How to get a job in Qatar
Qatar is hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022. With a local population of just over 300,000 people, 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?
Well that’s easier said than done. Despite the obvious need for foreign labour, the hiring process is still a convoluted mess.
To score an expat position in a government organisation you’ll need to deal with a monster bureaucracy. I should know, it took me almost 12 months from initial interview to job offer — and I had friends on the inside.
A role with a private company is a lot simpler to land, but there are still plenty of pitfalls and scams to navigate.
Either way, you’re going to need some help. Here are some of the inside tips and trade secrets I learned along the way.
Step 1. Understand the sponsorship system
Qatar expat jobs fall into two broad fields – government organisations and private companies.
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 have to have a local sponsor. And whether that sponsor is an individual or an organisation, they basically own your ass.
As has been pointed out by everyone from CNN to Amnesty International – an employee needs their sponsor’s permission to do anything and everything from leaving the county, to opening a bank account, renting a home, changing jobs, and buying alcohol.
While the Kafala system is usually associated with the third world labourers that make up the bulk of Qatar’s workforce, the unspoken reality is it also applies to white-collar western professionals.
Some of these restrictions were lifted in January 2020, but you’re still very much at the mercy of your employer. You can read more about what that actually means here > Kafala in Qatar.
…Or maybe don’t. It’s kind of depressing.
Step 2. Private sector vs government jobs
Getting hired (by a private company)
The main thing about private companies is they’re not crippled by the bureaucratic deadweight that typifies the government sector. You can be interviewed for a job on Sunday and asked to start on Monday. For overseas recruits it’s not unusual to be on a plane within a month.
Be aware that some smaller companies may try to bypass the official ‘Kafala’ system altogether when they hire you. In these cases they’ll offer you a tourist visa, a contract, and a paid flight. Basically, you’ll be working illegally and required to do a ‘visa run’ to Dubai every three months to keep your passport legit.
The immigration department is familiar with these sorts of arrangements and they’ll usually look the other way. Long story short; no one really cares about western professionals on semi legit work contracts. And even if they did, no one would dare question another Qataris’ business affairs or hiring procedures. It’s simply not the done thing.
While these sorts of contracts free employees from the burden of a ‘sponsor’, they also mean you have zero legal recourse if anything goes wrong. So if your boss suddenly decides they want to slash your salary, change your work hours, or kick you out of the company housing you’re on your own. Oh, and you won’t be illegible for a residency card, which will make things like renting an apartment or buying a car a whole lot more difficult.
Getting hired (by a government organisation)
A position with a Qatari government department is a lot harder to come by, but it does offer several benefits.
Before we get into that, it’s worth noting that the hiring process can take anywhere from six months to a year. This is because Qatari government departments are notoriously laid back when it comes to things like ‘work’ and ‘deadlines’.
Qatari locals who don’t want to work (and can’t be fired) are often clustered together in departments like HR. This helps maintain the country’s ‘full employment’ credentials and allows everyone to ‘save face’ – perhaps the defining characteristics of Bedouin society.
It also means you end up with 100s of employees sitting around, chatting on their phones, stubbornly ignoring the applications that come across their desks.
The only effective way to navigate this maze of indifference is to have someone on the inside that can follow up with HR and find out why it has taken them a month to look at a CV for an available position. Or failing that, you’ll have to harass people until they become so sick of your emails and calls they decide to process your applications just to get rid of you.
Architecture stories:
I joined a small architectural firm in Doha on a contract that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and a tourist visa. I had just graduated after five years studying in the US and this Qatari firm offered me to chance to work on large-scale projects that I wouldn’t even get to think about back home. It all started fine, but the company was mess, the boss was a nightmare, and they let half the newly arrived staff go within six months, simply handing us a flight ticket home and telling us we had three days to leave the country."
Anonymous.
Step 3. Get your paperwork in order
While the recruitment process varies from company to company, there are reoccurring themes and hurdles. The process outlined below is more typical of the government sector, but the advice is universal.
Firstly, the typical HR manager will require signed letters from every single job you’ve ever held confirming your employment status and duration.
You will also need to provide a signed affidavit from the police in your home country confirming your clean criminal record. Also, your diploma, which will need to be signed and stamped by the university in question.
The other thing to keep in mind is that your remuneration for most government jobs will be based on your ‘years of experience’ rather than previous roles or responsibilities. Since people are arriving in Qatar from all over the world with all sorts of different job titles, work history and experience, someone decided to ‘simplify’ the process by ignoring individual circumstances and assigning jobs based on years worked.
Oh, and while we’re talking experience, Government departments don’t recognise freelance work. It’s simply not a thing. You either have a day job or you don’t, and juggling several freelance writing gigs (for instance) doesn’t count.
The good news is you can ‘tweak’ your CV to make it more palatable for your typical Qatari HR manager. With a little chutzpah and some creative job titles you can turn several years of freelance work and odd jobs into a distinguished career of solid employment.
So if you held a part-time job when you graduated university then that’s where you should start your employment history. If you’ve had several short-term careers with intermittent breaks, it might be an idea to pick the most impressive sounding and stretch out your employment time a little bit.
You’ll be asked to supply letters from all these employers on official letterheads confirming your title and time of employment. Depending on your industry and employment record, half these places may have closed down years ago. Not to worry, the odds that a Qatari HR manager will pick up a phone and dial overseas to check your references is approximately zero.
What you choose to do with this information is entirely up to you. Qatari has been cracking down on fraudulent diplomas from places like India, but no one is going to check exact employment dates for a western expat. As long as your support material is based on real experiences, in real places ,and you’re not simply making things up the HR department is not going to go all NCIS on you. Besides, they have YouTube videos to watch.
Step 4. Reject the first offer (and other negotiation advice)
If you’ve made it this far you should have a job offer in the works. Which you should definitely reject.
When it comes to jobs in the Gulf, the terms of your job offer are very much a negotiation. And holding out for better pay and conditions is expected. It’s how bored HR managers keep themselves entertained. You can learn more about negotiating your contract, what sort of salary you should expect, and everything else you need to do before touching down via the book.
You can find more tips on living and working in Qatar in my book — God Willing: How to survive expat life in Qatar.