I have already written about factors (age, medication, BMI, general health) which may disqualify people from obtaining a work visa or an offer of employment from a hospital in the Middle East. There are, however, other issues, not related to health, that may – at least temporarily – prevent a person from being hired for a healthcare position in the Middle East:
- In the West, many employers give considerable weight to transferable experience. Not so in the Middle East. They want strong, current, hands-on experience in the field, specialty, or bench for which one is applying. In addition, the standard requirement is current in-hospital experience. So, for example, if you are in administration, you should be employed in hospital administration and not, say, in administration in other industries, such as insurance, telecom, etc.
- And usually size matters. This is particularly significant in the case of management positions, i.e., if you are seeking a management position at a large, tertiary hospital, you must currently be working at a large, tertiary hospital.
- You will no doubt have noted the word ‘current’ popping up in the above points. This little word is frequently overlooked by those reading our job posts, but it is very significant for the hospitals in the Middle East. Your experience must be current. And it may surprise you that the common definition of “current” is “within the past year.”
- And people are surprised that some positions are restricted by sex. This does occur to a certain extent in the West – consider how few male L&D nurses you see. But in the Middle East, it is common policy, and you will often see phrases such as “positions are only open to FEMALE applicants”. Why? It’s based on cultural and religious tradition, with Muslim women not wanting to be touched by or seen by male practitioners. Female nurses and therapists can care for female and male patients, but males can only care for male patients. This restriction does not, however, apply to male physicians, primarily because there are not enough female doctors around.
- Occasional positions also demand that an applicant be fluent in Arabic. Four examples include psychiatrists, pulmonary function techs, outpatient pharmacists, and home care nurses (who also must be female).
- Finding a first job as a new graduate can be hard anywhere. But a new graduate from a Western country will not be considered for a position in the Middle East. The hospitals require applicants to be able to hit the ground running, to take charge, and to mentor those with less training. Jobs for new grads are often restricted to citizens of the Middle Eastern country in which the job exists. For a Westerner, an entry-level staff position in the Middle East means you will need, depending on the position, a minimum of two to three years of current (that word again) experience in your field.
- Multicultural workplaces are the norm in North America – at least in its larger cities – as well as in the Middle East. But in the Middle East, certain positions are restricted to certain nationalities. For example, custodial/housekeeping positions are restricted to applicants from non-Western nations.
- This relates into another comment you’ve also seen on our site: “Since we are a North American based recruitment company we are only able to recruit citizens of Canada and the United States.” Recruitment agencies are restricted to recruiting citizens of their own regional territories. This is in part due to the realities of visa processing.
Many of the above issues will surprise you. However, you can take comfort (as we do) in the knowledge that our “Sorry, we can’t help you” is sometimes only temporary. Though we may not be able to find you a position at this time, we encourage you to call us once you have earned that extra experience, or your citizenship, etc.
