Dubai runs on people who came here to work. They staff its offices, fill its studios, open its cafés and launch its startups. Their jobs are wildly different. Their reasons for coming often aren't. Bizbizetalk, a YouTube channel hosted by Ebru Erturk, is quietly building a record of that workforce, one podcast interview at a time.
Work as the way in
Ask an expat about their life and they'll usually start with their job. It's what brought most of them here. It decides where they live, who they meet and how long they stay. Bizbizetalk uses that as a doorway. A conversation that begins with "what do you do?" soon turns into how they got here, what they've lost and what they've found.
The guest list covers a wide spread of Dubai life.
There are business owners. They talk about licences and first clients, about cash flow in the early months and about the moment it started to feel real. Many of them took a serious risk leaving secure jobs elsewhere. Their episodes are part practical advice and part honest account of what that risk felt like.
There are people working at creative agencies. Dubai's creative scene moves fast, with tight deadlines and big clients. These guests talk about the energy of that world and about the toll it can take.
There are guests working a standard 9-to-5. Their stories get overlooked in most coverage of the city, which tends to favour founders and influencers. On Bizbizetalk they get the same time and attention as anyone else. That's fair, since they make up most of the people who actually live here.
And there are singers and other performers. Their path is often the least predictable. They talk about building a following in a city where the audience changes every few years, and about holding on to the art while paying the rent.
The host's own career change
Erturk understands the working side of expat life because she's lived through a big shift herself. She's British-Turkish and qualified as a civil engineer. She first moved from Turkey to London. Later she came to Dubai, where she left engineering and became a digital marketer. She now lives in the city full time.
That experience gives her questions a certain weight. She knows that a career change isn't just a new title. It's new skills, new contacts and a fair bit of self-doubt. When guests talk about their own turning points, she can meet them there.
More than a job title
What makes the channel worth watching is that it doesn't stop at the work. Somewhere in each conversation the guest moves past the role and into the person. Why did they really leave home? What do they miss? Who helped them when things went wrong?
Those answers are why the show exists. Erturk believes stories need to be heard, and that people want someone who will actually sit and listen. A job title fits on a business card. A life doesn't.
A working portrait of the city
Taken together, Bizbizetalk's episodes form something useful: a portrait of Dubai drawn from the inside. Not the skyline, and not the tourist version. Just the people who wake up here every day and go to work.
For anyone thinking of joining them, it's a good place to start listening.
Youtube: www.youtube.com/@Bizbizetalk
Instagram: instagram.com/bizbizetalk_
Tiktok: tiktok.com/@bizbizetalk