Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

Throughout this forum there have been plenty of posters grumbling about the continuing decline in salary/benefits, especially the mediocre pay for-profit companies like ICEAT, QEHC, SBC, and the like are offering.

Given that this trend isn't going to change, how does this impact your TEFL job prospects in the Kingdom? What other options are you exploring in terms of staying employed and financially afloat in TEFL in general?

[1chunk]

It's quite simple - if people find something better elsewhere or in their country, they will leave.

The problem with the west right now is not jobs - unemployment is fairly low compared to before, but its the low pay and high cost of living. Pay is stagnating and the quality of life is so poor that Saudi seems like paradise!

[Lord T]

nomad soul, I think it's fair to say that we were all warned a few years ago that the well was running dry.

At the time, you and other posters advised teachers to consider re-training, improving their teaching qualifications and IT skills, and perhaps moving to
somewhere where tefl was still expanding such as China- it was good advice.

Teaching in the Middle East for a few years was always a way for tefl teachers to catch up financially, after spending time in nice places where salaries were relatively low compared to where we are from. But, with the exception of a few military/oil and gas jobs, that path is no longer open.

It's not the end of the world: we just have to accept that it was good while it lasted, and it helped a lot of us to improve our circumstances considerably.

[sicklyman]

Japan has always managed to mesh a decent salary with a decent quality of life. Salaries have stayed almost exactly the same in the last twenty years and cost of living has not increased that much.

If I had to continue TEFL and had to leave the ME tomorrow, I would go to Japan and recommend it to anyone who wants a decent standard of living combined with more than enough salary to live on.

[dragonpiwo]

I've worked for 6 oil companies of which 2 were direct-hire, 1 long-term contract hire and 3 as a contractor. # good jobs, 3 bad jobs. I've seen it all re teaching in oil and gas. I also have lots of colleagues/ex-colleagues mostly now out of the industry. For now at least, it's over. Saudi Aramco is the only decent gig left hiring and they don't do it often. All the rotations I knew of have gone (I've done 2).
It used to be that you could mess around in TEFL for a decade having fun, go to the ME and buy your house and then have options. Those days are over.
For anyone getting into this frolic, I'd advise you to think again. Yes there are some uni gigs around but many foundation programmes are getting the chop and the salaries are getting so low, the bucket of shyte outweighs the bucket of cash. ie it's not worth it.
I'm done and I'm still in my 40s. I have a flat and house paid for. Good luck to the rest of you. When my current gig ends and that could be in any 1 month notice period, I'm going back to Europe to earn peanuts, enjoy my life, take up home brewing, have bbqs, spend lots of time with my family and friends and buy a dog.
Mission accomplished.

[voyagerksa]

[tillymd]

To Whom it may Concern:

I lived in Japan for 8 years teaching ESL for Berlitz and loved it. I also taught in Korea for 1 1/2 years, most recently in 2011 in a small, blue collar fishing village and also loved it.

The pay was always secondary to the experience of having the privilege of living in another culture and experiencing it not as a tourist. I've been lucky to have travelled all over the world.

I've been following this forum since 2009 but have always been discouraged by the posts from teachers who worked in SA as they are seldom positive.

I would still teach in SA despite the posts from others simply because I enjoy extreme cultures. However, I would probably commit to one year and not for the money.

As far as when the well runs dry, the statistics for the number of barrels of oil left on the planet can be viewed at http://www.worldometers.info. A little less than 2,000,000,000,000 barrels left on the planet.

I'm about to complete a MA in Prosthetics and Orthotics and found one job in SA on the international society of prosthetic and orthotics website for a job to teach in a medical school there. No more ESL for this lady!

Try not to discourage people so much and remember that we are international ambassadors.

Yours Truly,
Tillymd

[currentaffairs]

I also have Japan and Saudi connections.. I wouldn't go back to Japan although I enjoyed my time there. The pace of life was so fast and that is one plus point about Saudi where everyone just plods along and nothing is rushed. I also don't want to be commuting two hours or more every day. My Saudi employer provides the transport outside my door and I am at work in 5 mins.

I hardly saved at all in Japan although I did go out a lot and I had a healthy social life.

[sicklyman]

[sammysez]

Obviously the well is running dry as we speak.

The heydays of the 70s, 80s, and 90s are gone as we know it.

Salaries have been greatly lowered and now they are increasing hours. At the same university we had 4 contact hours and 4 office hours per day and that has increased to they are advertising 6 hours and 2 hours office. Also, I've noticed a lot of the people they are hiring are not native speakers, but speakers of English as a 2nd and 3rd language.

[hash]

KSA remains the only place on the planet where you have no responsibilities, no standards (who wants those?) and, if you know how, can do an absolute minimum of work while appearing busy and productive (and have a driver to take you around to boot).

The money, at least for me, has long since become a distant secondary consideration. Simply put, I'll never work anyplace else again. I couldn't....I'd be fired within days if not hours. (In other words, to put it another way, I've pretty much "gone native")


.

[Lord T]

Hash, your honesty is a breath of fresh air, and your assessment of Saudi standards, or lack of them, accurate.

Sammysez, I'm getting e-mails from recruiters that snubbed/ignored/rejected me last year; a sure sign they are getting desperate, I reckon.

[siologen]

While it seems the good old days of the high salaries and generous overall packages may be gone, and things are not the same as the 80s or the 90s, to me it is still not a bad offer as I have no masters degree. I won't mention the other place, but the tax free salary for me as only a BA holder is still better in the kingdom than in t'other place....nuff said!! Again, each to their own as always though!!!

[Shookran]

I'd like to know why the salaries and packages have gone down. It seems inconceivable that a country that is still mind-bogglingly rich should scream "We have less money for budgets now" when they are rich enough to sustain for several generations to come. If it was the West, journalists and politicians would be all over this and we would have an understanding of what's going on. And possibly reveal some truths and un-truths about it. But just being told budgets are going down so they can't pay as much as before isn't enough. I'm not an idiot. I am aware that the price of oil has gone down. But is that it? What's the story? We know that Saudi is inconceivable rich, so what's the problem with continuing the way they have for the next 10 or 20 years? Anyone care to comment?

[veiledsentiments]

Easy answer... everywhere in the world when budgets need to be cut, education is always the first place they look.

Thus number of teachers hired has dropped all around the Gulf. That immediately raises supply, which means that they can get people for less money and benefits - increasing the long time downward trend in pay packages.

Don't expect it to change... it's take it or leave it time.

VS