Job Discussion Forums

[feverpitch]

To all,

I've been offered a job with SAGIA (employed by Cadre Economic Cities) starting soon. I have done quite a lot of research on the companies, and also asked plenty of questions of the people responsible for hiring, but I am left with a few doubts.

I'd appreciate contact with anyone else who is in the same position, or has had dealings with any or all of these companies previously. The best way to contact me is through the pm function. Thanks.

[veiledsentiments]

I believe that you need 5 posts to use the PM system.

This place is so new that I doubt that anyone can know anything. You just have to decide how much "unknown" you can tolerate - how much recruiter-talk you want to believe. New places are a messy risk even when the recruiters and management are known. It has only been mentioned on one thread here.

It all depends on how badly you need a job...

VS

[feverpitch]

VS- Thank you for the information on the PM.

If anyone does have any information then I am happy to try a few simple posts here to get up to 5 before using the PM function.

[RobertinOman]

Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority: Saudi OfficesHa'il Street behind the Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 1001. Jeddah 21431. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia T +966 2 657 1580. F +966 2 657 2097. E [email protected] ...
www.sagia.gov.sa/en/Contact-us/Saudi-Offices/ - Cached - Similar

This is a government agency,

[adeenator]

@ Feverpost

I too have been offered a role with the same company. Just recently saw your post which was communicated in Feb.

You must have joined CEC by now. How good are they as employer, the location, & facilities.

I'd would be glad to hear something from you.

[feverpitch]

@adeenator- I actually turned down this job offer, as I was unhappy with the attitude of the VP I was in contact with there. Intitially everything was great with both him and the contact at SAGIA, but after I asked some questions (and these were question any newbie would ask), he went bezerk! He started ranting about not needing more "annoying teachers who are always complaining etc".

I got the impression that they have employed people before and these teachers have all complained from the time that arrived. Whether this is because they were promised something that wasn't delivered, or they were just complainers I don't know, but the reaction of the VP was enough to put me off.

They have employed a rectuitment company now to handle dealing with teachers, so I hopefully the process of recruitment will be far better. Make sure you ask and have answered all your questions, and then make a decision if it's for you.

[adeenator]

@ Feverpost

I am grateful that you gave me this valuable information. There were many doubts that came to my mind and the VP was insisting that i agree on their offer on Skype. Repeatedly contacting me that i'd be convinced. There is almost no information on websites / youtube about their setup. I was struggling to contact someone to find out the real picture.

I chose to e-mail first and ask him questions about the basics.

1) The Offer contract had no company logo, No address, No letter head, No website details simply a chip-off pic of SAGIA. The offer was not even signed by the employer (CEO) and they wanted me to sign it .

2) The contract clauses were doubtful as they were very open ended. There was no mention of a time limit, on asking they stated its 1 year renewable. Contract mentions Family accommodation but the given options are a single bedroom, living room, bathroom. Clause mentions Medical for employee. On asking the VP, he stated its for the family too.

3) Many more and the story goes on..... I was disappointed as the VP and CEO of this company come from a high profile company and joined SAGIA recently. This new arm wing CEC created has been in operations since the last 1 year and the basics are not even settled.

The Salary is also not that great. I guess will have to rethink on the whole option as its a distant region.

If you know of someone else later do share the feedback.

All the best!!

[feverpitch]

@adeenator: Having recruited and hired people before I have a decent understanding of what new recruits want to know when they arrive in a new country and start work for an organization. Setting up a simple FAQ section cuts down the time spent answering the same questions over and over.

It seems that this is not the first time they have recruited people, so I was amazed at how "new" they found my questions, and how little they seemed to have learnt from previous hiring.

If there are that many unanswered questions, leading to doubts in your mind, I would suggest going elsewhere (as it seems you will), as there are plenty of other offers that are more "concrete".

[johnslat]

Posted by request


"I'll answer some questions about working at JEC PT / CADRE / SAGIA. This is written assuming you have worked in Saudi or are familiar with the Saudi culture so I won't get into those problems.

This is long. Please grab a drink and pull up a chair.

There's a high turnover rate at JEC-PT for several reasons. We have the 3rd, 4th or 5th principal depending on how you split hairs. The school opened its doors 14 months ago. April 2010. The teachers and the curriculum change even faster than principals.

It's a school to "learn" English where there's a small percentage of students who want to learn. Students get tired of the CADRE lack of methodology as fast as teachers. Polytechnic has nothing to do with school except the name. It's TEFL almost exclusively. The hours are 8 to 1445 / 2:45 with small breaks and a one hour lunch. The highest level classes get an extra hour break a day when the students attend the math / computer classes. The bus leaves at 1500 / 3pm. You're required to be there even if your students leave for the afternoon or it'll effect your pay.

Jazan is one of the world's hottest cities located 60k from Yemen. The city was bombed by Yemen in 2010 which killed some people. There's no armed security but they have guards gate watching on 24 hour shifts until they quit and get replaced. The buses with clear windows take the same route so if anyone decides to attack a bus of white people it will be easy. Americans are currently bombing Yemen and have for a few years. We're only 60k away and we're in the province next to the province where the 11 September pilots are from. Please check the recent news about the al-Qaida border killings where two Saudi border guards were killed last week.

