Job Discussion Forums

[Sunshine Bob]

I have an interview in London at the end of the month for one of the ELT instructor posts. From the request email it appears you go before a panel of 3 RAFO personnel.

It's a long time since I've had this type of interview so am hoping someone can give me some tips as to what not to say!

Obviously, if I get the job I will owe you a pint or few - or will that have to be a green tea - in Oman?!?

[camelman]

Top personnel executives of 100 major American corporations were surveyed and asked for stories of unusual behavior by job applicants.

�Balding candidate abruptly excused himself. Returned to office a few minutes later wearing a hairpiece.

�Applicant challenged interviewer to arm wrestle.

�Asked to see interviewer's resume to see if the personnel executive was qualified to judge the candidate.

�Announced she hadn't had lunch and proceeded to eat a hamburger and French fries in the interviewer's office.

�Said if he were hired, he would demonstrate his loyalty by having the corporate logo tattooed on his forearm.

�Interrupted to phone his therapist for advice on answering specific interview questions.

[veiledsentiments]

Can't answer your question about RAFO, but booze is readily available in Oman. You get a liquor license which allows you to buy so much per month in a government store - based on your salary. The allowance is enough for the average lush...

Hotels serve booze... and many (most?) bases have a club with plenty of hard-drinking Omanis and western military employees...

VS

[Neil McBeath]

And when, VS, was the last time that you were on a RAFO base to witness this????

Or, indeed, have you ever been on a RAFO base in your life?

The last time I was at RAFO Lansab (one month ago) the bar had exacvtly four Omani officers in it, and no expatriates at all except the two bar staff.

[spicegirl]

Things have clearly changed, Neil, since I lived in Oman (up until the mid 90s). We were invited frequently to RAFO Lansab Mess where it was usually as VS describes - plus more than a few European female nurses and teachers to make up the company.Where do all the RAFO teachers drink these days?� When I was there, the majority of them were much too thrifty to go off base to a hotel to eat or drink, as it cost them a lot more than it did in the Mess.Do they still live on the base, or are they now housed in more luxurious premises than in the old 'baits' they used to live in?

[veiledsentiments]

Thank you Spicegirl for pointing out exactly my experience. It was not unusual for any single western female to be regularly invited to the base... near the airport as I recall. Since I don't drink and have never much enjoyed the bar scene, I only went a very few times.

I would expect that Omanization has cut the number of expats, but I was quite shocked at the number of VERY hard-drinking Omanis. I can only hope that it has changed to the better.

VS

[Neil McBeath]

As you say, Spicegirl, things have changed. You are a decade out of touch.

As the standard of accommodation declined, several teachers opted to move off Lansab and find their own accommodation. More and more Omanis became EFL teachers, and RAFO have found it increasingly difficult to recruit expatriates. I believe they are currently 8 teachers down. One was dismissed and another resigned in the last month.

So far as VS's comments are concerned, yet again she's confusing things. There is no RAFO base near the airport. RAFO Lansab is 20 kilometres from what is now Muscat International Airport. The camp she seems to remember would be the main ARMY camp at Muaskar al Murtafa'a.

The situation is the same there. The junior Omani officers don't drink. This is actually a problem for all the Officers' Messes because they are not allowed to make a profit on Mess food. Mess profits have to come from bar sales. And bar sales are declining so rapidly that a serious cashflow problem is imminent.

Trust me, I know. I was the RAFO Lansab Mess Sceretary until June 2005.

[veiledsentiments]

I can only say that it is a good thing if they are keeping the young Omanis away from these places. I found that Omanis have the same problem with alcohol that the Native Americans have in the US. The ability to drink alcohol seems to be something that there is a genetic tolerance for in some cultures. Those in cultures that haven't used it regularly seem unable to control it. While only a relatively small number of people of European genetic background drink to excess regularly, those Omanis who drank seemed unable to sit down to a relaxed drink or two. I would watch the Omanis at our table drink 5-6 drinks for every one of the rest of the drinkers... and most of these were pretty hard-drinking Brits. The Omanis would be falling down drunk in an hour or so... as they headed to their cars. I was struck by the similarities on the reservations in the US.

Fortunately the vast majority of Omanis follow the tenets of their religion and don't drink and I would hope that the military whatever branch wherever it is would put an end to it.

I suppose that it was completely incompetent of me to assume that a military establishment that was an extension of the airport would be 'air force.' But, since I didn't give a flip then or now what branch of the Omani military it was, I never asked. I know lots of the expats there worked on military helicopters... a group one encountered in every local watering hole.

VS
(and PS Neil... if you read my post, you will see that I never anywhere said that any RAFO base anywhere had anything... my reference was to "many bases" - no branch indicated... but then you just want to be argumentative don't you...)

[Neil McBeath]

N, VS, I want to be accurate.

And I'd like to hear a lot less from people who assume that Oman, the Arab Gulf, what have you are still the same as they were years ago.

Some posters on these fora seem to have far too much time of their hands. Despite the fact that they have little or nothing to contribute, they insist on having their two cents worth.