Dubai spans across 497.1 square miles and is the second most expensive city in the region.

Where ‘people mix’ is concerned, only 17 percent of Dubai’s population comprises UAE nationals. 71 percent of the total population is of expats. Even though Arabic is the official language of the Emirate, English is the language of business and is very widely spoken among the populace.

Other than social and cultural diversity, Dubai also boasts an unparalleled infrastructure of roads and utilities comparable with the best in the world. Communications, transportation, all-round high quality of living…the city offers it all.

If you were tracking the news from the region, you’d know that the recent global Recession caused a slump in Dubai’s construction sector. But the good news is: Other sectors in Dubai are relatively strong in terms of fundamentals. In fact, coupled with renewed prospects for employment, the drop in real estate prices and property rents make Dubai an even more attractive destination to live and work.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report estimates the rate of inflation in Dubai to be at 4.5 percent this year. As per RNCOS (which specializes in industry intelligence), cheap and reliable energy and gas supply, growing oil and gas sectors, overall economic growth and rising income levels are a few of the causes fueling this growth.

Anyone who has heard of the Dubai Shopping Festival knows how popular shopping in Dubai really is and how it attracts footfalls from around the globe. With favourable government policies and active participation from the private sector, Dubai’s retail industry is poised to grow faster in terms of both, investments and revenue generation.

Changing consumer demographics, presence of large expatriate population and improving purchasing power have attracted premium and luxury brands to the region. This has helped maintain the growth momentum and will continue to do so in the coming years.

“Dubai experienced the same slump as every other country in the world - in effect no worse, no better. Its only saving grace is that before the global crash it acted - and still continues to act - as a global hub for the experienced expat workforce. As with the rest of the world, it will draw upon its strengths to rebuild, most notably as a base for experienced expats working across the Gulf, and as a business and tourism hub, ideally placed between Europe and Asia,” says Darren Bithell, Managing Partner of a head-hunting firm with over 12 years of experience in global executive search and selection assignments for blue-chip clients.

The employment market is already picking up. A lot of firms are recruiting, with many others planning to do so in the next few months. Sectors gaining momentum are BFSI, Oil and Gas, trading and manufacturing. “If you check the employment section of the regional newspapers, almost 70 to 85 percent jobs are available in these four sectors,” states Jiten Parrikh, Senior Wealth Manager at one of the biggest local banks in Dubai.

For quick help with your application, use our FREE TRIAL of the Personal Job Hunt Manager where a real person helps you at every stage of your job search process, finds jobs that fit your profile and tailors your CV & applications to the selected jobs. Find your job in Dubai now!

Earlier this year, Google received a whopping 75,000 applications in response to about 6000 new vacancies, in what is being touted as the “biggest hiring year” in Google’s history so far. As you can imagine, competition for new jobs is humongous.

With recruiters and hiring managers receiving truckloads of applications it is vital for jobseekers to make that lasting impression at the “screening-out” stage itself. What we’re talking about is the cover letter. Many candidates are not even aware of its importance in the screening-out process. Itís what often creates the first and lasting impression about a candidate in the mind of the employer or recruiter. Any faux pas in the cover letter and your application may be doomed at the very first step.

For international jobseekers, the issue of how to write cover letters is far more complex. On one hand, because the initial phases of international recruitment are usually handled remotely, there is a need for the cover letter to be as specific as possible. On the other hand, you need to take extra care of keeping in mind subtle differences in language, social conventions, corporate rules and other cultural sensitivities that may come into play when recruiters and candidates come from vastly different cultural and social backgrounds.

Cultural sensitivities

The language connection

Avoiding faux-pas

When dealing with overseas jobs, keep certain ground rules in mind when drafting your cover letter:

• Be aware of subtle difference in spellings even when the language is the same. For example, spellings for several words are different in the US and UK. Use the spelling that is followed by the country to which you are applying
• Stick to standard English terms and avoid terms that may be culturally loaded or have negative connotations in some cultures. Ask a friend who knows the region or do some internet research to check this out.
• Use only formal language as informal terms may be looked down upon in several countries , it can never hurt to be polite.

