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Dubai me

Arzo

If I was the man, I would be able to get my little firm here in DC, jobs in Dubai and other international cities. How do I become the man?

 
Oct 7, 08 2:22 pm
med.

My firm is just now finally starting to get into Dubai. But since they are about 2-decades late it will be an uphill battle.

Oct 7, 08 2:26 pm  · 
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binary
call this number

or this one
Oct 7, 08 2:28 pm  · 
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over_under

well since you're little firm there in DC sounds like it isnt well known internationally, id suggest getting your name out there through competitions and the like. if you can afford it to sacrifice the billable hours...

send developers like emaar and nakheel (dubai based) a portofolio of your company's work... call them seeing what work they are doing and try to find out if you can play even a minor role. for europe do the same thing, just find where you want to do work, figure out who is developing the work there, try to forge a relationship. chances are you will not get the big boys right away, so be patient. europe is not building, they are in the same boat the united states is in... if you really want to grow, hire some chinese speaking employees, open a beijing or shanghai or guangzhou office and get to building... china is building like crazy.. find a developer to partner up with.

assuming you are small, relatively unknown firm? name recognition will become your ally... you're going to have to have done something other than residential here in the us... if you have a speciality that also helps to target your prospective clients...

Oct 7, 08 2:34 pm  · 
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Antisthenes

there is a mall there...

Oct 7, 08 2:34 pm  · 
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med.

Firms in DC like Gensler, Smithgroup, Perkins+Will, HOK, SOM, DMJM Design, Cannon Design, RTKL, VOA, etc have pretty large projects in Dubai.

I've spent a lot of time there and almost all of the projects there are done by huge international firms.

Oct 7, 08 2:37 pm  · 
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Antisthenes

etc: it's true

Oct 7, 08 2:50 pm  · 
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vado retro

design the world's tallest building and find a sheik to build it.

Oct 7, 08 4:25 pm  · 
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liberty bell

Maybe you should start with why you want to work in Dubai, or another place, and what you have to offer those places that they can't get from somebody local/somebody else?

Oct 7, 08 4:39 pm  · 
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snook_dude

Don't Bogart that Dubai! I hear it is real Green~~~~

Oct 7, 08 4:58 pm  · 
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binary
Oct 7, 08 5:07 pm  · 
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generico

Here is an interesting article by Mike Davis on Dubai, might help before you try to find work there.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/5807/mike_davis_on_a_paradise_built_on_oil

Oct 7, 08 5:43 pm  · 
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brian buchalski

buy a unit and you'll have your foot in the door

Oct 7, 08 6:06 pm  · 
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Emilio

too late, Otis is already the man

Oct 7, 08 7:04 pm  · 
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chatter of clouds

generico,

true that. but the reality is that a lot of professionals will still want to go to dubai to find jobs and money that they might not be able to find elsewhere. morally, people just accept that they're living in a place that lives, morally, in a different century. its quite telling of human nature.

Oct 8, 08 5:28 am  · 
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generico

Noctilucent,

intersting, but are there limits to "peoples" morality? Is accepting a place that lives morally just basically saying, if there are jobs and money like in the US than forget about human rights and dignity?

Oct 8, 08 5:15 pm  · 
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Atom

All those big hospitality projects done by the big firms must be creating a market for housing and servicing the support staff. A start up firm could take on the smaller projects that make up the city around these larger projects.

Oct 8, 08 5:22 pm  · 
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sameolddoctor

no place is morally correct. including the US.

Oct 8, 08 10:50 pm  · 
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Right, so that makes everything okay, then!

Oct 8, 08 11:12 pm  · 
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Xing

wandering if English speakers could live through there? always imagine i would end up sigh with my phone when sth happened, and the 911 cops never understand my language.

does the language matter?

Oct 8, 08 11:12 pm  · 
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dandharma

"In Dubai in particular there operates two architectural license categories,
‘special’ and ‘general’. Special refers to complex building projects
or high rise over 50 plus floors. The majority of
international architectural firms are granted special licenses and
therefore are effectively excluded from smaller projects"

Your best bet is to team up with a local firm.

You'd do better to learn Hindi than Arabic over here.

In terms of morals, people are the same the world over.
Good, Bad, Ugly...
Can we all agree on one country that is morally outstanding?

Oct 9, 08 7:35 am  · 
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Medit

how about 'degrees' of morality?... I don't think I could find 300,000 illegal workers in the construction industry where I live, and even those who are 'illegal' in my city live in better conditions than this:

http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=81105_0_24_0_C

Oct 9, 08 8:24 am  · 
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med.

You can live your entire life in Dubai and probably not utter a single word of Arabic. But it would suit you better if you did. Professionally people will keep coming back to you for business. "likability factor" is a big deal in the Arab world -- especially with outsiders.

Most of the Indian and Pakistani people who work construction are also English speakers.

I would say that if you want to get by, English is just fine. Everything is also written in English such as road signs, menus, and paperwork.

Oct 9, 08 9:12 am  · 
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