4 ms·

CS graduate from the US moving to the Middle East, what are my opportunities?

• breckenedge 5y ago
  Depends on what you mean by entry level, but generally I would say yes. Do you have any sort of portfolio from school projects?
  • obitar 5y ago
    Well other than two summer internships at a tech company I don't have any other professional experience, which is why I'm labeling my self as entry level. I built a free and open source website built entirely using the ruby on rails framework, it was my senior project from school. Other than that I have miscellaneous React and android projects on my GitHub.
    • breckenedge 5y ago
      Oh that’s great! I think your chances are good at landing a remote job. I used to work for TheoremOne and they were a fully remote US-based consultancy that you might look into. Just putting those technologies on our resume should land you some inbound leads.
      • obitar 5y ago
        Thanks for your response. I really hope to land a remote job with the US while I residing in Jordan. So your comment definitely is reassuring. Do you have any additional resources I can look into?
• apohn 5y ago
  I think the first question you need to ask is about your eligibility to work. I can't speak for Jordan, but I can speak for UAE. To work in UAE you either need to be a citizen or have an employment visa. The good news is that UAE makes it fairly easy for a company to sponsor somebody for a visa. There are also visas for entrepreneurs, but I'm not very familiar with how to get those. The salaries in UAE are lower because the cost of living is much lower. Plus, there are no taxes. Many jobs also have additional benefits, such as giving you a housing or paying for part of your rent. At the entry level, you are also competing with people from countries (e.g. India) who are willing to accept a much lower salary than a typical US graduate. Also, a comment on CS jobs in the Middle East. I don't really think UAE is a great country to get your first CS job. There really isn't a work culture that respects software developers. A lot of software multi-nationals (e.g. Microsoft) that are in UAE basically only have sales people and solution architects. The work is done by consultants or in other countries. I used Indeed.com and some large companies (e.g. Emirates) in UAE are hiring software developers. But it seems very limited. However, there may be job sites that are more focused on the UAE market. If you are a UAE citizen (It doesn't seem like you are based on how you framed your Ask HN) then obviously Dubai makes a lot of sense. But then, if you were a UAE citizen, you may have a network and governmental resources that will help you a lot more than HN can. If you are not a UAE citizen, then you might want to consider other countries (e.g. India) which have far more CS jobs.
  • obitar 5y ago
    Thank you for your comment. I'm actually a Jordanian Citizen not a US Citizen, but graduated and got my degree from the US. I was hoping to make Dubai work but after reading your comment, and sending out job applications with no answers I'm not keeping my hopes up. What is your opinion on finding remote work? I tried here in the US but companies prefer US citizens only. What other countries do you suggest? Bahrain? others in the middle east? because I'm looking for a country that will easily give visa's to Jordanians. What is your opinion on Jordan? as in starting out my career as a software developer?
    • apohn 5y ago
      To be honest, I'm really not familiar with the job market outside of UAE. I have a limited knowledge of jobs in other GCC countries, let alone the countries outside of the GCC. And even my knowledge of jobs in UAE is 5 years old at this point. One question you might want to ask yourself is - "Do I want to be a Software Engineer?" The reason I said that is because some people with CS degrees want to be software engineers and they won't really considering other jobs. Other CS graduates just want a job in tech, and being an engineer doesn't really matter. Here is why I said this - if you are an Arab and speak Arabic, that might give you a competitive advantage for any business or customer facing roles (e.g. Cloud Solution Architect). Everybody in UAE speaks English, but there are still business doors that will really only open to you if you speak Arabic. And then there are some inner doors that will only open if you are an Arab. And some of those doors are the ones you need to open to get a check signed for a sale. Regarding remote jobs at US companies, I would try to find companies that specifically say "WorldWide Remote" and not just "Remote" in the job posting. Also, have you looked at startups that were formed in the Middle East? There's a music streaming service that was founded in Lebanon and it seems like they have Software Engineering jobs in different countries in the Region, and remote as well. There seem to be others as well for things like delivery apps, etc.
• WheelsAtLarge 5y ago
  With remote working being so popular, you should try to get a US job that you can do from your new location. It's a big if but if you can do it you would be set for a while. Even if you have to come back a few times a year. it would be worth it. I would look at the big tech companies that have a middle east division. Alternatively, I suspect, that moving to one of the big cities and working for the government is probably your best bet.
  • obitar 5y ago
    So I don't think coming back to the US will be an option for me. Which is why I'm looking for opportunities in the middle east. you think there is no tech jobs in Jordan? just government websites and such?
    • WheelsAtLarge 5y ago
      I know that the bigger the city the easier it is to find a tech job so go to the biggest city you can live in. In Jordan, I would focus on government, petroleum and finance companies and any tech company you can find. Also, focus on a jobs that lead to a career rather than one-of jobs that lead nowhere, if you can. Hit their websites now to see what's available. Good luck!