What to highlight in international cover letters

• Highlight any global experience you may have or demonstrate the ability to work in cross-cultural situations.
• Mention any foreign languages you may know and the extent of your fluency, especially if the official language of that country is not English and if you happen to know that language.
• When quoting your contact details, make sure to use all possible forms of contact including complete address, PO box if any, email, mobile phone, landline, instant messaging id, any social media handles if you regularly connect via networking sites, etc. Include the country code in your phone number appropriately so that the employer can call you easily if required.

Setting the tone

Pick me up

Remember, if you go for one of the generic cover letters that are floating on the internet, you might as well forget about any response from the other end. Instead, focus your time and energy on researching the company you are applying to and connecting your experience for the position advertised. Mention this in a summary in a brief but well-crafted, honest cover letter. Employ the marketing principle of AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) to meet your goalÖ drawing your prospective employerís attention by pointing out why youíre well-suited for the job, getting them interested in moving on to read your CV and finally giving the employer a “Cause” to call you for the elusive interview. Remember, your cover letter is your sales pitch.

Different strokes for different folks

When you are applying to various companies for similar designations, each company maybe looking for slightly different skill sets. Look out for what the company demands and highlight those specific skills and experience in your cover letter. For instance, if you are applying for the position of a “Communications Specialist” in two different companies and find that one company also wants the individual to handle marketing and advertising campaigns along with maintaining public relations, then highlight your experience in marketing and PR in your cover letter itself, thus drawing the attention of the recruiters to the specific skills they are looking for.

Back to Basics - Some Do’s and Don’ts

• Do personalise your letter; “Ma’am”, “Sir” or “To whomsoever it may concern” is passe. Address it to the person concerned. If the personís name isnít mentioned, make a call to the company you are applying to and ask the receptionist or the HR department for the name of the concerned person. Remember, a personalised cover letter makes an immediate connect with the individual, whereas a ëTo Whomesoever It may Concerní is a put-off for the recruiter.
• Do not repeat whatís in your resume in your letter. It is a waste of the recruiterís time as well as your effort. The recruiter will concur that you have nothing special to say about why you should be considered for the position and may even just ignore your CV and move on to the next application.
• Do not forget to mention the job title you are applying to and the reference number (if there is any) in your letter. Also, mention how you heard about the vacancy and if you know anybody working in the company be sure to mention it too.
• Do stay strictly away from including any personal information about yourself or your opinions on religion, politics or any such topics in your letter.
• Do keep it simple and professional, let your creative streak remain in the background and do not use any fancy fonts or coloured paper or any such stuff.
• Do not ramble on. Remember, it ís a cover letter, not a personal one to a dear friend. So, stick to one or at the most two short paragraphs about yourself, your interests, the position you have applied to and how you fit in.
• Do request an interview at the end of the letter and let the recruiter know that you would like to be informed on the status of your application.
• Do write a synopsis of your cover letter in the body of the mail and attach the letter separately. This will complete the professional touch.

Inhouse Survey Results

We regularly survey jobseekers on our website to learn more about their job search habits and their search effectiveness. In one such inhouse survey we learnt that, of those who received the highest number of interview calls in a year (above 15 calls a year), 50% said they always customized their cover letters.

Remember, your cover letter is the first point of contact between you and the recruiter. So, bring out your strengths, experiences and achievements and customise differently for each application you make to catch their eyeballs. If you think you need some help tailoring your job applications and cover letters, you can get in touch with our Personal Job Hunt Managers who are specialists in helping you get your application out perfectly every time!

We’ve been creating content that focuses on issues faced by our audience of international jobseekers and one of the most frequent comments that our users have made is that they have no clue what happens to most of the job applications they send out in response to apparently matching job vacancies!

Have you often wondered why you are not receiving any interview calls or any response from recruiters ñ even when you have been blasting your CV out to several job vacancies?

Our team of Job Hunt Managers comes across this problem all the time. Why does this happen? What is it that you are doing wrong and where do your applications disappear? Are they lost in a pile of CVs? Or is your work profile basically defunct in the job market?

We spoke at length to our Job Hunt Managers to try and find the answers. The insights that they gave us from their experience will, we hope, also be valuable to you as a jobseeker.

