Job Discussion Forums

AMINK · Joined: 10 Mar 2014 Posts: 20

I have just been offered a role with the ELI institute in Jeddah, and with my qualifications and experience (MA Education+TEFL+5 years experience) they have offered a contract as follows:-

Basic salary: 10,200 SAR monthly
Transportation Allowance: 500 SAR monthly
Housing Allowance: 17,000 SAR annually
Furniture Allowance: 50% of the housing allowance ( one off payment)

Is there anyone out there who is able to tell me is this a good contract for someone who has a wife and 2 kids and wants to bring them over to Saudi Arabia ????

Your help is very much appreciated.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

What do you mean by basic salary? Is that the actual monthly salary offered? If so, it's low and not enough for a family of four to live off of. I suspect you were unable to provide written verification of your previous 5 years of relevant employment; that would have bumped your pay significantly.

AMINK · Joined: 10 Mar 2014 Posts: 20

That was the offer they made me yesterday, and yes I did show all evidence of work and qualifications and got them verified.
I was a bit shocked to be honest with the offer as it did seem very low.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

If that's what they offered after you provided official (signed) employment verification letters from each previous employer, then there's some other reason why the offer was low. Was your previous experience prior to getting your MA and/or TEFL cert? Also, was any part of your MA completed via online?

AMINK · Joined: 10 Mar 2014 Posts: 20

I've had me TEFL since 2008 and my MA since 2012.
I've been teaching since 2008.

My MA was done in Uni, no on-line involved.

How much roughly should my salary have been?

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

They may have only counted your post-MA experience, which I assume entailed teaching English full time to adults at the university level. Anyway, you could ask the recruiter why the offer was low.

AMINK · Joined: 10 Mar 2014 Posts: 20

Yeah, I will email them on Sunday to find out why it's so low and if they say the offer is staying the same then I will probably reject it.

lcanupp1964 · Joined: 12 Dec 2009 Posts: 381

That's very low. I think you should get around 15,000sr at the very least. Here's some insider information... Around 20 native English speakers are leaving the ELI in June. In addition, they are going to be around 75 teachers short at the start of the new school year on Sept. 1st. When I applied to the ELI five years ago, I turned down TWO offers until they sent me an offer that I thought was fair. They wrote in an email to tell them what amount I would take. I did and they sent back an offer with the amount I wanted plus an extra 72sr on top of that, which was funny, but rather interesting. I took it as a "tip" that one would give a waiter for good service. Very Happy

But even back then, I was offered a lot more then what you were just offered. I would ask them to please rework the numbers again. That way, they will save face. If you go and say that you will reject the offer if they don't raise the offer, they might not answer back. If you are a true native speaker of English that was born, raised and educated in an English speaking country, you should get more. If your are not a native speaker of English, I can understand (but not like it) why your offer was low. I know it's not fair, but that's how this messed up world works. Be strong, but be nice about it. Very Happy

cultofpersonality · Joined: 12 Jan 2012 Posts: 94

Frankly....unacceptable to be honest. The only reason why this could be is because you don't hold a certain passport.

AMINK · Joined: 10 Mar 2014 Posts: 20

Many thanks for the useful info, I will try and contact them next week to see why they offered a low wage, seen as I am a born British citizen. So, I'll wait and see what they'll have to say!

rollingk · Joined: 23 Jul 2006 Posts: 212

Why do some of us always assume in direct hire situations that if an offer is low, it must be because the applicant is lacking something. All across Arabia employers in general are short of respectability, and will try to get anything over on you that they can. Some of us live in a kinda candyland where the only bad guys are recruitment and contract companies. This simply isn't the case.

johnslat · Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 2:15 pm Post subject:

Dear rollingk,

If you hear hoofbeats, you don't usually think, "Ah, zebras are coming." Oh, sure - occasionally, you'll be right, but much more often than not, you won't be.

Regards,
John

jumpingmonkey · Joined: 01 May 2014 Posts: 20

I read somewhere (can't remember if it was on this forum or on the ELI's website) that the salary was calculated using the following formula:

(4200 SAR + {340 SAR times the number of years experience} ) the whole total multiplied by 1.85.

Based on this formula, it seems they counted only 4 out of your 5 years experience if they are offering 10,200 SAR.

A related question: Does anyone know with what rigor they stick this formula for new hires?

jumpingmonkey · Joined: 01 May 2014 Posts: 20

I read somewhere (can't remember if it was on this forum or on the ELI's website) that the salary was calculated using the following formula:

(4200 SAR + {340 SAR times the number of years experience} ) the whole total multiplied by 1.85.

Based on this formula, it seems they counted only 4 out of your 5 years experience if they are offering 10,200 SAR.

A related question: Does anyone know with what rigor they stick this formula for new hires?

rollingk · Joined: 23 Jul 2006 Posts: 212