Dubai IT, is it really worth it?

When I was child, I used to hear about the American dream and its benefits… Growing up, I started hearing about the UAE dream, and precisely Dubai.

Is it the same dream that moved from one continent to another? Are they competitive dreams or complementary? If I were in the IT field, can I pursue both dreams or do I have to choose one?

Well, American market potentials and needs are very well known, but what about the UAE market? Especially Dubai?!

As a recruitment agency, our market insights are our assets to answer all of the above questions. It is not a full market study and cannot substitute them but it is a life business testimonial…

Evolution of the recruitment market
15 years ago, when we first started recruiting for companies in Dubai, our clients; Big 4 companies and other consulting and software vendor companies where mainly looking for 3 specific type of profiles out of any single technical expert:
Pre-Sales consultant
Sales Managers
Deployment Consultants

All the other types of jobs were managed from outside the UAE.

But, for the past 4 years, the situation has changed and our clients’ needs have seen a significant evolution. Now, our biggest number of recruitments, “peanut recruitments” in our jargon, is technical experts;
Full stack developers
UI/UX experts
Product Owners

UAE IT salaries; Everything has changed
The 2008 crisis and its ramifications in the Gulf launched the wind of change (Hello Scorpions!!) in the UAE.

No more a young developer for 7000 $ per month, nor a consultant for 10 000 $ per month, nor a project manager for 15000$/month.
When Dubai towers went high, the salaries went low and landed 30-40% less than before.

Tomorrow is open to possibilities
The UAE market in general is very active nowadays and getting more and more demanding. Talent is required in all technologies and new trends are already deployed.

The IT experts still have a long career to go in the UAE…