Job Discussion Forums

[mindloop]

[Tom Baxter]

Hi All I maybe able to shed some light on this. We are currently conducting our second recruitment drive for Aramco through Al Falak and I am happy to say that this year we have been given 4 weeks notice rather than 4 days which has meant a rather more considered approach.

I no doubt met Cuffs last year in london (I'm unsure of whether it is the correct ettiquete to give names so shall refrain) and am relieved to hear that Al Falak have made the effort to make life as easy as possible - although i have to say I have been pleasently surprised with the Pakistani contingent at Al Falak who have been really very professional and competent in my dealings with them - dealing with the behemoth that is Aramco can be time consuming and testing in the extreme in my experience.... on a side note the AF cricket team are expecting delivery of a bowling machine this week and are hoping I maybe able to source some competent cricketers to swell their ranks....

Back to Aramco and my knoweldge of their recruitment process:

They do not pay Interview expenses. I paid out of my own pocket to share the costs for a three candidates last year as I was very confident they would be offered and accept a role - Cuffs was the only one offered and I will not be doing the same again this year! Indeed this year I have a candidate flying in from Saudi another from UAE and a third from Libya at their own expense.

This year they are bringing someone with them who will be able to get all the background checks started as last year this took an inordinate amount of time - Aramco are aware they lost candidates due to this and this year are hoping to be able to get people out within 4-6 weeks if that fits with the individuals current position - equally they are happy to wait up to 6 months if needs be.

(MOD edit to remove commercial portions of post)

[Cuffs]

bump

[boundforsaudi]

I may try to set up a poll to vote for the best ARAMCO contractor, but first I need to see if I have a complete list. I think the following are current:

SRACO
Al-Falak
HAK
Al-Hussan
Al-Hugayet

Anybody know of any others? These are contractors, now, not recruiting agents. Each contractor may have one or more recruiting agents, but that's a different story.

[h-train]

Al-Khaleej

[boundforsaudi]

Dear Tom,

Thanks for the inside info. Perhaps you can give us a little more.

As I understand it, each ARAMCO contractor can use one or more recruiters, or do its own recruiting. Either the recruiter or the contractor can offer payment of interview expenses, but it may be that neither does, and ARAMCO never does. Where interview expenses are offered, they are rarely, if ever, paid in advance, but when offered they are paid irrespective of the outcome of the interview. While the contractor distributes the salary, ARAMCO determines it, with accommodations allowance being 65% of the salary. The contractor may arrange accommodations or just give the cash to the teacher.

Since most recruiters place ads without naming either the contractor or ARAMCO, it's possible for a teacher to send out several CVs that would eventually end up at ARAMCO. What does ARAMCO do? Does it carefully check to see which contractor sent the CV first and only allow that contractor to arrange the hiring? Or does it assign contractors by some other system, or just at random? If a teacher is invited to an interview under the auspices of contractor A, is it possible for the teacher to somehow get a message to ARAMCO that he would much prefer to be managed by contractor B?

Any comments greatly appreciated.

[desultude]

So, BFS, do you win the prize for the most offensive avatar, or what?

It doesn't do much for your image, IMHO. I thought avatars were to reflect something about you/you psyche. If so, I as so sorry.

[scot47]

I already told the dude but he dont wanna listen



http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100325/sc_livescience/quarterofrepublicansthinkobamamaybetheantichrist

[boundforsaudi]

Sorry, Canadians, but satire can cut both ways, and thankfully, this here website comes under American rules of free speech. I've had to cringe at johnslat's avatar long enough, though given his usual demeanor I've wondered whether it was tongue in cheek. Since I'd really like this thread to continue, please direct any further hate speech to my PM box.

[johnslat]

Dear boundforsaudi,

Well, it IS kind of tongue-in-cheek in a way. I mean, so many "liberal progressives" saw (notice the past tense) Obama as some sort of "Superman," one who'd instantly fulfill all their hopes and dreams.

Hey, the guys a mere mortal, just like you and me. In politics - the art of the possible - there ARE no "instant fixes."
So, now that he hasn't completely lived up to their idealized fantasy, many of them feel "cheated and betrayed."

