Guides built from official sources: each one lists the pages we checked and the date we checked them.
Several Gulf employers we list take applications through an applicant tracking system. Greenhouse documents what breaks its CV reader: files over 2.5MB, CVs saved as images, columns, text boxes, graphics and contact details in headers. What to include, what to leave out, and why.
Five schemes we verified, side by side: FAB's Management Trainee and Ethraa programmes and Emirates NBD's graduate trainee role (UAE nationals, postings ending 30 December 2026), Saudi Arabia's Tamheer (rolling), and the World Bank's Young Professionals Program (window 1 to 30 September).
Gulf job portals are built for citizens. Saudi Arabia's Jadarat states that "the applicant must be a Saudi national"; the UAE's Nafis supports Emiratis in the private sector, while federal jobs sit on IRecruitment; Qatar recruits through Kawader. How each one works, from the official pages.
"UAE National (with Family Book)", "Must be Qatari or have a Qatari mother", a "For Saudi Applicants" portal, or no rule at all: what each nationality wording means, quoted from live employer pages, and what "no restriction stated" does not promise.
A request for money is the clearest sign of a fake Gulf job offer: UAE law bans charging workers recruitment fees and Saudi law puts permit and Iqama fees on the employer. Ten warning signs, each tied to u.ae, the UAE and Saudi labour laws, HRSD or a real employer's fraud notice, and what to do if you are targeted.
In the UAE, end-of-service gratuity is 21 days' basic wage per year for the first five years and 30 days' after, so the basic share of your offer matters. In Saudi Arabia it is half a month's wage per year for five years, then a month, on the actual wage including allowances. Probation, notice and an eight-point checklist, from the laws themselves.
"Home based - Worldwide", "Home based - EMEA", "Remote, KSA; Remote, UAE" or a list of hiring countries: the location line decides whether a remote job is open to you. Five real rules from Canonical, GitLab, Wikimedia and Yassir, plus the time-zone, travel and pay conditions that come with them.
P and D posts are normally recruited internationally and open to all nationalities; G posts are local and need the right to work in the country; NO posts are for nationals; IPSA holders and consultants are not staff. The experience UNFPA lists for each level, how pay is set, and three real postings.
A non-Saudi needs a work permit before starting work, and the employer issues and pays for it and the Iqama. Since 19 February 2025 the contract must be written and fixed-term, probation is capped at 180 days in total, and the contract is documented on Qiwa for the employee to approve. From HRSD's own pages.