Job Discussion Forums

[prairiemaker]

My wife and I have been waiting for a visa for Taif University to go to Saudi for over a year. Presently, I am working in South Korea and I need to fly back to the USA to get both our visas. From the beginning this has been a crazy ride and we are losing faith in the process. To be fair to the university, there was a great loss of time over university not knowing visa could not be sent to Korea. Today the University sent me an interim contract in Arabic that I am being asked to sign and send with visa paper work to DC were visa is now. Is this normal? I have never signed something I could not read without duplicate in English and do not plan on doing so now.

I have asked in the past about feedback on Taif University but did not get a response. Anybody there now that can give me some feedback about the Language Learning Center? The director is likeable, at least from a distance. I would be an instructor there. I would love to experience Saudi culture and Taif city sounds beautiful, but I am on faculty now as a professor here in Korea, and just received a several thousand dollar raise two days ago. I also get five months paid vacation off. Still we were ready to go there, but so many changes and so long of a time waiting�.

It just seems things are really confused there.....

[007]

[scot47]

Do not go.

[littleoldlady]

For once I have something sensible and grown up to say
I was offered a post with the same university and built up an internet rapport with said recruiter of the Magic Lamp fame. Those emails became, shall we say, highly inappropriate not only on a professional level but also on a personal level. If you want more detail PM me. It would be too embarassing to post it publicly.
007 - do you not remember my cry for help via a pm to you????

I found out about said Director through my contacts in the UK and was warned off. Fortunately the good people on the site had already warned me off.

Prariemaker. Your emails with said person were sent to me by said person whether by mistake or what I don't know. I hasten to add I did not read them and deleted them immediately. That was when I told them to s...f.. it. Now what's the Arabic for that?


Definitely a La La job.

[veiledsentiments]

[desultude]

I turned down a good offer from a Korean university to take a job in Saudi Arabia. They offered "a better contract" compared to my Korean contract, etc. I took the bait.

I made less money per hour, had way less holiday, and had a generally miserable time in terms of dealing with the administration. I actually loved my colleagues and students. But I never came close to meeting what I would have had in Korea.

If you like your beer and music, and freedom of movement, and long holidays, stay in the ROK. It is lovely compared to Saudi Arabia. You have been treated badly until you have been treated badly Saudi style.

[007]

[littleoldlady]

007 et al.
I would have been lashed and flogged many times had I been lured into the den of said Magic Lamp man.
No wait - I would not be sitting here with my head on my shoulders

[scot47]

Many employers in KSA are not very competent when it comes to recruitment. Ask yourself, "If they can't get this right, what else are they going to get wrong ?"

If the recruitment process goes smoothly, that is usually a sign that the organisation functions properly. It might even be an okay place to work. There are such places in the Kingdom. Read some of the threads here
for ideas !

And remember that choosing a reasonable employer is crucial.

[MixtecaMike]

For five months paid vacation I would offer my undying loyalty until I die, sitting at my office desk. In fact for two months paid summer vacation I get here I'm planning on never looking at a Jobs Offered board ever again.

[prairiemaker]

Thanks everyone for replying. I am going to email director and let him know this evening I will not take the offer. I hate saying I will do something and then not do it, but I agree with what all of you have posted and have thought much the same thing.

I always worry I am getting to comfortable. I like safety and always over commit to some things long after the excitement is gone. I still love my job, but both my wife and I dislike Korea because we are from small towns close to nature and we live right down town with no chance of moving. We sometimes think how wonderful it would be to teach some place we could have a pet, a garden, a place to barbecue and see something outside besides miles of communist style concrete gray buildings.

We take off at least for two months out of the year to travel and go somewhere with incredible nature. The problem is even if you travel lonely planet style you still burn at least four thousand dollars, plus the loss of my wife�s wages. The worst though is when you come back. We are always depressed for a couple of months because we miss the nature so much. Sometimes I feel it is not worth the trade of living in Korea even for the money and vacation and feel I am not listening to my true heart. We have actually been talking with universities in Oaxaca Mexico, Ecuador, and Palawan, all which would hire me and put us close to nature, but we are scared to commit because of what we can earn here and the time off.

Saudi was never about nature though, just money and a new culture to explore. In a way it was going the opposite way of the nature like places. But now with the Korean Won rebounding and my increase in pay I am making about the same that I would be in Saudi.

Littleoldlady, I remember us talking about Taif back and forth last year. You are a better person than me. I would have read those emails! Not that they were anything special. However, I do remember thinking he was really friendly and way laid back, perhaps too much so. The actual director, not the person I think you are speaking off seems very professional and I admired him for his accomplishments. He was a world champion weight lifter for a couple of years, and academically he has also accomplished quite a bit for being in his early thirties.

MextecaMike,

We have an opening coming up in the fall that the university has not filled because the professor that is leaving has not told them yet. If you have an MA and references PM me and I will tell you all about the university. If after that you are interested I can pass your CV to the director. The job would be at the main university. I work at another campus by myself, but the professors at the main university seem happy although they have more boss contact.

Again, thanks everyone for the feedback.

[desultude]

You might consider Oman. I have a yard, a garden, two cats, a huge kitchen, and am right next to the mountains and a wadi. It is the anti-Korea. The job is good and the pay is too. The only downside compared to Korea is the length of the holidays. But it does keep me from spending too much money on travel. The airfare, by the way, to India, at least most parts of India, is around $200 US, return. So to go on holiday is not a budget breaker.

[prairiemaker]

Desultude,
That sounds like paradise to us. I showed my wife your email and she is ready to pack tonight! We will likely stay here one more semester so I can finish a project and to get one more vacation to go back to USA which would free me by late August. But I am going to start looking into this in the morning. I know we cannot really talk about Oman on a Saudi thread so I will not ask you much here. It sounds really good though and would be a good solution rather than taking a massive pay cut to go to Mexico, South America or the Philippines. My wife and I both really want to go to India and have talked a lot about it, so that also sounds great. Thanks for what seems like a great idea.

[desultude]

You should do your research well before deciding. Go to the Oman board and read a lot of the threads to get a feel for the place from the perspective of English instructors.

I was in Korea for 4 years, and I liked it. But I often dreamed of the day I could afford to live someplace warm and exotic, knowing that that day would only come when I could afford to take a big cut in pay. I was surprised to find that Oman fit most of what I wanted, and included better pay than Korea.

I suggest that you try to go to the TESOL Arabia conference in Dubai in the spring. That is when and where most of the fall hiring takes place.

[veiledsentiments]