abu Dhabi or Dubai for a couple of years to spare some money and see a different culture. Has anybody here any experience of working in a software development/business analyst environment in either place? Would I be better off getting a year's experience here before heading or do they provide graduate training programmes over there.

Thank you

Tom Dunne

Any graduate training programs here in the Middle East tend to be for the locals, not foreigners (I should point out I am not in Dubai, however).

Also, IT jobs are not the best paid out here. You have to remember that you are competing with the likes of Indians who cannot command the wages of a Westerner. Case in point - today I heard about an Oracle DBA/System Admin job (which is what I did in a former life). The salary - 1,000 Euro a month (yes, Euro). The same job in Ireland would command a much higher salary.

The only real opportunities are for senior people, usually with management experience.