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Recruitment agencies and consultants in Dubai

If you're looking for a recruitment agency or consultant in Dubai and the UAE, you'll find plenty to choose from. There are many employment and job agencies in Dubai ranging from very good to very poor.

• One annoyance that many people complain about is that recruiting agencies often request a fee to sign up with them and/or to be placed in a job. This is not allowed according to the UAE Ministry of Labour, so it would make sense to try and find a job agency that doesn't charge a fee. There are agencies (usually online) for jobs in Dubai that operate out of another country and so could claim to be able to legitimately charge you a fee. However, many other countries ban this practice also. Employment agencies normally get their fees from the employer, not the employee.
• Some recruitment consultants in the UAE will assist you with writing a Dubai CV (if there is such a thing) and application letters, and/or they may offer consulting services and psychometric evaluations to assist you in choosing a suitable career and job. You can expect to pay a fee for these services.
• There are many UAE job websites but they have a mixed reputation and it would be advisable to try and find out if they are reputable before sending money or personal information.
• Recruitment agencies for construction workers have a particularly bad reputation with labourers commonly being charged for their own visas (illegal according to UAE law) in addition to being asked to pay substantial fees to come to Dubai and the UAE for work. In May 2006 the Labour Minister, Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, said these labour agencies would be shut down and replaced by workers' cities. This could take a while though.
• A good source of classified ads for finding work in Dubai, is the Gulf News print edition Appointments section (included daily, except Fridays). Mostly ads from recruitment agencies in Dubai but you would hope the Gulf News only permitted advertising from the more reputable recruiters.

List of reputable employment agencies in Dubai worth considering

This list of employment or recruitment agencies are ones we have heard good things about. That's all. It does not mean we recommend or endorse them, and there are bound to be clients with negative reports (or competitors trying to run them down). No organisation can please all of the people all of the time. As far as we know, none of the agencies in this list charge the job seeker a fee for finding a job. If they do, please add a comment in the Dubai job forum (see also the UAE job agency topic) or let us know. Recruitment agency website links are at the bottom of the page.

• BAC Middle East - tel +971-4-3375747. Well-established, they started operating in 1979, www.bacme.com.
• Bayt.com - large online recruiter in Dubai. Don't get them mixed up with the website bayut.com which we don't recommend (we don't really know why it exists, except to perhaps to use the reputation of Bayt to their advantage).
• Charterhouse Middle East - tel +971-4-3325116. Located in Suite 502, Al Moosa Tower 1, Sheikh Zayed Road. Also have offices in Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne. Website is www.charterhouseme.ae, not .com (note domain ends in .ae - the www.charterhouseme.com domain was a spam website when last checked in February 2008).
• Clarendon Parker Middle East, CPME - tel +971-4-3910460. They've been around since 1994, based in Internet City and operates throughout the GCC. Has a section on www.theemiratesnetwork.com (TEN) online job search portal since July 2007. Office 205, Building 1, Dubai Internet City. They also have offices in Dubai Airport Free Zone, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. CPME was acquired by Manpower Inc in December 2007 or January 2008. Website www.clarendonparker.com.
• IQ Selection - tel +971-4-3297770. IQ have a good reputation, you'll recognize their funky advertisements in local newspapers. Location 901/902 Park Place, Sheikh Zayed Road. Open Sunday-Thursday 8.30am-5.30pm. Website www.iqselection.com.
• Kershaw Leonard (www.kershawleonard.net - not .com) tel +971-4-3434606. KL Only began operations in Dubai in 1999 but has a good reputation. In the Emarat Atrium building on Sheikh Zayed Road, just before Safa Park interchange if heading in Abu Dhabi direction. Parking is difficult. Sunday-Thursday 7.30am-6.00pm. KL also have an office in Doha. Note that www.kershawleonard.com does not appear to be owned by Kershaw Leonard (according to a whois check October 2008).
• Monster.com - might be a good one. Well-known international recruitment website with a UAE job website established in August 2006

Teaching jobs and education careers in Dubai and the UAE

General recuitment agencies in the UAE don't usually have teaching jobs, you're better off trying one of the specialist teaching recruitment companies. See the international teaching jobs in Dubai page for more detailed information, but a short summary is:

