Job Discussion Forums

[kartoteka]

Can anyone provide a rundown on how things are with/at Vinnell Arabia? Is the situation as of February 2019 as bad/miserable as the many posts about Vinnell suggest?

[Charlie123]

Everything written about Vinnell Arabia in previous posts is true. Salary is above average, but you are taking on an extremely high-risk position. They are constantly hiring because they are constantly firing people for no good reason. Less than 50% of those who are hired finish their contract. That means that you could be left stranded in Riyadh in the middle of a school year, meaning that you could end up with a big net-loss and a hole in your resume. The director is an unbelievably bad guy who obviously takes pleasure in harming people. He has been there since the place was bombed fifteen years ago. (Like I said, it is a dangerous position...bombings, murders...)

Also keep in mind that you will be teaching the National Guard. The Saudi National Guard answer directly to the King, and in this case MBS (Mohammad "Bone Saw" Salman, the Prince). He's the guy who probably ordered the hit on Khashoggi in the Turkish embassy.

Because of the salary as a lure, it is a given that the positions will be filled. If you are a chimpanzee or a snake, then go for it -- you will fit right in. The reputation they have is well-earned and so they do not deserve to attract employees that are any better than they are -- that is, other snakes and monkeys.

To summarize, you are probably better off with a job that pays slightly less if the management has some basic human decency. You won't find any at Vinnell.

[AbeCross]

I have read here that Vinnell does weekly teacher observations. Weekly?! That is unheard of and-if true-reason enough NOT to work there.

[Chuma]

What kind of salary is on offer for an MA TESL with 20 years experience (including a few in the ME)?

[Charlie123]

[kartoteka]

Thanks for these replies.

Long ago when I landed my first job in KSA, I did the usual research about my putative employer here on Dave's. The remarks were so alarming that I could not bring myself to read much more than the first two or three posts. I knew full well that I was probably walking into a mess, but couldn't afford (literally) to say "no" to the job, and figured that if it was as bad as the roundly negative posts suggested, I could find out when I got there and be gradually soured on the job as opposed to spending the long wait for the visa and the flight sunk in dread about what I was about to encounter.

Although my self-imposed ignorance did make for a more relaxed, less nerve-wracked summer spent awaiting my ticket to KSA for that first job, the realities of that job, true (and then some) to all the grim reports on Dave's, taught me to never again be willing blind about a gig anywhere, but especially about one in the upside-down and inside-out universe of KSA.

I've read everything I can find about Vinnell Arabia, and have to say that it is, at one and the same time, a miracle that they can find anyone to work for them, yet given that it's KSA we're talking about, unsurprising that their management can be as reviled, as legendarily despised, as it is, and yet --apparently-- remain as-is, unchanged and unchanging, in the same detestable hands, and of the same style and substance. What's most worrisome and telling is, experience has shown me that the reality is almost always significantly worse than what's reported on Dave's, if only because --as everyone knows-- admin at any given job keeps a sharp eye on Dave's, and punishes those posters whom it can identify, branding them as disloyal, as traitors and finks, and cursing them with the evil eye, such that what one gets on Dave's is the watered-down version of a rather uglier truth. So, Vinnell Arabia must be a pretty wretched affair if those who best fit in are said to be monkeys and snakes. Furthermore, I have found almost no one who dares defend Vinnell. That a person may have survived, yes. But that itself is a bad sign: "I survived."

So, thank you.... I have taken the advice, and looked past the recent ads...

[Charlie123]

[waltgomez]

I worked for them for one month. They treated me like a dog. Then, they fired me.