Job Discussion Forums

[tiptronic]

Dear Forum Folks:
I have received an offer from U. of Bahrain for a position of assistant professorship. The offer includes:
Monthly Base Salary:1600 BHD
Monthly Transportation allowance:60 BHD
Monthly Accommodation allowance:600 BHD
Flight tickets for myself and family members
Relocation allowance:1000 BHD
Health insurance (otherwise up to 2000 BHD yearly)
Yearly education allowance for the kid:800 BHD
Fees for visa and residence will be covered
42 calendar days holiday
24 days sick leave
Half a month salary bonus at the end of each completed year

Facts:
We are a muslim jaafari family of three
Living very modest life (i.e.no movies just dvds, no expensive holidays just visiting relatives and friends, no weekend craziness just going to picnic and seaside...etc.)

Questions:
1- Is this base salary enough? Can I save 800 BHD a month?
2- Can I find a neat fully-furnished two-bedroom apartment at 600 BHD?
3- Is 800 BHD for education allowance enough? It sounds too low to my sense. What do you think?
4- Can I find a part time housemaid in Manama (like 3-4 hrs a day) how much would it cost to me?
5- How much is long-term car rentals (say for toyota yaris and nissan tiida like vehicles).
6- Is it a standard offer or negotiable? If negotiable, which parts should negotiate on?
7- Overtime pay rate is not mentioned on the contract. Is it a norm? Should I ask for a clause regarding the issue?
8- How reliable is UoB with respect to job security?

I really appreciate your answers and comments and would like to thank to all in advance.
Regards,

[balqis]

My point of view is that of a single woman who lived there for a few years. I also left Bahrain 4 years ago. Worked as a lecturer at UoB.
The salary seems higher than anything I recall even from my Prof. colleagues, so they must have increased their pay-scale.
It is very good money for the country, especially if you choose a modest life-style, as you yourself have mentioned it as intended.
Bahrain can be a glitzy country for the well-off, but its silent core is for people with an income way lower than your salary would be. I mean Bahraini citizens [ many of them Jaafari Shia themselves ].
Obviously Asian immigrants live in Bahrain for say 150 BD and they live and still are making savings, so if you know how to follow their paths of spending/saving money, you can live there for very little, virtually very little, and still live frugal decent life.

Cannot comment on the education allowance, as most of my friends there were single. Maybe you should contact through the Internet schools you would like to send your children to and enquire? I can now recall an Arab Prof I was on good terms with. He was not very happy with the money he needed to spend on schooling in Bahrain, but since I wasn't very interested in the topic, I didn't pursue with any questions. And he had many children.
Modest life-style prevails there and is the life-style of most Bahrainis, even though the image of Bahrain propounded in the Anglo-saxon media may look very different. But still the tacit truth remains, if you know how to look at the country and its people.

As to the housing allowance, it seems very generous by my 4-years-ago yard-stick. It would be more than enough then. Housing is Bahrain is usually of good to more than good quality, very roomy and often pretty comfortable. UoB used to offer housing to most of their faculty when I was there, so there was no need to search for your own lodging.
Maybe it has changed and now they offer the allowance instead. They housed their faculty, especially the single ones, in Juffair area, considered as posh and modern.

They had a separate compound rented for faculty with big families in the area called Jerdab [ sorry for my spelling, only heard the name of the place, never saw it in writing]. The uni is located, btw, about 30 kilometers out of Manama, virtually out in the desert, so quite a drive out of town. There is a compound for Profs with families right on the campus of the uni. It is semi-detched villas. You walk to work, but then you are not in Manama, though UoB area had been errected in a real Semiramis Garden, brimmimg over with trees, lawns and flower-carpets.

As to the over-time, it was not mentioned in my contract either. Yet it was available when I was there, and lots of it. The pay-rate was according to your academic rank x the pay-scale, and it was fixed, i.e. not negotiable. As well as contracts were not negotiable to my knowledge and they were revised, when renewed, according to again their fixed pay-scale. If you agreed to devise an on-line course for the uni, their E-learning Department would offer decent money for it.

Part-time maids were pretty common. Yet no more detail about it available - they were not part of my single life-style.

No clue about current car rentals. I had a driver [ recommendable and affordable! his name is Abu Baker, his mobile, if still valid +973 39479418] . My friends would rent a regular car for circa 150 a month. For their faculty living in Juffair UoB used to provide a morning/afternoon bus. Then they would take your transportation allowance. The bus was all right, quiet [ during Muharram and Ramadan the Aza was on subtly, other than that you were able to do your work while on the bus, a unique experience for the Gulf, truly unique!! ] and on time.

UoB is a reliable employer. By Gulf standards one of the best and safest. Their system has been going on for many years so they have years of stable standards in place and know how to work with them, a rarity in the Gulf.
It is an institution - as it were- with a well-chiselled and -oiled mechanism.

Bahrain is a place one can fall in love with. Last is my personal point of view and my taste is quite acquired, I agree. Personally, I would strongly recommend it, and return there in a heart-beat.

Hope someone who is there now will correct my information and come up with a fresher vantage point.

balqis

[tiptronic]

Balqis,
Than you very much for your reply.