Job Discussion Forums

Qtipmatesl97 · Joined: 08 Mar 2014 Posts: 1

If you are an energetic and enthusiastic teacher, you will be rewarded with appreciative and engaging students, all young Saudi men, thankful that you've come halfway 'round the world to teach them. If you're an unremarkable bore going through the motions, you can get away with that too because about the worst thing a teacher can do here is not show up.

Tap beer, cinemas, and at least some night life are available across the causeway in Bahrain. And if you can make connections in the ex-pat community in the compounds such as BAE or Aramco, you might find life agreeable in the kingdom.

However, if you're a bachelor, there's a 50/50 chance you'll be housed in a less-than-dignified studio, a few of which are literally basements of two-story outhouses in a complex known as Old Shabbab. Repairs crews are constantly on site dealing with one plumbing disaster after another. Of course, your flat will have been painted, and a new rock-hard mattress delivered, but the kitchenette much too small for proper cooking and the furniture shabby and uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, the flats in New Shabbab are not much of an improvement, and some on the bottom floor serve to trap odors. For years, gas-burning water heaters for the laundry rooms leaked exhaust into flats.

Add to this the slow Internet, the convoluted IT platform, and the state of disrepair of so many facilities, and you have an engineering school that can't engineer its own campus.

With that having been said, there's lotsa blokes (most are married) who've been there for years as it could be the best English teaching context in the region: regular on-time pay, plenty of time off, and a casual work environment.

15 years a reader, first minute of posting
QT

lcanupp1964 · Joined: 12 Dec 2009 Posts: 381

If you are so unhappy, move. Either find another place near campus that suites you better (with the excellent pay, you should be able to afford it), or move back to your home country. You wrote, "less-than-dignified studio". Huh? Who are you? Hugh Heffner?

You are the first poster (since I've been on this site) that has posted anything negative about working at KFUPM. How much does a mattress cost anyway? Buy a new one. Gee wiz. Shocked

Until I read more postings from different people that work at KFUPM, I'm going to take your words as coming from a person that appears to be a little on the spoiled side. You sound like one of those "It's not the point it’s the principle." kind of guys. Solve your own problems. Take charge of your life and go buy a damn mattress.

There are people on this site that have written that they are stuck on a business visa because they need the money, teachers in the middle of nowhere without any support, and others in worse-off places with far less pay.

P.S. You could always get married. Very Happy

johnslat · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:33 am Post subject:

Well, after that, I suppose we'll have another 15 year wait. Very Happy

Regards,
John

lcanupp1964 · Joined: 12 Dec 2009 Posts: 381

John,

Yea, I was a bit cranky. I woke up at 2am with a bad headache and decided to check my email and see if there were any interesting postings on Daves. Maybe I should have tempered my comments, or waited until I felt better, but I would wager that many people who read my words above will be thinking the same thing regarding Mr. Heffner’s "terrible" problems.

Life is too short.

I remember interviewing for a position in Taiwan and after the interview, I was shown the “apartment” I was going to be living in if I took the job. I promise I am not lying (true life is always more interesting than fiction)when I write that the school showed me a 20x40 storage container like the ones at “U-Haul”. The front door was a 20 foot sliding door that could only be locked with a pad lock, but could not be locked from the inside It had a large pile of old clothes from at least four different teachers that lived there before along with about 40 empty liquor bottles crammed into a corner, three broken-down motorcycles, two large retail display counter tops used for tables and a diary left by one teacher describing how bad the job was and why was there still old clothes of other that stayed there.

I remember during my two years in South Korea, I lived in a basement studio. Every time I woke up to take a shower, there were always are few worms and other types of bugs in the drain crawling out to say hello. Do you know what I did? I told myself that it was a free apartment and I'm grateful because it means I can save more money. Then I flushed the bugs down the drain, got ready for work, taught my classes, and counted my money.

The Angry Brit · Joined: 27 Mar 2014 Posts: 21

sicklyman · Joined: 02 Feb 2013 Posts: 930

that's probably the most accurate description of life at KFUPM I've read in the last year. It's not what it once was it seems.

cnthaiksarok · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 2:07 pm Post subject:

<happy sigh> dodged another bullet. Glad those interviewers were so cranky and humorless...

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

New Shabab is not so bad. I wonder if this poster is one of those who was refused a new contract at KFUPM as a result of "incompetence "

You think KFUPM is bad - go and try a contractor ! Or try a place like Arar, Jaizan etc

The Angry Brit · Joined: 27 Mar 2014 Posts: 21

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I was not at KFUPM in the golden era when the faculty were largely Americans and when your educational allowance enough to cover costs for children up to college level. Conditions throughout EFL-land are getting worse. Welcome to the world of Turbocapitalism !

My advice to any young things is avoid EFL and get a real job like truck driver.

Solar Strength · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 557 Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Solar Strength · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 557 Location: Bangkok, Thailand

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

"Ghost" has been told not to come back for the new academic year. As have some others.

PeterParvo · Joined: 18 Dec 2011 Posts: 103

How does one get canned from KFUPM? I mean really.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Persistence. Secret to success and failure in the ME. This "Angry Brit" does seem unhappy with his lot in life ! "Beatus non est Britunculus," as an Ancient Roman might have said.