It isn’t just the dire British winter weather, flood chaos and all the rest that persuades many home-based professionals to cast their eyes abroad at this time of year.

With the UK locked into austerity and real economic progress seemingly very slow to gather pace, the UAE, an apparently unvarnished success story in the sun, has a lot to recommend it.

While a fully functioning traditional Islamic state in every important sense, the UAE also operates in profitable symbiosis with the UK and the west - it’s an international business hot spot with a reputation for sophistication and wealth.

Meanwhile the UAE’s whole strategic emphasis on the economic front is to use today’s oil wealth to fund tomorrow’s far more diverse profit-drivers - and to a considerable extent that still means bringing in ex-pat expertise.

As a reward for jumping though the various hoops to gain work permission the UAE boasts excellent standards of living, which can be enjoyed all the more easily if you’ve good accommodation thrown in as part of a contract.

But it’s a selective market-place, where the best career opportunity will tend to come through a channel most in need of a particular skills set - typically for some major capital project running for three, five or more years.

To gain work permission you need a sponsor, which will typically be your employer, and you will have to demonstrate basic fiscal probity and make a full medical disclosure (since testing for HIV and other diseases is a vital element in admission).

Competition for what many would consider the better jobs is stiff, and for people with young families the draw has to be very strong for them to go to the trouble of meeting the various entry criteria while arranging schooling, insurance, bank credit and credit cards medical facilities - and the rest.

For some families work in the UAE or the Middle East generally is a way of life, with children moving schools every few years with no apparent problems.

However it won’t necessarily be straightforward gaining access to an international school, which is generally the best option, and since families with children have to make schooling the number one priority this vital aspect has to work in synchrony with take-up of the new job.

Professionals without children obviously have one less thing to worry about, but are still strongly advised to get off on the right footing, for example by securing the most useful banking credit system for use in the UAE.

The system of loans finance isn’t a story to be told in a few lines, but- in a nutshell - what you can reasonably hope to obtain will be heavily linked to your job and projected income.

Most ex-pats appear to use the system sensibly, eventually returning home to the UK at the end of a contract with a healthy surplus - and probably with a good chance of acquiring a similar post in the future.

Meanwhile where detailed knowledge is required you don’t have to operate in a vacuum, as the UAE has highly active ex-pat websites where “how to” advice is available at the click of a mouse.

There’s no harm in getting involved with this sort of communication from the word go, as you will receive more useful information in a few lines chat with someone who knows the situation first hand.

If you are a small business start-up you’ll also be made welcome by the UAE’s various Chambers of Commerce, which work to the advantage of the ex-pat community by pooling resources and providing expert advice.

The well-advertised leisure and recreation amenities of the UAE make the prospect of a career move to the desert sheikhdom a fairly pleasant prospect - and while many are happy enough with the shimmering luxury shopping malls and super-deluxe hotels and resorts, there’s also a vibrant cosmopolitan social culture to enjoy.

Some people repeat the experience as often as possible, and only partly because of the excellent financial rewards, while others are content to make it an episode in a career otherwise spent in the UK.

However for people looking to gain a standard of living increasingly hard to earn in the UK, the UAE - with a traditional culture most get acquainted with very easily - has to remain a serious option for anyone in a relevant profession aiming to step their career up a notch.