Pursuing Careers and Looking for Jobs in the Middle East

The birthplace of at least three world religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Middle East has great influence in world polity as well as economy, and the region has been very popular destination for the travelers and temporary (expatriate) workers alike.

The economy of most of the Middle East countries is mainly based on oil, and due to rich oil reserves, some of the Middle Eastern countries are one of the most prosperous countries of the world. Despite their local challenges, the economy of most Middle Eastern countries continues to be very strong and therefore attracts a large workforce from around the world. Jobs in the Middle East therefore are one of the hotly pursued jobs in the world. Jobs in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE are particularly in very high demand. This is one reason that millions of expatriate workers currently work in the Middle East. For example, according to many estimates about 50,000 US citizens and their families live and work in Saudi-Arabia. At least 3 times as many US citizens can be estimated to be working in other parts of the Middle East.

Considerations:

While benefits vary from country to country, general benefits may include the following –

• No taxes

• High salaries

• Fixed Paid Housing allowance (Some expatriate workers save money on housing as they manage to find inexpensive housing on their own)

• Some companies offer free housing instead of paying a housing allowance

• Low cost of living

• Proximity to the holy sites of Makkah and Madinah (Great benefit for Muslims)

• People manage to easily find their cultural communities. This includes Americans, Pakistanis, Indians, and others.

• Multiple year contracts – Most expatriates prefer a minimum of 2 year contract to ensure they get some benefit before temporarily relocating.

• Paid travel for all family members to their home country once a year.

Things that you should know if you are considering to work in the Middle East:

• Attaining citizenship of those countries is almost impossible.

• You should be aware of the religious customs in those countries. For example, some Islamic countries require that women cover themselves in the traditional garment of Hijab, Abaya and / or Jilbab when roaming outside.

• Before accepting a job in any of the Middle Eastern countries, you must inquire about your children’s education. Public education, for example is not an option for expatriate workers in all countries.

In the prosperous Middle East, you can find a myriad of job opportunities in various fields including Finance, Accounting, Audit, Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Procurement, Customer Service, etc. You can also find one of the highly lucrative jobs in the sectors such as banking, finance, accounting, insurance, legal, sales, marketing, IT, manufacturing, management consulting etc. The medical profession too attracts a very high percentage of physicians, surgeons, and nurses.

The past few years has seen a huge influx of foreign workers, especially those working in the area of Information Technology (IT).

Finding Jobs in the Middle East:

There are many channels that one can pursue to find jobs in the Middle East. You can either approach employers mentioned above directly or go through the recruitment agencies. Several job vacancies are advertised each week in appointment pages of leading newspapers.

Gulf News and Khaleej Times are the newspapers that daily publish the job vacancies and employment opportunities in the Middle East. The classifieds sections of these papers carry a good number of job opportunities.

There are also a number of recruitment agencies that can help you find jobs in the middle east/gulf. The leading recruitment agencies include Clarendon Parker, Mosaic, BAC-ME and SOS Recruitment.

As a precautionary measure, you should always do your due diligence when working with all recruiters (online or others) to ensure you don't get trapped in any Internet or other job scams.

Jobs can also be searched online. Most of the recruitment agencies operate through their web sites. Some online resources that you should consider and explore further include Bayt.com, NaukriGulf.com, Careermideast.com, DubaiDonkey.com, and Mycareer.com.

Islamic Venture Capital - Seeking Capital For Your Business, Writing Business Plans and More....

Despite the fact that there are literally millions of Muslim entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations looking for investment capital for their new start-up ventures, the realm of the Islamic venture capitalist remains in an

evolutionary state. Nonetheless, the untapped potential for Islamic venture capital remains huge. Moreover, the Islamic world has more than its fair share of investors with high-end net worth looking to invest in potentially lucrative deals.

Thus, the convergence of both a ‘need’ and a ‘supply’ invariably lead to the creation of a new product, and this is equally so in the case of purely Islamic venture capital.

The core to any proposed Islamic financing transaction is that Shariah (Islamic law) prohibits interest-based lending. Moreover, Shariah further prohibits investments in certain activities which are seen as being in violation of Islam,

such as gambling.

However, in essence, the mechanisms of venture capital do not provide for interest-bearing lending. Rather, at the core of any venture capital funding is an agreement to share in the risks of the business venture in return for the profits

derived from such business venture.

As such, rather than being contrary to Islamic law, many scholars hold that venture capital funding complies with one of the cornerstone principles of Islam: it provides much needed investment to start-up companies in return for

potential rewards, while accepting the risks that may be involved in such a deal. This type of structure is the classic form of mudaraba financing used over many centuries in the Islamic world.

Structuring an Islamic venture capital deal

The most accurate translation of a mudaraba financing is a contract under which one person, the investor (known as the rabal-maal), brings financing and the other person, the entrepreneur (known as the mudarib), brings expertise and

effort. Collectively they share the proportionate profit as per their pre-arranged agreement.

Fundamental to the mudaraba financing structure, however, is the fact that the entrepreneur cannot be placed at risk of losing any monetary investment/value. If the business venture were to fail, then the maximum the entrepreneur could lose is the investment they make in the business enterprise themselves (i.e., their own money); plus any time and effort they put into the venture. The reason why this is the case is because under Islam, you cannot loose what you do not contribute.

In addition, under a mudaraba financing structure, strictly speaking, the investor is not allowed to partake in the management affairs of the business venture in which they have invested, they’re simply an investor – period. Day-to-day and overall management of the business must be left to the entrepreneur.

Major players in the Islamic VC Market

Given that mudaraba has been a central element to Islamic financing for centuries, you may be mistaken in thinking that the Islamic venture capitalism is a fairly mature market with hundreds of institutional investors. The reality is

almost the opposite. Venture capitalism is still fairly embryonic in the world of Islamic financing and there are few Islamic institutional funds involved at this time.

Prior to 1995, the majority of Islamic venture capital financings were undertaken by what are known as “angels”. Angels are essentially high net worth individuals who agree to invest in a business venture under the terms of Islamic financing set out above. There were few, if any, established Islamic venture capital funds

at this time.

Post 1995 there was a boom in Islamic venture capital financing and today there are over a hundred funds lending in excess of a billion dollars to new start-ups. Following the development of Dubai as a major Islamic financing center, the Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC) was established and a number of leading Islamic venture capital funds are now regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

Among the founding members of Islamic financing venture capitalists is the Dubai-based Injazat Capital Limited, who are also founding members of the Gulf Venture Capital Association (GVCA), a leading light in the world of Islamic

venture capitalism. A newer entrant to the world of Islamic venture capitalism is the aptly named Venture Capital Bank BSC (c), which is rapidly becoming one of the larger Islamic venture capital funds in the Middle East.

Source: http://www.hilalplaza.com/Middle-East-Jobs/