I've run every side of the hiring table
I started out in London as an agency recruiter before moving to Dubai in 2008. After the global financial crash forced me back to the UK, I returned to Dubai in 2011 and have lived and worked here ever since.
Over the past 22+ years, I've worked across both agency recruitment and in-house talent teams, giving me a perspective that most career advisers simply don't have.
I've recruited for some of the world's most recognisable companies and spent six years working in-house at Careem, Emirates Group, Talabat and Wio Bank.
At Careem and Talabat, I built teams during periods of rapid growth. At Emirates Group, I recruited into one of the region's most established brands. At Wio Bank, I helped build founding fintech teams from scratch.
I've interviewed candidates, trained interviewers, made hiring decisions, built teams, managed recruitment strategies and negotiated hundreds of offers.
That means I understand what happens on the other side of your application.
I know what makes a CV stand out, what gets discussed after an interview, how employers assess candidates, where salary negotiations can go wrong and what the UAE market actually looks like from inside the hiring process.
Smart Career Compass exists to put that experience on your side.
Whether you're looking for your next role, considering a career change or planning a move to the UAE or wider GCC, the goal isn't simply to help you get another job. It's to help you make a better-informed career move.