Job Discussion Forums

[15yearsinQ8]

for you, mr/mrs/ms deicide, there's no reason to go to the ME and the money isn't that good anyway, so go away

[scot47]

Methinks Deicide will be miserable in the Middle East.

[Mark100]

Most people go to the ME to teach primarily for the money.

However that is not to say that as others have posted that you cannot find some enjoyment from your experience.

The different cultural experiences, travel opportunities, new friends, develop new skills are all possible.

[Neil McBeath]

Deicide,

You were courting trouble with this post, because you are asking people to tell you the truth and far too many people on these threads are simply concerned with scoring debating points. Two of them have alkready sniped at you.

However, many years ago, someone in Oman said to me that there were seven reasons for working in the Middle East.

Here they are

Drink - many people do, and to excess. It is even possible to drink in Saudi Arabia, although it is totally forbidden. Bahrain operates as a sort of off-shore bar for Saudis and expats in Saudi, while most of the other states will give non-Muslims a liquor license, or will allow them to booze in bars. The acoholics get away with it because they turn up sober at interview, and they have had so much interview practice that they know which buttons to push.

Divorce - working in the Arab Gulf is a wonderful way of explaining why daddy doesn't come round any more. It also helps to pay alimony, child support, and take the remains of the family on weekends out when you are on leave.

Debt - this one often afflicts teachers who have been working in Eastern Europe or Korea. After a while in the Gulf, the debts can all be paid off; the credit card company stops hounding you; the bank manager is happy.

Daft - people who just got lost. There are fewer of these people now, but there used to be a minority who used the Gulf as a launch pad for the REAL businmess of life - which was often trying to live on $10 a day in the remoter valleys of Northern India. They treated their teaching as an unfortunate chore that had to be endured.

Demented - in the late-1970's it was seriously believed that people who had spent more than four years in Riyadh were no longer capable of functioning in a "normal" society. This category would also include members of the Saudi 500 rial-a-month-club (those who try to save every last penny of their salary); those who try to "blend in " by adopting local dress; and the (mercifully) dwindling number of teachers who are under the impression that they are in the Gulf on some sort of Imperial mission.

Desperate - will take a job, any job, anywhere, for almost any salary. Once in that job, they will put up with any kind of inferior treatment because they are terrified of being unemployed.

Dedicated - those who actually enjoy their teaching; who take part in professional development; who have contacts with the host society and who have accepted that they can provide a serice without doubling as a doormat.

Please notice that MONEY, per se, only features on that list as a short-term goal. I once worked with a man who had come to Oman after a series of financial problems had persuaded him that a three year contract was not very long, and that he would be able to cope without his family.

He was wrong on both counts. He missed his family terribly, he sent every penny he earned back to them and, as a result, he was unable to afford even the smallest luxuries for himself. The upshot was that he spent three years feeling miserable, and making everybody he worked with miserable as well.

[scot47]

Most of us are here through a combination of circumstances and for a number of motives. I still say that if money is your ONLY reason for coming here, or for staying here, you will be unhappy. Seems reasonable to me and I cannot see how this could be construed as "sniping".

[Deicide]

[adorabilly]

If Japan is your goal, then go to japan. There are tons of jobs there that pay very nicely (some as good as in the ME or better), and if that is where you want to go, then go there. Don't go somewhere just because you want that money. You will be miserable. If you are after the money, go to Korea and be right next to japan.

Having lived and worked in china and japan, they are nice. But not what we were after.

There are plenty of reasons to come to the ME, and money is one of the prime ones.

It also depends on your qualifications as to what you can teach, getting positions in the ME means you need to have that MA and experience they demand. The ME isn't a giant ATM where you can just think, I'll go there for 2 years and have all this cash. (in the past it might have been... but it isn't anymore)

[Deicide]

[Mark100]

The money is the primary factor for just about everyone going to Saudi Arabia.

Take the money out of the equation and just about no one would bother with Saudi.

And I would say ditto to the rest of the Gulf countries.

Of course you cannot live just for the money just as you cant live just for the money anywhere you go.

Being a drunkard, social misfit, lazy, etc is just a side benefit for those that go to live and work in the Gulf!

[boondoggle]

The middle east is fantastic if you are :

1) An older expat at the end of the road employment wise with few options in the western world due to divorce, burned bridges, etc.. but a stacked resume that you can push onto naive credential hungry universities administration who value quantity over quality.

2) A somewhat unattractive obese western woman who doesn't get many looks back at home. The middle east is your oyster and you will feel like a princess or Vanna White.

3) A homosexual man. The ME has plenty of venues and a well developed social network if you enjoy staying in the closet and "dating" arab men who are likewise in the closet.

All this for a better than average salary. Of course if you're a young heterosexual man stay far from the ME.