Job Discussion Forums

[balqis]

Then if the contract with the uni in KSA that conditions your employment on your doing Celta with them while in KSA, so if this contract is more likely to earn you a visa, agree to this contract, spend with the uni say 2 years, swallow the bitter frog of doing Celta ''just to please the emperor'', earn 2 years on-location experience. And then? Then try to move professionally on within the Gulf area, but then based on your PhD, plus the on-location Arabian tertiary experience. Would make, all of it I mean, decent application package of assets.

balqis

[plumpy nut]

You might want to postpone spending money on the visa until you obtain a CELTA or a TESOL. The Saudi embassy can be picky about providing visas without some kind of directly related qualification. It's up to you, it could be hit or miss.

[revilo]

This is what the Saudi embassy wants before they OK your visa:

 Name of applicant & Social Security number
 Name of Employer.
 Name of the Courier Agency.
 A letter stating the reasons of for requiring Authentication.
 A copy of the employment contract.
 A copy of the applicant's passport.
 A certified copy of the applicant's college/university degree.
 Updated official transcript (in a sealed envelope).
 Name of the college/university and telephone number of the registrar or the records office.
 Verification letter from the registrar's office including applicant's SS#. (School ID number), and the
telephone number and the contact person in the registrar's office.
 Written consent to allow the Saudi Cultural Mission to verify the degrees.

They require all of this after you pay an educational clearinghouse to verify your degree. THEN, the Saudi Cultural Mission goes and verifies your degree (which consists of having a Saudi flunky call your university and verify your degree in between chai breaks and berating the hired help for not bringing the chai fast enough). Basically, you do their work for them and they pretend to do ACTUAL work before they say "Looks OK to me!" Is there a name for this kind of system??

[nomad soul]

[DrAesthete]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I completely agree with balqis. And yes, plumpy nut, I think I'd rather not gamble on this and get a good TEFL qualification in the process. Hurrah for this forum! I was completely lost.

[nomad soul]

[balqis]

Why pursue the lowly career?
Perhaps coz of massive unemployment everywhere in the West and salaries that are inconclusive to the cost of living there? Or for any other reason that matters to DrAesthete.
My degrees are also in a way unrelated [ though I do have the silly CELTA, just to please the emperor] and I have worked in four Gulf countries for more than ten years, everywhere tertiary positions, some unis rather top, some assignments in the English Depts proper, not just Foundation or PYP. So you never know, as always in life.
Besides, owing to the unemployment factor, I have met a number of PhDs - related and unrelated - working in PYPs. And another besides, some PYP, if you work for quality institution, can be durable and even enjoyable. In Oman I met a few teachers whose career in the Gulf started with KSU and CELTA with KSU. Once they swallowed that frog, they moved on to Oman.

Have you tried Al Yamamah? They like to experiment with all and everything. Though the frog there is pretty awful and the ''adults'' there - though as a woman with PhD you should know how to masquerade yourself with idiots - are nasty, but the female students there are very nice posh Saudi girls.

balqis

[DrAesthete]

Wow nomad - you've opened up a whole can of worms there! And thanks balquis - your comments are spot on. Leading on from what balquis mentioned, the crisis in the humanities at the post-doctoral level is real. I have been working for the past few years as an adjunct, earning barely enough to live. Amazingly 75% of the academic community is now made up of adjuncts due to tenured positions increasingly not being renewed when the incumbent leaves. These low-paid and insecure positions are now incredibly competitive due to the ratio of PhD holders to jobs available is increasing at an unprecedented level. I enjoy teaching and the prospect of applying for a research post is entirely unappealing.

A TEFL position in Saudi would get me (in real times) twice a tenured salary in the UK, and about what the head of my department earns. The alternative would be a corporate desk job in London but, given that teaching is what I love, the thought of that fills me with dread.

So I guess it's about the money, the security that will bring, the fact that I love teaching and travelling and see this as a good thing to do certainly for the next year. It will also free up some of my time to publish. I think it'll be an exciting year.

[nomad soul]

[DrAesthete]