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sicklyman
Joined: 02 Feb 2013
Posts: 930
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 Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:00 am Post subject: Saudi Aramco - don't bother |
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I've left Saudi. One of my buckets (the right one) was full. I'm back in my native land having retired on passive income from money generated in Saudi and loving every minute of it with absolutely no regrets about leaving.
In 2013, with an MA in TESOL and a DELTA, I came as a contractor to Saudi Aramco initially employed by Al Hoty and working as a so-called "Advanced English Teacher" at the Dhahran North ITC. After a year and a half of the worst teaching environment I'd experienced since I qualified to teach in 1997, I was moved to a curriculum development team where I worked for the next five years creating an entirely bespoke curriculum based on iPads (for better or worse).
Towards the end of those five years, I was converted to direct hire and became an Aramcon. I left about a year and a half later. The conversion, much coveted by contracted teachers, meant almost nothing to me. It increased my pay and gave me flexible leave, but it didn't change the day to day work one bit. Hardly anyone working at the company is happy with how the company is run.
The teaching situation in those 6 years has changed so much, I wouldn't recommend Saudi Aramco to anyone serious about teaching. If you want money and are prepared to be worked to the bone and have management take a dump on you whenever it suits them, go ahead. Otherwise, avoid.
The company makes over $50 billion a year profit and yet they are cutting back budgets left right and centre. Contracted teachers are having all the things that made the job in any way attractive cut back year after year. They don't care about you or real teaching. They just want to show their bosses how "efficiently" they run things.
Test compromises are rife and checks and balances put in place to ensure trainees actually need to learn are undermined by management and teachers constantly. This is extremely dispiriting for anyone who takes the company at its word as being a professional organisation.
My experience of 11 years of my life in the Gulf is that everything is a facade and Saudi Aramco's facade is the most professional-looking of all. Don't be fooled by it. |
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eslteacher2014
Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 66
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| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:03 pm Post subject: Re: Saudi Aramco - don't bother |
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| sicklyman wrote: |
I've left Saudi. One of my buckets (the right one) was full. I'm back in my native land having retired on passive income from money generated in Saudi and loving every minute of it with absolutely no regrets about leaving.
In 2013, with an MA in TESOL and a DELTA, I came as a contractor to Saudi Aramco initially employed by Al Hoty and working as a so-called "Advanced English Teacher" at the Dhahran North ITC. After a year and a half of the worst teaching environment I'd experienced since I qualified to teach in 1997, I was moved to a curriculum development team where I worked for the next five years creating an entirely bespoke curriculum based on iPads (for better or worse).
Towards the end of those five years, I was converted to direct hire and became an Aramcon. I left about a year and a half later. The conversion, much coveted by contracted teachers, meant almost nothing to me. It increased my pay and gave me flexible leave, but it didn't change the day to day work one bit. Hardly anyone working at the company is happy with how the company is run.
The teaching situation in those 6 years has changed so much, I wouldn't recommend Saudi Aramco to anyone serious about teaching. If you want money and are prepared to be worked to the bone and have management take a dump on you whenever it suits them, go ahead. Otherwise, avoid.
The company makes over $50 billion a year profit and yet they are cutting back budgets left right and centre. Contracted teachers are having all the things that made the job in any way attractive cut back year after year. They don't care about you or real teaching. They just want to show their bosses how "efficiently" they run things.
Test compromises are rife and checks and balances put in place to ensure trainees actually need to learn are undermined by management and teachers constantly. This is extremely dispiriting for anyone who takes the company at its word as being a professional organisation.
My experience of 11 years of my life in the Gulf is that everything is a facade and Saudi Aramco's facade is the most professional-looking of all. Don't be fooled by it. |
How much does Aramco direct hire pay? |
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sicklyman
Joined: 02 Feb 2013
Posts: 930
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| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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| very much depends on your quals and experience and nationality. With all my benefits including the extra month salary you get as a bonus every spring, I was taking home about $12,000 a month |
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sicklyman
Joined: 02 Feb 2013
Posts: 930
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| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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| sorry... I should add that I'm British with a DELTA and an MA in TESOL and had about 15 years' of experience when I joined in 2013. |
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hash
Joined: 17 Dec 2014
Posts: 456
Location: Wadi Jinn
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| Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2019 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| sicklyman wrote: |
| I've left Saudi. One of my buckets (the right one) was full. I'm back in my native land having retired on passive income from money generated in Saudi and loving every minute of it with absolutely no regrets about leaving........................My experience of 11 years of my life in the Gulf is that everything is a facade and Saudi Aramco's facade is the most professional-looking of all. Don't be fooled by it. |
It's too bad that "sicklyman" has left KSA with such a bitter taste in the mouth and that his legacy on this forum ends with a denunciation that is both unfair to new teachers and unfair to Aramco where, according to him, his total compensation came to over US$12,000 a month.
Think of the legions of ESL teachers that wouldn't mind being "worked to the bone" for that kind of money.
English language programs of the kind ESL teachers are hired to teach in, have now existed in KSA for well over half a century.......more like 3/4 of a century actually. By now, anyone contemplating working in KSA has a strong inkling of what he's getting into. The high salaries reflect the alien conditions he will be working in. They are in no way an indication of your "excellence" as a teacher. You may intoxicate yourself into believing that "excellence" is a part of how you are viewed by your employer, but you'd just be kidding yourself.
Most ESL programs in KSA (and elsewhere) are really and primarily social engineering programs and English "teaching" programs secondarily and by default. I'll let you figure out what that means.
Every item listed by "sicklyman" could be a description of just about any ESL program in KSA. Aramco is far from being unique in this respect. "Test compromises are rife...". most likely is an attribute of probably every ESL program in KSA.....and just about anyplace else in the world. Not only is it a meaningless observation, it is silly. That's like saying "Aramco programs have students that shouldn't be there....they have no interest in learning". (Yawn).
Although ESL teaching in KSA is not "what it used to be", neither is the medical profession in the USA. It's too bad it's no longer the "70s and 80s", the golden age of ESL teaching in the Middle East, but all you have to play with is the hand that you are dealt.
You can still make a very decent living in KSA (and the Gulf, I assume) and leave with a sizeable bundle.
Read "sicklyman's" warnings, but don't necessarily feel his are the last words on the subject nor have them influence you unduly. He is now enjoying himself hugely in his home country, but that's only because he spent the time he did in KSA. He should be grateful for that and prospective teachers should keep that in mind. He did the Saudi thing and is now enjoying the fruits of his labor. You can do the same.
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