Job Discussion Forums

[The Abbott]

This is my first post ever anywhere! And I am extremely nervous!!!!!!!!!!

I need your help, I�ve been offered a Lecturer (level D) position at Soha or Nizwa Universities and the offer is as follows:
� RO920 basic
� RO200 rent
� RO134 utilities
� RO1600 for furniture to be paid back
� Plus the usual benefits, like annual flights, medical insurance and gratuity payment

There are 4 of us; my wife 2 young kids (2 and 4.5 years old) and me. We are homey people who enjoy the simple things in life like camping and hiking.

We do not smoke or drink, we cook our own meals (I trained as a French chef) and we love BBQ�s with our new friends.

I am a collage (TAFE) lecturer in Australia with an MBA and limited experience in academic education (3 years). I know that Oman is a good stepping stone to the Gulf and once I have enough experience in the region I can demand more $$.

In Australia we both work full-time and our kids are in day-care full-time which means that each month we break even after all of the expenses, so we would love to spend more time with them.

Could anyone advice me about the offer and are they willing to negotiate or don�t bother.

PS. I know that this Issue has been done to death on your forum but I need help specific to my situation, also I have never met a more helpful group of people in my entire Life, judging by what I have read in this forum.

[hoppity1523]

Hi Abbott,
Im in a similar spot - offer for Sohar or Nizwa, currently lecturing at TAFE and University in Australia. I have an MA, and similar years experience (2.5). Your offer is better than mine. I am attempting to negotiate and finding it pretty difficult. Are you going to be teaching business? I'm not sure if there is (or should be) some difference in salary between fields (my field is design). You can read more and see some responses from the ever helpful ESL crew on another thread I started titled "hmmmmm...is this normal...". Good luck - might see you there!

[The Abbott]

Hi hoppity1523
I�ve read your post and I�m amazed at how low your offer is and why the big difference between our offers? I think your field is so unique and highly specialised it warrants a better offer. I just hope that all this playing around is not an omen of how things are done over there.
We�re not saving much (if any) money in Perth but we are happy and I couldn�t live with myself if I sacrificed that for nothing!!!!!!!!!
I am making my final decision in the next few days and I will be basing it largely on the responses that I get from the nice people of this forum, I wish you the best of luck and if you decide to go send me a message and we will most likely meet late August.
The Abbott

[veiledsentiments]

[windstar]

There are international schools in sohar and nizwa as well as bilingual schools -arabic and english. Life is cheap in both cities. Sohar 220 kms to muscat, nizwa is 147 kms. Sohar, if you hold a commonwealth passport, will be a gateway for you to go to dubai on weekends.

[lall]

[The Abbott]

Thank you so much for the replies and kind advice.

my eldest child is on the waiting list at the international schools in both cities, my main concern is; judging by our basic life style, will we have a decent life style and maybe save a little bit of money?

Thanks again
The Abbott

[windstar]

You can definitely save money in oman. But how is your lifestyle like? Both cities will force you to go to bigger cities such as muscat or dubai. When you are there, you will have to spend money. Food is not so expensive. Rent is reasonable. Gas is 120 baiza per litre (40 cents almost).

[denise]

An international school in Nizwa?!? That's news to me... There is an Indian school, but I've heard some scary reports. Sounds like a little prison! But I must say this is just what I've heard from others. I don't have kids.

d

[The Abbott]

Sorry, I meant in Sohar

[bomzis1]

One option for you may to home school your oldest child- I worked with one bloke in Oman who home-schooled two of his kids (and one was fairly old). I believed he recommended the South African home-schooling modules- basically the same as western (i.e. Oz/ Canadian etc..) but vastly cheaper.

I believe Sohar had a massive shortage of housing last year because of the growth of the port. On the other hand a former colleague who used to live at Nizwa raved that he got a very nice villa for a decent price there (can't remember specifics). He was esp. enraptured with the fact that his pad also had trees- a veritable luxury in the desert.

btw 134OR for utilities- is that for the year or month???

I did hear about one bloke who managed to negotiate with MOHE and managed to get a handsome salary for himself. I would hazard to guess that it may have been because he had a 'PhD' and partly because he was a hardball negotiator.