Job Discussion Forums

Paul in Saudi · Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Posts: 404 Location: Doha, Qatar

Well, you have to understand, TINS is not Annapolis with Minarets. Every Jack Tar in the Saudi Navy sits through a year of English. They don't want to be there and they are treated poorly. TINS is certainly the low end of the educational hierarchy.

You can forget your dreams of staging Shakespeare in the Round as a learning exercise. Think more like junior high combined with a minimal security county jail.

But they gave me work when I needed it. Good steady work for five years. I learned my trade there and I appreciate it.

As I said, it is a good place to start.

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

Millitary students get a very bad rap on this forum. They're derided mercilessly. There is some truth in this negative portrayal but it's not really fair. In my experience they have been fine - generally well-mannered, polite and respectful. Some are even quite keen to learn - despite my ham-fisted teaching style.

Paul in Saudi · Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Posts: 404 Location: Doha, Qatar

Also, there is no shortage of them. Working for a commercial school trying to keep bottoms in seats sounds like no fun to me.

moonpie · Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 71

True to Paul's statement, there were some good things to working for the Saudi Military machine. Sometimes it is too easy to focus on only the bad. The working day was finished at 1:00 pm and sometimes earliler, and there was no driving to work like most of us TINS alumn have to do now.

kanterbrau · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 38

I quite agree with Van Norden with regard to military sudents not getting a fair deal.

I did my time "before the mast" for the RSNF at Jeddah and my gripe is about the "Directing Staff" - as they liked to be called - and not the students. For the most part the students tried hard even though some of them weren't particularly academically minded and they were all suffering from lack of sleep. Sure, there was the odd one that who was looking for trouble but you can expect that in any school in any country.

As regards the contract itself, it had a lot going for it. The accommodation was great, we had the use of staff cars on weekends and evenings, free petrol and we were ALWAYS paid on time. I NEVER had to chase them up about my monthly salary and my end of contract bonus came through right on time.

If this helps anyone, I was recruited though Nesma International Services Ltd. in the U.K. - tel: 01473 212081 - no website that I know of, sorry.

This was some time ago so obviously I can't guarantee that the situation hasn't changed in the interim. Perhaps someone there at the moment can verify - or not - these comments.

Good Luck.