Job Discussion Forums

biffinbridge · Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 701 Location: Frank's Wild Years

I've recently been offered several jobs in the Kingdom,(I'm a Gulf and Libya vet),and it seems to me that B.Ae aside,it just isn't worth it anymore.The salaries are awful.You can earn 2000 quid a month inspecting parks for dog turds at present.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

007 · Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:01 pm Post subject:

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Christmas? Bah.... humbug.

Van Norden · Joined: 23 Oct 2004 Posts: 409

Biff Lohman, only you can work this out. The equation is a � b:
a = the premium you can save in Saudi
b = how much you�ll suffer living here (10 = agony)
So, if you can save $1000pm more here than somewhere else more pleasant, and you think Saudi will be hell, you�ve got to decide if a net $100 is worth it or not.

If you get it wrong it�ll be �more than woebegotten, grey skies now�

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I couldn't get a job as a dog turd inspector.

The fact remains that you can save in most jobs in Saudi. Just not as much as before. When I first came here I could stay in decent hotels when I went to London. Now a park bench is about what I can manage when I go there on holiday.

For younger guys and gals I would say stay away from EFL and from the Gulf. For aged and infirm wrinklies like me there is not much choice. I mean, a career change at age 60 ? I think not !

007 · Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:19 pm Post subject:

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

The point dear Biffin is that the dollar has collapsed, and sterling is inexplicably high.

The result is that the salaries in many places don't make up for the unpleasantness factor. That said for many people, particularly older gits, Saudi is actually quite pleasant.

robertinarabia · Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Posts: 54

You asked is it worth it, KSA I mean... But the real question is Are you worth it? You want big money, let's say at least 20,000 riyals to save. But for what? Just standing there spouting crap, teacher centered drivel, or just sitting slumped in your chair dreaming of the dog turd covered car park and its relative post shift freedoms. Lazy stupid Brits, you just aren't worth it are you, you want money- but you don't generate money, what can you do for a company, just teach? Big deal. And as for the MA that you probably think adds up to something, it means nothing, you can use it to clean up your car park. It doesn't make up for the hours and hours of boring drivel and grammar based dross that you think is teaching. Lazy Brits, always overestimating their worth! Is it worth a company to employ you. It's the social welfare coupled with a post colonial sense of the need to overcompensate for the insignificance of their pathetic little island that makes the Britishers act like this with such a gross sense of entitlement. You get 10,000 at the most, take it or leave it. Now if you're a chemical engineer or something like that, then come on down, 40-50,000 riyals or more, but not for TEFLER's. It will be great if BAE lose their contract by the way, their presence here is a cliche, pray they lose it, pray pray pray, simply because they are so gauche. I hate cliches. The 26,000 riyal paid BAE teacher, like the unicorn, a fabled cliche, and now what, they're going to be crucified. Great. Goodbye BAE, goodby lazy stupid idle incompetent Brits. The future and all the money is with us now. Money lovely money, precious money, nice money, good money, precious dollars, my dollars, my precious, my precious dollars, my precious.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

I'd lay off the siddiqi, robert. And look up cliche in a dictionary when you sober up.

robertinarabia · Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Posts: 54

Dear Mr Jones, now you are someone I have always listened to actually. What do you really think, I mean, aren't teachers coming here with a sense that they are 'entitled' to something along our car park attendant friend's lines of 20,000 riyals a month overestimating their importance in the great scheme of things just a tad? Do they really and honestly deserve it. No, of course not. Are they generating that kind of income for their companies? No. Is it to be paid for true educational excellence- in the most part- no: Saudi Arabia is seen by these kind of guys simply as a milch cow, the students come dead last. The only basis large amounts of money are to be paid for then is the simple fact that they are British. You know I don't blame Brits for touting the line that we ought to be paid a lot as Britain is expensive, there's no doubt about that, otherwise we will go the way of the Bengalis here, so Brits can't be blamed for knowing their own worth.... But an unrestricted and really an unrealistic sense of entitlement, I don't think that works either and is just a part of the problem after all, whatever a company gives these people, it's never going to be enough is it? As for cliche, I guess you know English a lot better than I, I don't doubt it, good for you old man, good for you!

biffinbridge · Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 701 Location: Frank's Wild Years

The war's over son.You can come home now.

omanized · Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 152

Hello Bobby in Arabia !! I can't tell what is more entertaining - your hysterical rant about Brits or the clear arrogance you display as a Yankee doodle dandy ! Wheee ! Bush is dead ! Long live Bush !

Great stuff !

Omanized

ALPH · Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 87

yeah C'mon Robert. Spill the beanz ! Where you gettin that Hooch ? I'm getting Siddiqi form the local Filipina brigade and it just don't do for me what tis doin for you. I can't write at all at all when i'm drinking this stuff. But you ... it just Flows out of you .. C'mon .. dont be such a Bitch now .. where you gettin that Hooch ..

robertinarabia · Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Posts: 54

When you're forced to teach Betty Azar's ' Focus on Grammar ' for no other reason that a) It keeps them quiet and b) It just happens to be in the local Jarir store I would say bootleg cognac ( widely available this month for some reason ) is the one thing you have to come home to. But it has its downsides, like when I get real mixed up with that cliche thing cos I always thought that you COULD allude to social cliches and that overpaid BAE teachers are just that, boring, tedious backstage players in the generally monotonous wasteland of Saudi Arabia- self satarising social cliches. " You know I heard that they're getting 25,000 riyals at BAE, see, that's a really godd job, isn't it"? Do you know how many times I have heard that over the years. Can't we change the script, then the gag will be better, more bearable somehow, how about, " You know I heard at BAE there was a contract killing last month or the BAE workers are now supporting AL Qaeda for ethical and moral reasons now they've adopted the third world as their new cause ". But no, it's asking too much, all we're going to get is, " Hey man, they get 25,000 riyals", and the dismal punchline-" BUT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK WITH THEM". They are a social cliche, maybe its the drink talking again, and godddammit Mr. Jones told me not to go down that road, didn't he? Yes, he did just. Yet BAE remains a two bit player, part of the endlessly monotonous landscape, dull, fossilized, the well paid EFL teacher, as much a social cliche as the hamburger chewing neo can Yank I am proud to be. God Bless America and the dollar Mr. Jones, hasn't collapsed. Nothing will ever bring our flag down, have you seen it flying proudly over Dhahran, its still flying Mr. Jones, and it will fly forever. Goodnight and goodluck.