My Life Journey – Part 12:
We were in hurry to have our own first baby, and thanks for God all went well and we had our first baby girl in May 2004, she was also the first grandchild for my parents and for my wife’s parents.
My wife was studying Arabic language in a Damascus university, so she had to fly back to Syria 2 times each year to do the exams.
I became a Projects manager, and my salary got improved little, the company used to delay the salaries for all staff, sometime could reach to 2 months of delay, we used to have tough time with these delays. In addition, and as you may remember that in my first 2 jobs, I was promised to get bonus on projects completion, but this had never happened. The same scenario repeated in this company, they used to promise us every year that there will bonus at the end of the year and that had never happened. It was impossible to grow up more within this company as they used to compare my current situation with my situation when I started with them. So, after 7 years working with for them, I started to look for another opportunity. One day I received a call from an old colleague asking me if I am open for a change, and we agreed for in interview on the same day. It was an Australian company specialized in Street furniture and street lighting. I got an offer as a Senior Project manager with double pay.
I moved to my new job early 2007, we were small team, but we had big projects, to be honest, I enjoyed that period of my career a lot and worked on landmark projects in Dubai and built very good reputation.
During my work, there was an opportunity for a sales manager in the company, so I proposed my brother (my second brother who is still in Syria) and he got approved and came to Dubai to join the same company, he got married after few months and we both moved our accommodation from Sharjah to Dubai in the same tower.
Our apartment was spacious and very beautiful, we were very excited to live in this beautiful apartment and quite neighbourhood.
We had 2 cars, one for me and one for my wife and life was getting better and better.
In late 2009, during the world financial recession I was tendering for a huge project in Qatar and was in contact with some people there, one of which is a general manager of a civil contractor I had very good relationship with him, and we were talking over the phone frequently trying to get that project.
In January 2010, I arranged a visa for my Mum to visit us and spend some time in Dubai with us, it was very lovely period we used to go out every day till midnight.
But also, in January 2010 my company decided to downscale, and I was one of those who had to leave. There was a junior project manager under me, I handed over my duties to him, and on the same time I called our clients and subcontractors to inform them about the change and introduce my replacement. The General manager (In Qatar) asked me to send him my resume as he knew a new company may need my services.
I didn’t inform anyone about my job lose, to not spoil the beautiful time we had. But one night my wife was searching my phone for something and found a message from me to someone stating that I’m jobless now, it was a big shock for everyone, especially we haven’t lived in this beautiful apartment for more than 6 months. I started working on emergency plan as in the UAE, there is no way to stay and survive without a job, so we decided to send my family to Syria to reduce the expenses while I search for another job. It was very hard to get a good job, I got few offers with almost half of my salary.
During this time, I have applied for a job in Syria and met with the CEO in Dubai, it was very promising opportunity and was promised to get a very high salary. Based on these I decided to pack my newly bought furniture and ship them to Syria and left the UAE, with a great hope in the future in my home country..