There's little job satisfaction. The students are here for the same reason teachers / staff are here. They're paid. The students and minor staff aren't paid on time. Teachers and (acting) staff are paid on time. Students rarely come to school but teachers are held accountable for what they learn. The school holds that over you as they change to the curriculum of the week. We're not given the teaching material that we're responsible to teach and we're reminded that it will be held against us.

Almost all staff quit last year so most of the people running the school are teachers who filled positions. Once in a while a new principal takes the job then quits. The ex-teacher who's (acting) principal takes over. No one understands his accent. The ex-teacher (acting) VP can't string two words together in the emails where he threatens your job / bonus about students that you're responsible for. Students can't be suspended / expelled and attempts at punishing them is stopped by the Saudi in charge. Some of the ex-teachers that moved into staff positions aren't paid for their new job responsibilities. No one helps because it's assumed you'll be quitting / fired soon or CADRE will change the program again and we'll all start over again.

JEC PT lies on the job postings saying we have a lot of vacation time and we're free to travel. We get Ramadan and two weeks at Christmas. Job postings say vacation is June through July, Ramadan and Christmas. Lies. Sometimes the school says they'll "arrange" a week off, but then that's taken away as soon as you've booked plane tickets. When you take unpaid vacation to save your mind it's held against you and most who do leave lost their jobs.

Some teachers are arriving 2 August. That's the beginning of Ramadan. If you show up, the stores will be closed and you won't have a driver. There's no space to put them so they'll be at a hotel with hotel food. That's good. Don't make the mistake of eating / smoking / drinking in front of Saudis. I don't know if grocery stores will be open in the day time during Ramadan.

The internet at school and in the compounds is bad. It either isn't there for some apartments or works slow for other apartments. No internet at all for some teachers who have been here 14 months. The water at school and the compounds often runs out and is dirty. The washing machines often break. The beds have springs that stick out. The school will pay most of the cost if you want a new mattress.

The pool is small, polluted and a bath for the dog. One of the compound dogs bites people but medical care paid for the rabies shots for the teacher who wanted the shots. The dog is still around. There's power outages at school and the compounds. The smart boards and classroom air conditioners break. They'll always be fixed "soon", insha'Allah. The switches in the newest compound building overheat and burn out creating a fire hazard. There's no fire extinguishers and there's only one door out of each apartment. The compounds aren't actual compounds. They're walled apartment buildings with plastic gates / doors. If you're lucky, you'll get a key to the front door of your apartment building at the newer compound. Sometimes the security string that opens the door from the outside falls off and you can't get into your building so it's nice to be one of the guys with a key.

They bring teachers in on business visas and throw darts at a board to decide when to fly them to Cairo for iqamas. This was happening before Egypt erupted but the school makes money from the Cairo runs. They like to tell you the day before you leave that it's been postponed. Currently there's two teachers that have been stuck in Cairo for over a month. They over hired teachers from the UK so they're waiting for teachers to quit before they bring them back.

It took almost a year for some teachers to get an iqama. If you leave on an expired business visa, you can't come back without an iqama. If you're married, they make it hard to keep your wife here by withholding her iqama because teachers are brought in on business visas.

It's an act of Allah for students to show in the afternoon. We are constantly reminded that we are responsible for teaching them and our bonus relies on that. Some don't wear uniforms which is held against the teachers. The student ID cards are given at Allah's will and it's up to the picture taker if he'll take pictures that day. No bonus was paid last year and I doubt it will be paid this year.

They arrange a bank account for you which isn't done correctly. The bank has computer problems that the school has to work around. It takes forever to set up accounts. We are told to send students home to set up our bank accounts and then it's canceled at the last minute. Then they remind us that we're held accountable for lack of attendance for the bonus.

Important meetings are set up without emailing all the teachers involved. If you don't show, that's held against you. Emails are sent out with important information that aren't sent to all the teachers. We are asked for emergency contact information on a monthly basis.

There's nothing to do here except ferry to the islands to dive / snorkel. There's one Subway, one Pizza Hut, Cone Zone, Canton, Roma, and Cinnabon. Some of the Saudi fast food places are here.

I'd like to say that if you're up for living in an area best described as a 3rd world country that they do pay the teachers at the end of each month. The students are nice and polite. It's an inexpensive place to live with nothing to spend money on. That's all the positives I can think of. It's not all bad. We had a few teachers who stayed an entire year and three who re-signed."

[Beansontoast]

Sounds great!. Where do I sign?

Many thanks for posting this excellent info.

BT

[RobertinOman]

It is good to keep this thread active for newbies.

[PeterBar]

A couple of us were there in March 2010 Robert - the hotel, the days of mass entry tests, marking until the early hours of the morning, Sagia, CADRE, the promises, the hysterics of rejected students.............

Fond memories.