Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

As we speak PMU and its agents are scouring the usual haunts for EFL teachers for next semester. Cynics might say they are leaving it a bit late. I think they might get the warm bodies that they need !

By all acoounts the housing is nice if on a rather sterile, small compound.

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:06 pm Post subject:

What makes you so confident PMU will get the staff they need? As far as I know, employers are having a tough time getting half decent teachers to come to KSA. The fact that the $ is sinking on a daily basis is only making things worse.

Plus, it's almost August: getting a visa for KSA takes about two months even if things run smoothly, which they often don't.

Longton · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 148

It's likely that some UAE rejects will head off to Saudi. But with generally lower salaries in KSA and vastly inferior living conditions, they'll only go there as a last resort. Still, there are jobs available at this late stage.

The best paying jobs now seem to be in Libya. Bell pays over SR16,000 a month with free accommodation, food and laundry and a teacher gets three weeks paid vacation in UK after ten weeks of teaching.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

PMU reportedly have a 'fast track' to getting visas - through Bahrain. Well their sponsor is Prince Mohammed bin Fahad !

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:43 pm Post subject:

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I am not convinced that the UAE is the Promised Land. I will stick to KSA !

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

The UAE is hardly the "promised land," but surely anywhere else is better than Saudi Arabia (the worst country in the world.) You only come here if you can get a significant salary/savings premium (above what you can get ANYWHERE else) as compensation.

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:28 pm Post subject:

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

"The worst country in the world."

It is clear that Mr VanNorden is not well travelled. West Africa ? The Congo ? Yemen? Somalia ?

For his edification I recommend a long weekend in Lagos, Nigeria.

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

scot47, Saudi Arabia is the worst country in the world, but of course it's preferable to any lawless, war-torn country. Sadly, I'd have to pass on Somalia, but I'm not sure about the other places you've mentioned. I'll probably visit all of them - except Yemen - in the future. I'll let you know how it goes!

Good for you, Cleo. It's hard for me to fathom how anyone could be happy here, but I don't feel the need to get personal. We differ on this point. Big deal.

In my constituency, 90% of people feel exactly the same as me, so I do sometimes assume that all expats in Saudi feel the same. It's only here on Dave's that I've heard the contrary view.

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:53 pm Post subject:

It's not that we 'differ', it's that you assume that everyone here is as unemployable and sadly bereft of options as you are. Your use of the word 'you' in your above post is but one example of this. You are of course entitled to express your self-inflicted misery as much as you like, but you can expect to be corrected when you attempt to project that desperation onto others.

MIKEBUCHAN · Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 106 Location: Russia

I think Scott47 is correct - PMU has two recruiters that I know of and maybe a third. So they just may get all the good, bad and ugly teachers that they need. Who knows?

I think Cleo is mistaken about good teachers. My good friend and a very good teacher arrived there a few days ago and his visa was processed in two hours in Bahrain. It took three months and your passport stayed in a Saudi Embassy the whole time in the mid 90's.

And Van Norden is correct about Bell - You and I may have a Brit/Scot/Irish family name, but an American or other passport and they don't ever answer you to tell you to pissoff!

Boys and girls - any country can be the worst ever in the world! Anais Nin said it the best -- "We see things not as they are but as we are." And we are sometimes out of sorts for extended lengths of time. I have lived in the heart of Russia for 5 years and sometimes this place is great and other times it sucks! It all depends on my outlook on the world at the time and over time.

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:06 pm Post subject:

MIKEBUCHAN · Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 106 Location: Russia

Sorry Cleo --- "...half decent teachers..." is what I should have said. Sorry to misquote you.

And I may join the PMU crowd, if I get a call for an interview. And I hope to be one of those half decent teachers too. This is nothing like before -- everything was cost plus and the Saudi Air Force picked the tab for everything you could dream of - way back in the mid 90's!

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409