Job Discussion Forums

[Aymenz]

Hi everyone, i really need your help and any information u can supply me with.

i have been offered 2 positions in Riyadh and 1 in Jeddah.

My wife and i are Australian natives from a Lebanese background.

The first school is Dar Ul Uloom, College the second is Al Rowad International School and the one in Jeddah is Dar Al Fikr. Can anyone give me any information about any of these schools??


I have my Bachelors in Computer science and am 3 months away from completing my masters in networking and have my MCSA/MCSE certifications from microsoft. They want to hire me as a secondary english teacher??? they are offering 10,000 SAR basic salary and 24,000 SAR accomodation as we are a couple, and only 25% tutition discount, they pay for return airfares and visa expenses.

My wife has her associates degree in Business and is still completing her bachelors in Education and training. we both have 1 year teaching experience in Kuwait. They offered her the same package as mine but without the accomodation allowance as i get it in my contract. They want her to teach in the college section the preparation year program, general english.


Which if these schools do u reccomend.

are the salaries reasonable???

Dar Ul Ulloom said that they don't have australian visa so they wanted to bring us on our lebanese passports, but we didnt agree so they said that they are going to send us a visit visa and then transfer that to working visa on our aust passports.



Can any one please comment on this as we are very confused.

Also what would prep teaching in college mean, they said her hrs are from 8am to 5pm and maybe night shift from 5-10pm

they said a total of 21 hrs teaching and the rest its a (48 hr week) consists of workshops, training meetings etc..


sorry for going on and on but i am trying to be as clear as i can to get the info i need.


thanks heaps in advance

aymen;

[007]

[Aymenz]

Thanks for ur reply, but unfortunately i am not finding any positions in my field as i have no practical experience, and plus i am waiting to complete my masters to apply to university so any teaching experience will boost me for the time being.

As for the visa, my dad advised me as he has been in ksa all his life not to ever agree entering on the lebanese passport so we denied and they came up with the second option of sending us a business visit visa and then transfering it to a working visa and then to iqama using the australian passport.


thanks

aymen

[zeke0606]

Aymenz,

This school that allows you a BA and a MA in computers - did they teach you how to use the English language or only computer slang? If you wrote like this in my class, you would earn a zero.

Zeke

[Aymenz]

i am not writing an essay zeke, i am posting on a forum. the uni that gave me my BA is one of the leading providers in Australia. one would assume that it's not necessary to re read their postings on forums for grammer mistakes as they are not marked.

thanks for picking faults in the post instead of replying with information i could actually use. your input was very valuable.

[zeke0606]

You are welcome!

Consider this prospective teacher -- I am a student and see all the grammar mistakes, misspellings and shorthand slangs and you are my English teacher....

Consider this prospective teacher -- I am the one that you are sending that resume to and I am the one that does the hiring and I see the same thing as that student sees....

Now, in both cases you have blown your first impression and most likely any job.

There are far too many employers that read these forums to find what teachers are saying about them and their schools and take notes.

You are very welcome!

[Aymenz]

Believe me that never crossed my mind.

I understood from your postings that you were mocking me and that offended me as all i am after is some advice.

Thanks for making me aware.

[Stephen Jones]

what's the problem with taking the work visa on a Lebanese passport, if the salary has been signed?

[Aymenz]

The rights of a Lebanese are different to those of an Australian. You're also treated alot differently. In addition, the Lebanese Embassy doesn't offer Lebanese citizens any support.

[Stephen Jones]

The rights of a Lebanese on working legally are way superior to those of any nationality working illegally on a business visa. If you are worried about being screwed by your employer then working illegally on a promise of a legit visa is not the way to go.

As far as Saudi laws go, I know of no such discrimination. I have known many Lebanese working here over the years and not one has ever had a complaint about discrimination, or had any trouble with the police, so even if the Lebanese embassy doesn't care about you, and there are few enough Lebanese in Saudi for that to be doubtful, it wouldn't matter.

Some places do have a double or triple salary scheme. If you've already got the salary that becomes irrelevant.

There are problems getting visas for certain nationalities. At JIC in 2005 we had to refuse a top notch candidate because we were told no way could they transfer the visa of somebody with a Palestinian passport (note with Palestinian documentation, not a Palestinian with Jordanian or Lebanese nationality). If we'd have been told the same was true of Iranian passport holders we wouldn't have left three very capable candidates wasting months in Teheran while we tried to get the visa.

[Aymenz]

Thanks so much, this information was very useful. The school academic year starts the 05th of October. The school wants to bring us on a visit visa now, before work begins and attempt to transfer it to a working visa. This is what i understood from them. The last thing my wife and I want is to work illegally anywhere. I'll ask more about the process. It seems to me that taking up 2 of their Lebanese visas is an easier option which i will re consider.

Thanks.

[Cleopatra]

I agree with Stephen. Provided your salary has been agreed upon, it is definitely preferable to come as Lebanese citizens with a full working visa, than to come as Australian citizens on a visit visa. The latter option is to be taken only as a last resort: even if your employers are sincere in their wish to transfer it to a working visa asap, without such a visa you cannot get an iqama, and therefore cannot get a phone, driving license, exit visa etc. So you would be in limbo for a couple of months at least. Plus, making the change from visit to work visa is not always smooth in practice.

[Stephen Jones]

Now, the next problem is that if you are in Australia, you may find you would be required to fly to Lebanon to pick up the Saudi visa there. Not completely clear cut.

[Aymenz]

We arrived to Lebanon 2 weeks ago as our summer vacation in Kuwait
started. The problem is that we have Lebanese identity cards but no Lebanese passports. Applying for Lebanese passports is a long process, maybe about 4 months. It looks like we will be returning to Kuwait if these are our only options

[Cleopatra]