Dubai - Base & Bonus

Would anyone who is actually in the region / worked there in the last 2-3 years be able to comment on the total comp and the comp structure there?

By comp structure, I mean the split between Base, Bonus and other allowances. I have an offer from a smaller shop which is known to match the comps of BB/EBs and want to have some fresh data points.

8 Comments
 

you are a great example of what's wrong with this forum. You come here asking for salary info but don't provide your own input. How about you share yours first and then ask others? ffs such a c*nt

 

OP says he has an offer. Usually, offers do state Base salary and a target bonus %. 

 

This is at a shop where I interned at another city in a different region. They are giving me an option to choose to join full time either in that city, or in the Middle East.

I am yet to have the conversation with the HR about the details of both the offers, and I posted in this forum, so as to go into that meeting well informed.

But sure, feel free to take it out on someone for expecting to get some data points :)

 

OP here. Now that I have the details from the firm I'm working at, and another two firms where I got offers from, here are the salary details. However, I still don't have proper data points about bonus. Maybe I'll try to cover it after my first bonus cycle.

Base pay : Anywhere from 95k usd to 110k usd depending on the firm. Remember in middle east terms this number equals both your base pay and housing allowance. ie, the money you get in your bank account every month. Obviously no income tax in dubai. But if you're a US and, you might owe some taxes on anything you earn over 100k I think. Not sure about the proper numbers, but you can easily find them online.

 

That's really nice considering the fact that you'll pay way less in taxes.

Do you know what the IB culture is generally like over there? Better than say NYC?

I mean u just got an offer but in case you know….

Do you have to be well versed with the language there? I’d imagine most deals from around the Middle East ?

 
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Well yes, most deals are around the Middle East and some around north Africa. I've even heard one boutique did a transaction in India for a subsidiary of a middle eastern client. Have never heard any bank having language requirements. A good chunk of these people come from EU, US and the south Asian countries. 

I can't really talk about the culture either as I just joined and I am not from the US to make a comparison to NYC, but London and EU definitely have a better culture than middle east. Again all this is generalising. But hours are as close as NYC is what I have heard. But good thing is, you get 25 days of holidays like in London. How much of it can you realistically take? I am not sure. Maybe I can comment on those, after a year too.

Though I see myself moving back to London or if possible to US in a few years, I would encourage anyone to give this region a try. Because the way I see it, middle east is a region which has an underdeveloped market than developing countries like Brazil, India etc.. but have so much more money lying around with these governments and SWFs which they want to put to use to develop almost in all sectors in this region and also become non reliant on Oil and Gas revenues alone. 

 

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