But I have no problem with your avatar. It speaks the truth: it IS all Bush's fault (well, to be completely accurate, Bush's and Cheney's fault,)

OK, Mods - NOW you can lock the thread.

Regards,
John

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[7168Riyadh]

Ah, the thread I was looking for...thanks to cuffs, again, and Tom for info. Interesting.

[Tom Baxter]

I'll try to shed what further knowledge i have on this: -

"As I understand it, each ARAMCO contractor can use one or more recruiters, or do its own recruiting. Either the recruiter or the contractor can offer payment of interview expenses, but it may be that neither does, and ARAMCO never does. Where interview expenses are offered, they are rarely, if ever, paid in advance, but when offered they are paid irrespective of the outcome of the interview. While the contractor distributes the salary, ARAMCO determines it, with accommodations allowance being 65% of the salary. The contractor may arrange accommodations or just give the cash to the teacher. "

Entirely correct although I would be amazed if any of the recruiters were to pay expenses as my rates with Aramco per placement on the EFL side come in at around at barely 4 figures and that I only got after I pulled all of my interviews a couple of weeks back untill they agreed to up the fees paid to me.

So to conclude it makes no difference as to your salary offer what contractor you go through however it makes an enormous difference when you are out there as it is always pleasent to be paid on time, given accomodation and transport initially and obviously getting an Iqama within the first couple of weeks would also make life a little more manageable...

You tend to find the different contractors use different agents depending on what country your based in - however in my case with Al Falak I am sourcing US candidates for the Houston and Chicago dates - to be honest I have no idea who the agents are in the states.

The two other agents in the UK have been mentioned on other posts and Greg from Expat teaching is a good guy whether or not his contractor is in KSA i have no idea. I now mention Al Falak when I or Jon or Nikki advertises so at least the candidates have that info up front and also I've no complaints at all with my dealings with them so why not mention it...

I also recruit through Al Falak for other positions at Aramco such as Geologists and the like these fall under different contracts and the rates are considerably higher (that is perhaps a chronic understatement).

The reality is that the suppliers do the Training roles be it electrical, english, HSE under the same contract and the rates are genuinely one hell of a lot lower than in other business areas - this obviously feeds into the quality of agencies willing to work at those rates and also for example whether or not they are able to pay interview expenses.


"Since most recruiters place ads without naming either the contractor or ARAMCO, it's possible for a teacher to send out several CVs that would eventually end up at ARAMCO. What does ARAMCO do? Does it carefully check to see which contractor sent the CV first and only allow that contractor to arrange the hiring? Or does it assign contractors by some other system, or just at random? If a teacher is invited to an interview under the auspices of contractor A, is it possible for the teacher to somehow get a message to ARAMCO that he would much prefer to be managed by contractor B? "

Actually Aramco are pretty good on tracking stuff when it finally gets through umpteen spreadsheets do the rounds and quite often you find candidates who keep stum about having been put forward by other agents and i think for the vast majority of the time it gets picked up as I have had on a few occassions been told either 'we have already said no' or he is already down through another agent.

In terms of whether the candidate can choose who he goes through - I don't really see why not and last year had a similar issue the mentality of the people from Aramco is in essence they could not care less which contractor/agent it goes through they are interested in the candidate - however the contractors will argue the toss behind the scenes as is the norm in these situations but what is happening for example this year with us we are having two days where we rent out an extra room in the hotel and for those 2 days all the candidates seen are our candidates so there can be no debate - as to who the candidate has been put forward by.

I think unfortunately there are too many contractors and agents all trying to supply one big fish and due to the fact that instead of there being just one supplier there is a supplier (the agent me in this case) supplying another supplier (al falak in my case) supplying the client (Aramco) and when the client has done a good job in negotiating low rates with supplier number one there is less to split with number two in the chain and unfortunately the level of company and individuals you find working at that financial incentive level is poor - and so the whole process becomes elongated and riddled with inefficiencies - which then gives the impression which seems to pervade in the market that there is some dark art to getting a job at aramco.....

Anyway i have the joyous task of sifting through yet more CVs into the early hours so it is time for me to say adios....