Job Discussion Forums

[bulgogiboy]

Does this job ad sound like some Mickey Mouse BS?

Sounds like a big salary for the most basic qualifications:



A great opportunity has arisen to teach English in Saudia Arabia. It is with the kingdom's largest oil company, teaching English to mid-level staff and managers.

We are looking for competent engaging professional teachers. The positions are for initial 12 month contracts commencing early 2011.

Great salary (up to 140k US PA), all tax free, 36 paid vacations (12 each, three times a year) with three flights home included, along with medical, end of service benefits etc.

Interviews/Workshops are taking place in mid October.

MOD EDIT

The working environment is academic and you will be working alongside 5 other teachers and there is a good expat community in place.

MOD EDIT

Please write �SAUDI POST� in the subject title, and confirm that you have the necessary qualifications, experience and availability to start in April.



Qualifications
We are looking for intelligent engaging teachers with at least a Bachelors degree and a CELTA or TESOL and ideally at least 4 years� experience.



Compensation
Compensation:
Great salary (60 - 140k US with a housing allowance of 65% of your salary also paid monthly), all tax free, 36 paid vacations (12 each, three times a year) with three flights home included, along with medical, end of service benefits etc.

[Cuffs]

This is basically the jobs at Aramco.

I can't vouch for the veracity of the ad - they seem to have cherry-picked the better aspects of the positions and thrown them on the internet to grab some attention.

Theoretically, the lower end of the pay range quoted there is possible, but you would need to have at least a Master's degree, possibly a PHD, and many, many years of experience with oil companies in the Gulf to get it. You do get 65% of the basic salary as allowances, but it is the combination of both basic & allowances that get your salary to the lower end of that scale. As for $140,000/year, that's almost $12,000/month. Don't be daft.

The rest is pretty much true. There is some teaching of middle managers and/or executives, as they are required to pass certain courses as credit towards climbing their own pay scales, but most teaching is of young Saudi high school/industrial college graduates. They are apprentices in preparation for their careers at Aramco.

The vacation period is also correct. Flights are paid between KSA-London-KSA only, unless your are arriving/leaving for the first/last time. It doesn't matter what your final destination is.

Aramco is in the process of recruiting more western teachers, so this ad is not conspicuous. However, they probably want people for the smaller, farther-flung training centers of Abqaiq, Mubarraz and Udhailiyah, as both the larger Dhahran and Ras Tanura centers have a fair complement of westerners at the moment.

If you get an interview, you will be asked a question relating to your willingness to be stationed in the outback and/or moved at short notice.

You might as well apply, what's the worst that could happen?

[scot47]

Looks to me like the Nigerian scam artists are at it again. This does not bear the hallmarks of Aramco or a contractor for Aramco.

[Bebsi]

No, it's not the Nigerians this time, it's Aramco contractors.

And no, that 140k is utter BS. What you have here, in fact, is recruiters who have been hired by the contractors, trying desperately to get attention and attract applications. Then, when you apply and hopefully get an interview, they tell you that it was a mistake. The upper end of the scale is much lower, and even so, most people seem to end up getting nearer the lower end of that scale.

The conditions, apparently, are about as described. However, the figure you get offered includes all allowances, including accommodation, travel and medical insurance. The term 'with three flights home included' might, I am given to understand, be more accurately worded as "including three flights home". The difference is subtle, but there is one.

They tried this trick about the 140k earlier this year and, I believe, got rapped on the knuckles for it. In theory anyway. In practice, I wonder if they really did! If they had been, they certainly wouldn't be engaging in the same practice again, now would they? I suspect it's what Sir Humphrey Appleby might have described as "a strategic unofficial leak, Prime Minister, for which, because of its unofficial nature, no-one can, in fact, be held responsible."