Posted By Paul I Clark You should try BBT, they have a wide spread of offices and cover the middle east. However; the region is not healthy at the moment and expat safety professionals are either returning home because of no work or having 20 - 25% wage cuts placed upon them. You may struggle in these conditions without any important 'middle east/ Africa' experience. I would wait a year and go out in the next boom. I was looking to fill a vacancy and found 200+ availabilities from UAE based professionals alone

Posted By Paul I Clark Andrew, as you know the region does not fully record or publish employment data so all generalisations can only be made up from anecdotal evidence. However, its my general view that it a tough market but if you know otherwise an insight would be welcome. I'm sure all persons looking to relocate their families would welcome a frank view before they set off to the sun.

Posted By Andrew Lochlyn Ure I wouldn't dispute that it's a tough market, but in my view it always has been. I've been in the region on and off since 1997 (more on than off) and I've never known it to be easy. I can't help feeling some of the previous (historic) postings on this forum have propogated a rather rosey-tinted view of the Middle East as being a groaning basket of lavishly paid jobs with limitless availability which anyone can blag their way into after doing a NEBOSH Certificate. Not so. As with anything else, experience counts and good jobs are just as hotly competed for as on the domestic market. Job security is also sector specific, so those in employment on large speculative property developments have less chance of weathering the storm than say, oil and gas, or utilities. Bit like everywhere else really. So without digressing any further, in answer to Paul's recommendation of BBT I would also add Expats Direct, or for oil and gas (which pulls in a lot of construction in the region because of the onshore aspect of the industry here) 'oilandgasjobsearch.com' and 'oilcareers.com'. But if you get anywhere, make sure you get a watertight offer of employment from a reputable company before you start mobilising. There are plenty of horror stories about expats being marooned in the Emirates with wife and kids but no job.

Posted By SN There are excpetions to the above posts. If you have a mate or a relative out here already then get yourself out. The reason being is that with exception of the decent companies, most local companies are offering all in packages i.e. you get a lump sum of cash and its up to you what you do with it. Most currently offered will not cover living and the unbelievable prices of accomodation (yes I know Dubai has nearly halved) but its still expensive. If you have somewhere to live already then you could still coin some reasonable cash and get your foot on the ladder. When things do pick up as they will shortly, you will be on the ground and ready to walk on the streets paved with gold lol for a decent company with everything provided. Work in my neck of the woods never dried up, it was just the packages that did hence the expats leaving in their droves. If you dont have access to accomodation then forget it. This is not a place to be if skint

Posted By Paul I Clark Good point and if your thinking Abu Dhabi, accommodation is off the scale (but slowly coming down). However on a positive note, work is quickly picking up and I know this week alone a large number of projects have been given the green light. I work for a major developer and speak with the other major developers and the workload will shortly be coming through fast. Boom time is near, but not yet.