We thought, the easiest way to help convey these insights to you, would be to explain the methodical and research-oriented way that our Job Hunt Managers go about finding jobs, researching vacancies and customising CVs to help their candidates land the elusive interview.

The process, though it may seem a little lengthy, we assure you, will be worth your while. This is something that our Job Hunt Specialists use, which you can apply to your own CV and see it work wonders.

Starting Way Back - The Background Report:

Zooming in on your Target Job

And what is the purpose of all this evaluation, you may ask? Well, it helps you identify your own target job requirements and match them to the key skills, qualifications and responsibilities from your career and education history. So hereís the takeaway from this first step: If youíre doing your international job search all on your own, make sure that you do this initial bit to methodically think and identify your specific target job titles, responsibilities and target company details. This put you on a firm footing at the very start.

Researching the Job Market

Now that you are ready with your Background Report, the next step involves some Job Market Research. Sounds intimidating? Well, itís actually not. What you do here is, you not only look out for vacancies that match your current job title, but also look out for vacancies that match the functional duties and responsibilities that you are currently handling. The objective here is to source live vacancies that match a minimum of 1 element from each part of the basic report that has been drawn out in the first step.

You may not be aware of it, but when our Job Hunt Specialists work on a candidateís CV, they aim to isolate at least five to six vacancies where the recruiter has elaborated extensively on the role of the candidate they are looking for. The Job Search Team does its research and sends such adverts to the CV Analysts. You too should try to look out for such vacancies and ensure that several jobs from your shortlist should match at least some of the aspects mentioned in the Background Report.

Analyse That

Now, try to isolate those SREQs from your CV that you have also come across regularly in the Job Market Research step as High Level. Why? For, this means that there is a high demand or an active interest in these skills, which is a positive sign for you. As for your other skills that were mentioned few times (but probably not with too much emphasis or too often) in the adverts you researched, mark them as Normal Level. And finally, if you have certain SREQs that were hardly given a mention in any vacancy you researched, mark those as Low Level. Now, you have analysed which of your skills are in great demand and which are almost inconsequential to the recruiter in your specific area of interest.

This exercise achieves a very important objective. By doing this, it will be clear to you what aspect of your skills or SREQs are saleable in the current job market. This in turn will help you understand what aspects should be highlighted in your CV, thus giving the recruiter what he is looking for easily and in almost a jiffy.

Giving Recruiters What They Want

But, if you hadnít done your Job Market Analysis and highlighted some other skill that the recruiter was not looking for, then the recruiter could easily miss out on the fact that you do have Skill C.

SWOT Analysis

You may have used the SWOT technique earlier to critically evaluate yourself, but when you apply it to your job hunt, you use it to identify opportunities / threats in the job market. For instance, an ëOpportunityí may be that you are qualified for a more senior role (that is, more senior than the role you started researching for) or that there is high demand for your skill-set in a location that was not part of your earlier search.

Similarly, a “Threat” may either be that there are no vacancies for your requirement, or that you have unsuitable skills or even that your skills do not match to the skill-set being asked for by the recruiter.

You need to do a SWOT Analysis based on your current CV and the Job Market Analysis conducted earlier. So, all your SREQs which can be mapped into the available jobs would be your potential “Strengths”, and the missing ones would be your “Weaknesses”. So, to summarise, all you do is map your CV to the analysis of the job market and identify those aspects that count as “Strengths” and “Weaknesses”. Then, focus on the “Opportunities”, which are holes in the job market where your profile fits in well, and make a note of any threats which you need to be well aware of and avoid those pitfalls.

Creating a CV Strategy Document

Our CV Analysts prepare this document after a telephonic consultation to evaluate the SWOT report. If you are going through the whole process by yourself, this is what you need to do in order to make sure that your CV strategically addresses the current job market in your sector or industryÖ

• From our experience, one of the things you need to check is whether during the SWOT, the ëWeaknessesí you identified in your current CV are quite simply omissions from your previous CV. If it is so, then you need to gather this omitted information.
• Also, check the SREQs you identified as ëHigh Levelí during the Job Market Analysis. Next, list down your major responsibilities and achievements in this ëHigh Levelí category in your recent career history. Similarly, for ëNormal Levelí, identify if any roles you played in this category and cite details unique to the job role.
• Now, check all those SREQs from your old CV that you could not find a match for at any level. Then, exclude these in the new CV or if you wish to include any, find a plausible reason to do so.

