Job Discussion Forums

[qtfriend2all]

Just writing because I know a lot of people asked if people ever received interviews or actual job offers for the Marathon Oil/Wood Group English teaching position in the Equatorial Guinea that you see posted on Dave's ever-so-often. I got both just recently!

I received an e-mail roughly 2 weeks ago saying I'd been selected for an interview. It had been so long that I forgot what the job was actually for lol. They said they were just starting the interviewing process but looking back at previous posts, more specficially biffinbridge's, I now know that's not true. At any rate, I had my interview Friday and the next day they called to make me a job offer.

I am quite surprised considering a few things: It seems that even with the initial round of interviews in February they didn't hire anyone (at least that's what I assume since they said they were hiring a total of 6 people), I thought the interview wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing either, and I honestly don't have as much experience compared to others who have posted here about the job.

I don't know if it's too good to be true or what but I'm going to go and see what's what. I'm still pinching myself over it and wondering if it's all that they say it is. I guess I'll see! Anyhow, just wanted to let everyone know that these jobs do actually interview and hire people!

[SCHUBERT]

Congrats qtfriend2all !! .. I presume youve double checked all correspondence this being April 1st and all !

Congratulations ! I hope you might keep us informed as to how your new job is progressing and the highs and lows of same. And this if only to be reassured that you havent disappeared into a Vat of boiling water out there in the jungle surrounded by spear carrying natives chanting your name

[qtfriend2all]

Schubert, I didn't even realize it was April Fool's Day until my friend asked me when I told them about the job!!! lol What are the odds? I wonder if they planned it to be that way...

The correspondence seemed legit and the calls to my cell phone were definitely from out of the country lol. Shoot, maybe someone is just taking me for a ride!!! That would seriously be the cruelest, most awesomely executed April Fool's Day joke of them all! hahaha

But I will totally keep everyone updated once I am there. I think something like that just HAS to be documented for posterity!

[ntropy]

Congratulations!

Best of luck

(take your malaria pills)

[Vteacher]

Congratulations? For what? Excuse me for sounding somewhat negative, but the cheery tone of these posts strikes me as a bit bizarre. Equatorial Guinea is apparently one of the most unpleasant dumps you could hope not to end up in, and there is a reason why the Marathon jobs are relatively well paid. I work rotations in the oil industry, and for those who've never done it, take it from one who has. It is no holiday. It's extremely hard and can be a hell on earth, physically and mentally.

By way of a comment I feel obliged to say that one of the reasons EFL is so badly paid and the conditions so poor (and they are, if you don't believe me, check out any other oil job's conditions) is the VSO/'aren't we having a good time' mentality of so many teachers. Get serious and be a little more cynical, people. The company, whoever and wherever it is is making a killing on your day rate if you're on rotational work, make no mistake. It's about time we started to talk about getting ORGANISED instead of congratulating each other and then realising the ugly reality afterwards. It is this inability by TEFLers to work out the fundamentals of their employment that guarantees no improvement in conditions.

[SCHUBERT]

Well lead on, MacDuff. I for one am right behind you. What would you have us do ?

[qtfriend2all]

Thank you for your insight, VTeacher. Honestly for me, living and working in South Korea has been quite possibly the worst thing I've had to deal with mentally in a while. I'm quite a strong person but even I got tired of the daily blah of being a person of color in this country. At least with the EG, there is a mental vacation you can take every 6 weeks. I obviously know it's not going to be easy -- I'm currently a candidate for the Peace Corps as well and it's what I'll be doing after I finish in the EG. To me, it's preparation for even worse since the PC is volunteer. I'm going into this with my eyes wide open and my guard up. Obviously with most anywhere on the African continent, it'll be no cake walk.

But hey, if you have any direct experience working in the EG or a similar location, please share some examples of difficulties I'll encounter so I can further prepare myself. And if you ever get that union started, I'll be the first to sign up. You seem like you have a lot of knowledge to share so I think you should do that instead of criticizing people for the choices they make for reasons you don't know about. A lot of people have to take crap jobs before they can get to where they do something they truly enjoy. We don't all have the luxury of being born with a silver spoon in our mouths. Of course I am not saying that you do have that luxury but most EFLers are in the boat of taking jobs as stepping stones which, if you are an EFLer, you should know that. I'm sorry if my tone was Disney-esque but I was more delighted to tell people that you can actually hear from these dudes than being hyped about the job, which is something I at least hope you noted.

Anyway, as I said, if you have some insight to share, please post it here or even PM me. I'm just disappointed you never shared your wealth of knowledge before now because there may be people over there wishing they'd read it first! One happy side to all of this is that the employment contract is at-will meaning if I don't like it, I can go. Thank heavens for that little cookie!

