Job Discussion Forums

[JK01]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any recent dealings with the UoH?

They are currently recruiting; I was wandering if anyone has had any experience with their recruitment process.

How long will it take to receive a contract after an offer is made?

Do they help with the visa process and expenses?

Is there anyone that could share their experiences as former employees, or those who are currently waiting to join?

Regards

JK

[blackwellben]

[sinee]

If you are dealing with Hail then there is no problem but stay away from the recruiters especially M Trading which has now changed its name to Virtual Vision Solutions. The process to get hired takes a little while, but be patient.

[blackwellben]

[JK01]

[sinee]

M Trading has several alias Virtual Vision Solutions is just one of many, and if you were to check certain other sites you would be aware of this. I have read other comments about M Trading etc, and I have my own experience of them. Hail University does not care one way or the other if you are direct hire or hired by a recruiter all they want is you to come to work. If you were to do a search under M Trading you would see a lot of bad things, now if you go to Virtual Vision Solutions there is nothing bad about them because they just changed their alias. But when you do certain other things like sending and email you get the same people etc.

[blackwellben]

[Wael Wadi]

UoH does not pay for visa expenses. The big cost is the extensive medical that is obtained from the KSA consular website. Can easily be more than $1000, but that is the standard and nothing to do with Ha'il in particular.

90% of times, things go along at a snail's pace, but they do move along. In the last several years, we have had several teachers who have never received a visa (Reasons varied from Arabic to English translation that was rejected by the embassy, corrected and never accepted, two approved visas that got lost together - if you ask why, you'll expect an answer so don't ask, misplaced documents for another teacher and whatever else I don't know.)

Generally and usually, the process is less than 2-4 months. Some have reported within a month or so. If hired in March, nothing much will happen until June/July. This varies though. Also many new hires come late and that is an accepted practice and no one will bat an eye.

There is minimal 'us' and 'them' in regards to agency hires. Any rift is invariably caused by agency individuals not happy with what the agency gives them and blames the UoH management. This however, is not played out in the workplace for the most part.

From what I have been told by the the agency hires, 3 clicks of a mouse can get a teacher hired through an agency. We have had some pretty dodgy characters come through that should never have been allowed to be in the class, let alone Saudi Arabia - which can be very hard on unsuspecting souls who did not do their basic research. Some have left in as little as a week, some have driven the students and school nuts by hanging on for months before a blow up and then drama-filled departure.
I will never forget the female teacher who was horrified to learn that women could not drive. She did not know this basic information before coming. She was out of the country within 7 days and never made it into the classroom as the local female dress had her in shock - but this is another story for another thread.

Regardless, even these unscrupulous individuals do not excessively mar the direct hire-agency hire work/housing dynamic.

Of course, many good teachers come through agencies as their timing was wrong and they missed the deadline for hire, or whatever reason. Some/quite a few of these teachers join the direct hires the following year.

ww

[blackwellben]

That's all accurate except

[Wael Wadi]

M Trading, who brought in almost all the teachers to the UoH (The UoH has only used M Trading (and their myriad of other names) and Al Falak, did not require any teacher to have a medical done before coming. Neither did Al Falak, who had one teacher at the UoH in 2008.

M Trading and Al Falak did not do any background checks. They required emailed scans of the degrees. Nothing more. Visa was in the passport within 2-5 days.

I am not sure what you were referring to to state that the information I supplied was inaccurate.

However, to suggest that the hiring process for direct hires and non-direct hires is almost identical leads me to think we are not on the same page. Do you mean that in the past, M Trading, required physicals and background checks? I would not agree with you as this never occurred in fall 2010 or prior years.

However, if you are referring to this year, this may be the case as the new non-direct hires have not come and I know nothing of summer/fall, 2011's hiring practices.

I do know however, that teachers are not happy with M Trading/Vision Solution's higher fees and other irritants for the year 2010=2011.

ww

[blackwellben]

[Wael Wadi]

Blackwellben,

It appears our differences are now explained. There seems to be a vast chasm between recruiters (agencies or whatever organization universities utilize to recruit teachers.)

No one from Ha'il gets on a contract within 90 days. The contract for the year remains with M Trading or the recruiter. I had called M Trading an agency and perhaps that was misleading. There are rare exceptions where people transfer from M Trading to direct hire but they are for highly special reasons and first timers coming over would not be an exception.

What you are describing is a situation where the school brings a teacher over with the plan of converting the visa to an iqama. That is very wise and explains why you need the medical and background investigation done.

This does not and has not existed in Ha'il.

UoH does not get the amount of visas it requests from the Ministry of Education so it will always use recruiters until that gets straightened out. As the student body grows, so does the need for teachers and M Trading fills that gap.

Warning teachers about this? Man I tell you. Several years back, I posted about non-direct hiring which was widely known as business visas. Now, they are called something else (tourist or work visas I've heard but I'm not sure.) M Trading annoyed the individuals to no end and drove several mad, mad, mad. Continual late pay was the main problem - but it seemed to be not necessarily M Trading's fault as the Min. of Higher Ed was dragging its heels and the university said their hands were tied. (Typical lack of accountability in the Gulf.)

But, getting back to the UoH, there is little to comment on about direct hires and non-direct hires getting along at UoH. That is the least of a new teacher's worries. Other things will drive one batty. But it can be a good gig if one is prepared, flexible and not neurotic.

ww