How To Find a Job in the United Arab Emirates as a Foreigner

Me inside the Mall of Emirates, Dubai

Me inside the Mall of Emirates, Dubai

The United Arab Emirates is an Arab country located on the Persian Gulf. It shares borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia. The official language is Arabic.

Below is a selection of resources for searching for employment opportunities as a foreigner in the United Arab Emirates.

General Job Search Engines and Classifieds

With the sites below, you can expect to get a 0.5 to 1.0% response rate (people who will respond back to you to whom you sent your application/CV.) Nevertheless, I encourage you to give these sites a try as you never know what you will come up with or what connections you can make from a simple e-mail or application.

  • Gulf TalentLots of good quality, professional jobs.
  • BaytOne of the top job search websites in the Middle East.
  • DubizzleA giant classifieds site for Abu Dhabi.
  • Monster Gulf: The Monster job search brand has been around since pretty much the dawn of the internet era.
  • Glassdoor: Glassdoor has opportunities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
  • ReedThis big UK job search engine has job postings for Dubai.
  • Career Jet: I’m sure you’ve heard of Career Jet. They have job search options for the UAE.
  • Indeed: The UAE version of the big U.S. job search site Indeed.com.
  • Naukri: I mentioned Naukri over on my Qatar jobs page. This site is chock full of job postings.

Teaching English

Teaching English might be an option (if you are a native English speaker that is). All of the sites below are pretty similar and have a massive amount of teaching English job options. Browse through each of the sites for any English job opportunities in the United Arab Emirates. Also, be sure to check out this cool table from the International TEFL academy that shows how much money teachers can expect to make in various countries around the world.

  • ESL Employment: Not the most beautiful interface, but who needs a pretty website when you have so many English teaching job options to choose from.
  • Total ESL: Also an overly busy interface but a wealth of job postings for teaching jobs abroad.
  • ESL Cafe: Dave does a great job in compiling some of the best job openings from around the world.
  • Tesall: Big teaching jobs aggregator.
  • Footprints Recruiting: One of the largest ESL teaching recruiters in the game.

Overseas and Expat Job Portals

  • Michael PageAn international executive recruitment website that I’ve used in the past. This site is targeted towards high-end job seekers.
  • eFinancialCareersMy favorite search engine for finance jobs on the web. I used them during my Wall Street days. They have quite a few jobs for the UAE.
  • Overseas Jobs:  I find that there is often significant overlap between the postings on this site and that of other sites. Nevertheless this site has been around for a while.
  • Go Abroad: I’ve always been a fan of GoAbroad. In fact, on the visa information portion of my website, you will find where I have linked to their global embassies directory. They have a good job portal too.
  • Linkedin: Last but not least, this huge professional social network is a resource for building contacts in the field and location of your interest.

There you have it. The best places to find jobs in the United Arab Emirates as a foreigner. For information on visas for the United Arab Emirates, be sure to check out my United Arab Emirates visa page. If you are looking to spice up your dating life, check out my post on the best online dating sites in the United Arab Emirates.

Further Reading

About Addison Sears-Collins

Hey! I'm Addison Sears-Collins, the founder of Visa Hunter. You can learn more about me here. Connect with me by liking my fan page on Facebook, connecting with me on Twitter, or check out my website Automatic Addison where I build robots and embedded systems.

Visahunter.com accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the accuracy of the information contained on this site. Please read the Visitor Agreement and Disclaimer. If you think there is an error in the information, please bring it to our attention so that we can correct it. Also, some of the links above could be affiliate links, which means that I will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you) should you decide to click on the links and make a purchase. I recommend sites from time to time, not because I get a tiny commission if you click on the links and make a purchase, but because, I want you to focus on the places that will deliver you the most value and the best results. Good luck!