After this, do organise all the information into Key Deliverables & Achievements, Career History and Education History. At this time, you should also review whether your CV needs to be in a Functional CV format or a Chronological layout. For example, if you have gaps in your career history, then a chronological CV format would not be preferred and it would highlight the gaps and make your CV probably look weaker than it actually is in terms of skills.

Mind your Keyphrases

So, depending on the region or country you are targeting, you need to update yourself on the local terminology used there. Ensure that this terminology is included in your CV wisely for naming job titles, skills and responsibilities. You can identify this from the Job Market Research process that you have already conducted earlier. Also ensure that you use business English and power words to communicate specific and quantifiable achievements.

Making your CV Searchable

Do try out these strategies and techniques and if you really do not have the time or the inclination, thereís always the option of having our Job Hunt Managers carry out the process for youÖ Remember, we are just a click away.

Want to work within Asia in a corruption-free economy? Especially one that offers international standards of living and luxury? Your best bet is Hong Kong!

Right now, Asia is the place to be, and Hong Kong is at the geographical and economic centre of Asia. With its increasing exposure to international markets and its fast-growing economy, the job opportunities here are at their peak.

Growth in recruitment

For the first quarter of 2011, the Hudson Report has recorded the highest hiring expectations ever in Hong Kong, with 66% of surveyed companies planning to recruit more staff during this period.

According to the report, the media, PR and advertising sectors are very positive, with 65% expecting to boost recruitment - more than double the previous quarter’s 31%.

Living in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is dynamic and cosmopolitan - a shopperís paradise filled with interesting restaurants and a great night-life.

Here, dramatic skylines, skyscrapers and shopping destinations jostle with the visual reminders of a colonial past. Only in Hong Kong can you find the Star Ferry, trams and Peak Tram, blending in with stunning contemporary architecture such as that of the Exhibition Centre.

In addition to the urban experience, Hong Kong also boasts country parks with scenic hiking trails and BBQ areas, providing pleasant week-end getaways.

Transport is never a problem since taxis and buses run around the clock. The underground and over-ground railways are fast, reliable and reasonably priced.

Languages spoken

Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong.

While English is sufficient for jobs with large multinational companies, some knowledge of Cantonese is proving to be a distinct advantage for many jobs.

Find your niche

Currently, Hong Kong has more active jobs and hiring than ever seen in the past.

The main sectors of work for expatriates include:

• Finance
• Accountancy
• Sales and marketing
• IT
• Human Resources
• Legal
• Telecommunications
• Logistics
• Engineering

Professional training in areas such as law, banking, accountancy and finance, advanced manufacturing, engineering, biotechnology, computing, healthcare and architecture, planning and construction may increase your chances of finding an employer willing to apply for an appropriate visa on your behalf.

Life at work

Hong Kong has a five-day work week, from Monday to Friday. The timings are usually between 9 am to 5 pm. Some companies also work half-day on Saturdays. However, as in every growing economy, work timings are not always fixed and people in senior or managerial positions may be required to stay back for longer hours.

The work environment is pretty formal. Both men and women are required to wear neat, dark formal clothes.

Grab these perks

There are 17 public holidays. Annual leave varies between a legal minimum of seven days per year to around 15 days. Senior staff and executives generally get four to six weeks off each year.

Expatriates could either receive a wide range of perks and benefits or a simple basic package. It all depends on the position and sector you apply to.

Some companies - like investment banks - offer generous packages that include medical insurance, accommodation, paid annual holidays to the home country, as well as private education for children. But do check with your employer for the perks offered.

Lesser tax, more freedom

Maximum salary tax cut in Hong Kong is 17% (2009-2010). Tax on salary is not deducted at source and employees are required to complete a tax declaration detailing their earnings at the end of each fiscal year (on 31st March).

Sharpen your skills

It would be to your advantage to have great communication skills. There are different skill-sets for each discipline, but the overriding one is to have good interpersonal and influencing skills. Also, you should demonstrate a high degree of professionalism, experience and specialist knowledge in your chosen field of work.