• Be very wary of any online ads for teaching jobs, especially anything related to English and/or ESL, unless you're sure it's a reputable company (there are very few or none that advertise solely online). There are enough scams and hoaxes around that make this method worse than a waste of time, it could cost you money and a great deal of time. Actually don't even be wary. Just ignore them and apply directly to schools - some might say that's a waste of time, but it is surely less of a waste of time than applying to either dead-end ads or some sort of scam.
• Anytime an employer starts asking for money, run away. Not primarily because we don't think you should give them money (we don't, but giving them money like that won' be your biggest problem), but because that is an almost 100% certain red flag warning sign that it's either an outright hoax, or a very very bad employer that will cost you something (time, money, sanity, reputation) and leave you worse off by the time you exit. If a job agency asks for money, that's a different story. It's still generally a bad idea to have anything to do with them but sometimes there is a registration fee or similar which might be worth paying, and it's not necessarily an indicator that you will get cleaned out by them.
• For international teaching jobs, there are a handful of good sources (from where you can still get a bad job so don't just accept anything, unless you're a bad teacher, in which case you won't have so much choice). They are
  • the Times Educational Supplement (TES newspaper)
  • The International Educator (TIE classified ads newspaper for education)
  • European Council of International Schools (ECIS) which organises well-known teaching job fairs
  • International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) which isn't really in the teaching job market but sometimes has jobs on their website (or used to).
  • Teachaway or Teach Away - maybe, we're not so sure about them, given some of the stories from teachers in the Abu Dhabi schools PPP program.
• In between the good schools for teachers (there aren't many), and the outright scams and hoaxes, are many mediocre to bad schools. You won't change them, but they might change you, for the worse. Try to figure out what price you are going to pay in return for their (usually poor) salaries and opportunity to live in the UAE to find a better job in a better school (don't assume you can, but it is possible). See the pros and cons of teaching in Dubai for more information.

Recruitment Agencies in Dubai with question marks

If a recruitment agency is in this list, it means we have heard something about them that makes us raise our eyebrows. Some might say they are scams but we'll leave that sort of comment to the Dubai job forum. For example, organisations in this list may ask the job-seeking candidate for a recruitment fee up front (which is not allowed in the UAE, or in many other countries) or they recommend visa procedures that seem to be at odds with normal practice. Or their contact details and job descriptions indicate they are misinformed about aspects of Dubai and the UAE. We would suggest you try to find out more about these job agencies (independently) before parting with money and/or important documents. Note that all links in this section are to forum topics or other Dubai FAQ pages, not to organisation website.

• Al Waseela Requirements and Mgmt Consultancy Sharjah (Management Consultants Sharjah) - apparently charges fees to job seekers.
• Dubai Employment Board - a questionable entity which does not appear to be supported by any official UAE authority.
• Dubai Gate Management Consultancy - based in Sharjah. A Gulf News report 18 June 2012 said: Dubai Gate Management Consultancy, a rogue recruiter, operating from Sharjah is charging job seekers in spite of the fact that Ministry of labour ban on such a practice. Fees of AED 300-500 charged but not clear what for according to the report (CV processing, or registration, or something else). Mobile number but no landline number for the job agency, office location unclear. The GN report also said Gulf News contacted the woman Sana on 056-7508956 several times and each time she [Sana] gave different office locations and she used to ask about the nationality of the caller and what kind of job we were looking for.
• Execuland - Arabian Business reported 27 September 2009 that Execuland, based in the Emirates Towers in Dubai, was due to be shut down by the UAE Ministry of Labour: "A sting operation by the Ministry of Labour (MoL) found that the company was charging job seekers for applying for jobs, a source close to the situation told Arabian Business."
• Global Recruiters - there are several organisations with the same name. The one that advertises jobs in Dubai appears to be London based with a Dubai contact (address given as 76 Sheikh Zayed Road), and unusual procedures for the procurement of an employment visa. At least 3 organisations they claim to be seeking teachers for, do not exist as far as we can tell (Deira Homeland School, Atika Language School, Zafirah Language Institute). We'd suggest you independently confirm any job offers received from them (by trying to contact the institute independently - make sure try to find contact details from a reputable source other than Global Recruiters) before handing over your cash or important documents. See also the Global Recruiters discussion in the forum.
• Global Recruiting Resources - looks like a new, improved website from Global Recruiters, but the rest of it appears to be just the same.
• Jobs in Dubai - it seems to be relatively easy to find many dissatisfied clients, along with several critical articles in the press, for the "Jobs in Dubai" company. Many sources bluntly say that Jobs in Dubai is a scam. Having said that, there are also reports of people saying they successfully had their job application fee refunded (not that they should have paid one in the first place), or found a job through Jobs in Dubai. Of course, this starts a circular argument with critics saying that Jobs in Dubai employees are spamming forums with success stories and criticisms of other more reputable job search companies. Unsurprisingly, Jobs in Dubai say they do no such thing.
• SOS Recruitment (www.sosrecruitment.net, not .com) tel +971-4-3965600. Offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Kuwait. Unfortunately it looks like SOS didn't get hold of www.sosrecruitment.com, which seems to be a spam website. SOS Recruitment were one of our suggested employment agencies and they probably still deserve to be but we've discovered a minor negative reputation indicator for SOS Recruitment. It may not be their fault but until we can clear it up, SOS are not on our suggested list.
  • Update 22 June 2011: Email received from someone claiming to be from SOS Recruitment says they do not have any association with the Dubai Employment Board or any other recruitment agencies in Dubai. Email is private and confidential so we presume we cannot quote any of it here but it has an odd tone about it - threatening legal action if negative accusations are not removed from this page or the forum but without saying exactly what the accusations are that need to be removed, so we're not sure if the email is genuinely from SOS Recruitment or not. But anyway, as previously noted, SOS Recruitment did appear to be one of the better employment agencies in Dubai but some apparent associations, and the tone of the email, do leave us still wondering if our initial positive opinion was incorrect. A press release from JID dated 09 June 2007 ("JID alliance with SOS Recruitment") said Jobs in Dubai Inc, ... , is increasing their online presence by merging with SOS Recruitment. Perhaps the alliance has been discontinued since then, or JID were referring to a different SOS Recruitment organisation. The email we received did not clarify the situation.

