“By midnight we had abandoned the cocktail bar for a VIP table at the upstairs nightclub. As the drinks flowed and the tequila shots came out, the Qatari boss started passing around bumps of coke and hitting on his new female staff. This is not what I was expecting when I signed on for a job in the Gulf…”

Qatar is hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022. They’re relying on foreign professionals to help manage the event. That means job opportunities. So how do you get yourself one of these lucrative expat gigs in the Gulf state? Click below to learn more.

The official rules are pretty clear-cut. You’re supposed to provide two months notice and clear up any outstanding debts before you’re allowed to leave the country. If you do all that you’re issued with an exit permit and a ticket home by your sponsor / employer. But like many things in Qatar, the official process and the reality are quite different.

First things first, you don’t want to find yourself at the mercy of the Qatari legal system. It’s slow and archaic, has little regard for justice and assumes all foreigners are guilty until proven otherwise. Seriously though, there’s a long and shonky history of judicial ‘prejudice’ to wade through.

Qatari women don’t date. They certainly don’t date westerners. And they super especially don’t date infidel westerners. Getting involved with a foreign man would cause a huge family scandal. Is your ass worth the hassle? The answer is almost certainly ‘no’

Available women are a rare commodity in Qatar. That means they’re automatically more attractive and more in-demand. So if you’re a solid 7 back home, you’ll instantly be an 8 or 9 out here. Congratulations, you’re now officially ‘hot’.

Planning on visiting Qatar for the FIFA World Cup in 2022? You should probably book your hotel accommodation early. Over 1 million people are expected to visit the tiny Gulf state for the event. That’s going to put considerable strain on the hotels.

in some quarters Qatar is viewed as the backward cousin who stumbled into money, moved to the big city, and is now desperately trying to justify his presence as more than dumb luck. Or the plotline to The Beverly Hillbillies…

If you live in Doha you’re going to have to buy a car, no two ways about it. It’s just not practical to ‘call your driver’ or request an Uber every time you realise you’re out of toilet paper.

Any expat that’s been in Qatar longer than five minutes will eagerly point out that there is only one bottle shop to service the entire country. They will then either shrug, sigh, roll their eyes, or some combination of the above.

Self-medication is an elaborate cocktail that everyone has to work out for themselves. Uppers, downers, screamers, laughers; whatever helps you get through the night. The good news is you can source most of the classic ingredients easily enough in Qatar.

#1. Can I drink alcohol in Qatar? The short answer is ‘yes’. But there are restrictions. You can drink booze in five-star hotels and their associated restaurants, bars and clubs. You can also drink in the privacy of your own home…

Qatarisation is an official government policy designed to increase the number of Qataris in all joint venture organisations and government departments. Officially, 20% of a company’s employees should be Qatari.

#1. Filipinos There’s a huge Filipino community in Qatar and most of them work in the service industry. If you walk into a retail store, supermarket or café, you’ll almost certainly be served by someone from the Philippines.

If you come from a western country you’re probably used to the vague notion that everyone is essentially ‘equal’. Sure, some people earn more money or come from more privileged backgrounds, but there’s the rub…

I never even liked tequila until I tried Patron. And the reason I tried Patron, was because it kept getting mentioned in a bunch of R&B and hip-hop songs about five years back. I figured if it was good enough for Kanye and The-Dream it was good enough for me.

Plumes of smoke began rising over Villagio Mall in Qatar on May 28, 2012. As ambulances rushed to the scene, 13 children and six adults lay dead. Trapped inside an unlicensed childcare facility within the mall, they had been overcome by smoke inhalation.

Being an expat offers many benefits. Money, travel and career opportunities are the more obvious ones when it comes to Qatar. But they all come at a price: learning to keep your mouth shut.

Regardless of who you work for and how you find yourself in Qatar, you’ll be employed under the country’s much maligned ‘Kafala’ system. In other words, you’ll have a local sponsor. And whether that sponsor is an individual or an organisation, they basically own your ass.

You’ll hear the term wasta thrown around a lot in the Middle East. In polite circles it simply means ‘influence’ and is dismissed as harmless tradition. In a western courtroom it would be described as ‘nepotism’, ‘corruption’ and ‘cronyism’.

Qatar offers a unique work environment for the western expat. It’s the sort of country where qualified professionals are in such short supply you can find yourself promoted into a managerial position simply because you’re the last person standing.

To score an expat position in a Qatari government department you’ll need to jump through all sorts of hoops. I should know, it took me almost 12 months from initial interview to job offer — and I had friends inside the organisation.