Job Discussion Forums

[sheikher]

12monkeys: With regard to the cultural proclivity you define as a "one-way inshallah", and at the risk of being deemed sacreligious, in addition the word implies "I absolve myself of any responsibility in the event that the inshallahed future action ultimately does not come to fruition".

[Mr TEFL]

Joeboe,

Please tell us more about Booz Allen Hamilton and the Jubail Naval College.

[joeboe]

Booz Allen is this supposedly blue chip American consulting firm with strong commitments to its employees etc. etc....but the reality is that it's run by the same sort of weasels and frightened little men that you find all over the Gulf.
The general package is above par for KSA; full US benefits including US health insurance (at Kaiser Permanante, I think), the pay is around $4500 a month, a large house on a decent compound in Jubail..10 minutes from the base, a shared SUV which can be driven to Bahrain on the weekends, about 5 weeks vacation a year (this may have changed), one flight to HOR per annum (used to be business class...no longer). Any or all of the above may have changed since I was there..I've heard the program isn't as generous these days.
The main problem with BAH was that they were dishonest and disingenuous. They started out with this "Rah! Rah! you're part of the Booz Allen team...all for one and one for all"....but it never worked out that way. The administration was often petty and incompetent.....it took four and a half months to secure my exit/re-entry visa, I wasn't paid for the first two months on the job..and in 13 months...my paycheck was never once in the correct amount. I had to threaten to sue them under Virginia law (one benefit..you're working under US- not Saudi jurisdiction) to get my final settlement. The senior staff were very temperamental and not exactly forthcoming. When the Washington big-boys showed up..you had to be ready to kiss ass good and hard. One of our duties was to attend and pretend to be interested in these "very important" teleconferences which spanned the globe..on our free time.
Our group had an impressive name like Global Destruction or Global Menace..I forget exactly. It was all BS...the truth is that BAH kowtowed to the Saudis in the most obsequious way.
Which leads me to Jubail Naval College itself.....let me start off by saying that the only students worse than the ones at JNC were the guys at TINS. The Suadi naval officers were the most loathsome, laziest, and duplicitous people I have ever encountered in the Gulf...which I suppose means.... anywhere. If I were to give details of some of the students' classroom behavior, it would undoubtedly be deleted from this post. Yes...that bad.
Now, conditions and circumstances may have changed. I've heard that the old fool who ran the program for years has retired to some Cat House in Thailand. But, I've also heard that contact hours are up and benefits down...I don't know.
All and all, BAH is far from the worst job in Saudi...but it's also a far cry from what you're led to believe when you sign on the dotted line.

[Middle East Beast]

[Sheikh N Bake]

Markeman: I now nothing about King Faisal, only about the company I refer to. BTW a couple of other goodies about it: teachers are done for the day at 12:15 lunch time, get one Wed a month off...and the military students, both cadets and officers, are friendly and cooperative. It's all in the management. For one thing, the losers actually flunk out in early weeks. Teachers stay for years. And recently those present over 4 years got a 50% raise over the existing SR18K. I kid you not.

[sheikher]

From various posts over the past few weeks, it now appears that King Faisal University, Hofuf / Al-Hasa campus, is undergoing a protracted period of indecision. The as-yet-undetermined recruitment agent or "subcontractor" for the following academic year will, under the circumstances, offer 3-month business visas which is of course illegal.

Another scam.

[Middle East Beast]

[Mr TEFL]

Thank you Joeboe.

[Noor]

[lrnoue]

What's the deal with KFU Hofuf? Somebody here mentioned that the program is now defunct... but other sources tell me they are expecting 800 new students at the end of October...?

Why is it illegal to work under the three month business visas?

[veiledsentiments]

The same reason that it is illegal to work in any country in the world without a work visa. Saudi is no different... I actually don't know of any country where it would be legal. I know some that don't enforce it very well, but you are still playing with fire.

VS

[sheikher]

Apparently the recruitment agency under contract with King Faisal University, Hofuf, has been using the business visa scam for the past year.

If indeed KFU anticipates 800 new students next year, this would require an estimated 40 teachers recruited under relatively urgent circumstances, thus another crop of illegal teachers. A hugely lucrative arrangement for any agent/subcontractor who may have the required wasta (relationships) to pull it off.

A business visa -- sometimes referred to as a "business-visit" visa -- is issued for exactly what that adjective implies: conducting business affairs in Saudi Arabia. It's purpose is to provide international businessmen a short period of contact time to consult with existing partners in the KSA business sector, or to promote new business investment interests.

Teaching ESL is not "consultation", and to claim that it is certainly takes quite some stretch of imagination.

There are visa agents in Bahrain who seemingly do possess that degree of imagination, and secure considerable profit for it. I guess that the administration at King Faisal University unwittingly trusts the recruitment agent with whom they enjoy a relationship, or deliberately chooses for whatever rationale (perhaps pecuniary gain) to turn a blind eye to their recruitment agent's illegal operations.

Let there be no doubt: teaching while in possession of a 3-month business visa is illegal. If you require evidence, just peruse the Ministry of Labor laws in an earlier thread. And have a look at the regulations and penalties in the Ministry of Interior thread.

A business visa denies you the opportunity to open a bank account. You are forbidden to hire a car, thus heightening your sense of isolation. Your lack of a legitimate work permit and identity card will profoundy affect the quality of your lifestyle.

Expect neither the police nor your embassy to be sympathetic.

[Neil McBeath]

It would help this discussion if the people who are prepared to disparage BAE systems actually knew what they were talking about.

FACT:- The salary is currently something around 22250 SR a year - plus free accommodation, food, clothes, transport to work and three tranches of 5000 SR to pay for tickets home. If 5000 SR is not enough, the company will make up the difference. If it is too much, then you pocket the difference.

You also get shares in the company, which you keep if you complete more than three years in service and there is a pension scheme. If it is too much, you pocket the difference.

FACT - Yes, there may be some ex-RAF Flight Sergeants working for BAE, but they do not teach English, and, in fact, it would be odd if there were no such people. The Dammam operation is the Technical Studies Institute, and it prepared SAudi personnel to become Aircraft Engineering Teachnicians.

Oddly enough, EFL teachers aren't very good at teaching thing like Comms and radar; hydraulics; propulsion and the various other trades that are required to service and maintain aircraft, and so BAE recruits people who can do this job.

When I was working for BAE systems, I shared a villa with an ex-Flight Sergeant. He had left the RAF, taken an MA in Mathematics, taught in Britain, and then he had come out for a two year stint to make some money. I never saw him read the Daily Mail.

Markemark's description of this man as - a farting ignorant Brit of the lower ranks.....right-wing working class trash - says a lot about Markemark's own crashing snobbery but not much about BAE's recruitment policies.

[Stephen Jones]

The strange thing about BAE though Neal, is that it does seem a glowing example of the 'money doesn't make happiness' cliche.

On the other hand I used to play Bridge at the BAE compound in Riyadh, and apart from rampant anti-Saudism the people seemed quite normal.

[Neil McBeath]

Stephen,

I would entirely agree with that. I think the grass is ALWAYS greener for some people, and the principal drawback with working at TSI is that you are effectively forced to teach PPP lessons to exhausted Saudi personnel because that is the way that the RSAF officers want it.

After a year or so, you KNOW you are becoming deskilled. Some of the people I was working with were quite content to go aloing with this - they put in the hours, but got no personal satisfaction from teaching. That applies in every country.

For me, after working in Oman, it was unsatisfactory, and when the chance came to move back to Oman I took it. I have to admit, though, that by moving back to Oman I stood to gain financially in the long term.