[Vteacher]

Fair comments, both of you. I was not trying to have a go at anyone, just injecting a point that needs to be made. Yes, I know that EFL is a stepping stone and all that. Sadly in my case it has turned out to be more like a stoning that never ends, which is neither here nor there; one makes choices and one lives with it. I hope it goes well for you in EG; would be interested to know how it turns out.

My point though was valid. Being paid a semi-decent wage for working weeks at a time in a tropical hell-hole away from loved ones does not strike me as particularly remarkable, or generous. It is true though that the jobs at Marathon are notable for the fact that they are the exception that proves the rule - that we are most of us horrendously underpaid, overworked and generally stomped over in this industry. Jobs even in Saudi, another of the worst places in the world to waste your life in are much worse paid that they were years ago. Even in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, schools are paying desultory wages of about 8 pounds an hour. This is not the fault of teachers, it is the fault of the bosses. It is however our fault if as generally well educated and travelled people we are unable to grasp the simple fact that we are being exploited and move from that on to fighting for better wages and conditions. Too many of us have the mentalities of lawyers and the bank accounts and conditions of cleaners. Cleaners have unions, or at least they know they need them. Lawyers don't.

[qtfriend2all]

You make a good argument and I wholeheartedly agree. The first place a union should be started is in Korrupt South Korea. Even the university wages are plunging and even though they can still be considered "generous" compared to what one with a master's or a PhD should be earning in that position, it's pidgeon poo. Not to mention the blatantly racist hiring practices.

I really don't know where one would begin in such an endeavor but for sure I think it's worth a shot. How would one organize a union on an international level? Is there a precedent we could follow? I'll of course report on things from the EG since we'll apparently be the pioneering EFLers there. I just hope I can last the whole length of the contract!!!

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear you're stuck in such a bad situation. I hope you can finish up your contract soon! Where are you now?

[guangho]

"Honestly for me, living and working in South Korea has been quite possibly the worst thing I've had to deal with mentally in a while. I'm quite a strong person but even I got tired of the daily blah of being a person of color in this country."

My condolences.

[biffinbridge]

I worked rotations for Sirte Oil Libya.The pay was nowhere near what I made at Qatar Petroleum on a married status contract in the heady days when there were 5 Riyals to the pound.They are hard but as long as you've got some sort of routine and a hobby they are fine.42 days is a good rotation ours were 65 in the desert.Take a lot of books.
I'd be interested to know how old you are.You've mentioned that you are 'a person of colour' and you are obviously North American.At 37 with my experience I really thought I'd pissed the interview.
You will not be an EFL pioneer though.Wood Group first started advertising in about 2001 along with Fluor Industrial Services.Maybe the Marathon gig is new although the large guy told em he had been there 9 years..
Lots of people have pm-ed me and it seems that loads of people have been turned down by that Laurel and Hardy duo.Maybe they are just having a jolly in the UK and are stringing it out a bit.
There were some things that are not good about this post.How much tax will you pay?Office/teaching hours of 12 hours a day is a bit insane.Shared housing(difficult on rotations).Malaria.Absolute beginners all day long.There were also other things that didn't add up.
Whatever happens you will earn every penny that you're paid that's for sure.

[nodster]

EG sounds like a lottery.

[WD40]

EG is not too bad having been offered a job back in 2002.
I have done rotation before and as a poster has said, you get into a routine, read, get an MA, play regular sports and write lots of letters home. The upside of EG is that you work far less in a year than most throughout the world - in Japan you might only get 2 weeks holiday a year!!

In rotation jobs you make some of the best friends you will ever have and if you are lucky, you will make friends with the local students too.

The contract is very well paid compared to many EFL/ESL postings and if you educate yourself, stay professionally focused and remain positive, there are many jobs with similar well paid salaries in the GUlf, UK, USA etc.. You just need to keep up with the news and network.

[Sheikh N Bake]

I am offered an interview in London through Wood Group for EG. They mention the salary as $300/day plus all expenses including food and rotation tickets back to the home of record. They say that's 195 days or about $59,000. The rotation is four weeks on and four off. That doesn't sound too bad. Is the job 12 hours a day seven days a week or what?

[basiltherat]

From my experience, generally if your hitching or rotating, you work everyday throughout the hitch/rotation and generally, as u say, 12 hours, normally 6 to 6, alto here in Syria, one day a week is taken up with rotating local staff since they do 7 days on n 7 off so no teaching then. i doubt it will be 12 hours a day teaching tho. however, who knows. perhaps worth asking just in case. id imagine 6 at most.
alternatively, try pm-ing qtfriend2all and asking
best
basil