Job Discussion Forums

[samsong]

Hi guys!
I want to ask about working and living conditions in Riyadh. They say life is so boring there! why??
Does any one know something about the Banking Institute in Riyadh?

[Cleopatra]

[samsong]

Thank you Cleo for your help. Does anybody else know anything about the Institute of Banking in Ryiadh? what's the average pay (in KSA) for a TEFL/TESL teacher holding M.A. + 9 years of teaching experience?

[PeterBar]

Average salary would be something like:-

Add together all the salaries of all the teachers that you know and divide by the number of teachers that you know.

I'm not being flippant - honest - but it's a little like asking that well known question "How long is a piece of string?"

Salaries in Institutes of Higher Education can start at 7.5K SAR and go up to almost double that. My last salary (M.Ed. plus more than 9 years experience) was more than 10 K SAR, if that helps.

I would say that the quality of the accomodation is a hugely important factor. This can determine your social life (and therefore your overall contentment) completely.

Your personal circumstances also are critical. My previous salary was quite acceptable to me, but I have no loans and HM Govt also gives me a very interesting pension.
However, the living and working conditions in my last KSA job (Sept to Dec 2006) were not acceptable to me, even though the salary was acceptable.

The whole package is what determines whether the KSA is the place for you. And there are reams of posts on this site which discuss life and living in-country.

My social life was full, with activities in the DQ and with colleagues and friends, as well as my own excursions outside the city.

As others have said on other posts- It's what you make of it that matters. I've photographed prehistoric cave etchings, hunted fossils, collected seashells 1000m above sea level, attended avant guarde and classical music concerts, played poker regularly, attended lectures, haggled with sellers at Janadriya and travelled a third of the way way across the country by rail. What I haven't done is eat a Big Mac, but I guess that all comes down to personal taste.

Almost anything is possible if you try. Travel is easy and cheap to almost anywhere within (and sometimes without) the GCC.

Hope that helps you with your questions.

[scot47]

Rail ? There is ONE railway line - from Dammam to Riyadh !

Road ? Have you SEEN how these dudes drive ?

[Van Norden]

I guess life in Riyadh could be described as "what you make of it" if "it" means a bad thing. But you could say the same about life in prison, Pyongyang, the Belsen concentration camp, etc. It's more accurate to say you have to make something of Riyadh, because the city certainly doesn't offer anything. How could it, given the laws of the land? No chance.

l give the city a wide berth. My life consists of work, car, compound, pad, and a lot of day-dreaming. The city itself is irrelevant to me. I go into town once a week to get some staples, get what I need, then get out as fast as I can. As a city lover it's a strange experience: Riyadh looks and smells like a city but, in reality, there's nothing there. Metaphorical hay balls blow down the streets.

I'm assuming you're a young-ish, heterosexual bachelor. If you're gay or married or a teetotaler or a committed muslim or 'past your prime' or...something else...it might be just the place for you.

Wish I knew what you were looking for / might have known what you would find

[Cleopatra]

[Stephen Jones]

We had a friend in Riyadh who had a Saudi neighbour from Buraidah that would come to Riyadh at weekends for excitement.

I thought it hilarious until I lived in Jubail, and found myself looking forward to weekends away in Riyadh.

Then I met a colleague who lived in Hafr Al-Batan and used to come to Jubail at weekends for the bright lights!

[Cleopatra]

Who knows, maybe there are folks out there somewhere who go to Hafr Al Batin for the wild nightlife...

Then again, maybe there aren't.

[007]

[Stephen Jones]

[jmsauer]

[Stephen Jones]

[Cleopatra]

Agree with Stephen.

Gender segregation only applies to public venues such as work places or restaurants. In any case, given all of the other restrictions on behaviour in such places, as well as the dearth of recreation venues such as cinemas or bars, gender segregation is really besides the point. Private parties and gatherings, which by default are the major outlets for most expats, are not gender segregated unless you want them to be.

[The_Prodiigy]