Emirati UAE national recruitment organisations

• Aamal - recruitment agency for UAE nationals set up by Clarendon Parker Middle East and Emirates People Recruitment Company (from Abu Dhabi).
• EMASCO Recruitment Consultants
• www.emiratisation.org - news and commentary on recruitment of UAE citizens and the emiratisation process.
• Macs Search
• Tanmia - The National Human Resource Development & Employment Authority - a Federal Government organisation founded to search for and create job opportunities for UAE national citizens.
• www.uaegraduate.com (Al Ruwais Human Resource Consultancy) - an online portal for UAE nationals looking for jobs. Or employers looking for UAE citizens as employees.

Online Job Agencies for Jobs in Dubai

Information moved to Dubai job websites page.

Other sources of jobs - classified advertisements

• Gulf News newspaper - Dubai paper in English with good jobs section nearly every day.
• Khaleej Times - another UAE daily in English.
• The National newspaper - has started to produce a jobs section in 2009 (much smaller than the Gulf News section but will probably grow).

Establishing a recruitment employment agency in the UAE

• Employment agencies hiring foreign workers must deposit AED 1 million which the UAE Ministry of Labour can use in the event an agency goes bust or doesn't pay its employees.
• To obtain a recruitment agency licence in the UAE, owners must pay a guarantee of Dh300,000 and Dh50,000 and Dh25,000 for renewing the same each year (Gulf News 03 March 2011). No, we don't understand it either.

Expat or Emirati ownership of recruitment agencies in the UAE

• Only Emirati nationals can own employment agencies according to a Gulf News report 03 March 2011 of comments from Humaid Bin Deemas, acting Director-General of the UAE Ministry of Labour who said "Recruitment agencies cannot be owned or managed by expatriates or rented to expatriates," at a meeting to discuss new rules about recruitment agencies.
• And not only that, but he apparently wasn't interested in listening to non-Emiratis. Gulf News also quoted him as saying "I invited only Emiratis not expatriates to attend this meeting to discuss the new decision of the Ministry of Labour No 1283/2010 on regulating and licensing private recruitment agencies."
• Expat owners of recruitment agencies are apparently a potential threat to the UAE - he reportedly said "If such agencies are managed or owned by expatriates that will be dangerous for our country,"
• Ministerial Decree Number 1283 (of 2011?) on the Licensing and Regulation of Private Employment Agencies specifies the new rules for owning and operating an employment agency in the UAE, applicable from 01 March 2011.
• According to the new rules (in 2011), recruitment agencies must do all the paperwork related to housing, salaries and health insurance for employees, and pay a deposit of AED 2,000 for each worker brought to UAE.
• Owners of recruitment agencies in the UAE must provide a bank guarantee of AED 300,000 if acting as a brokerage, and at least AED 1,000,000 (one million) if acting as a full recruitment agency.

Last update Sunday 27-Jul-2014

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