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Has anyone here worked for large oil companies in Saudi Arabia? During my last period of unemployment a recruiter for a big company contacted me, and promised large amounts of money to consider working there. I'm a civil engineer, and the base salary range the recruiter threw out is a good 40% over what I'm making now, and that's before the expat bonus and other benefits. I've been looking for the catch, and most of the other boards I've found seem to say that there isn't one. That seems strange to me. I'm a little worried because I went for a couple of months hearing nothing, then they called wanting to schedule an interview pretty quick, then they sent me a follow up with documents to bring with me and said I should be prepared to answer an offer on the same day. I'm kind of scrambling to finish my research - US tax consequences are the biggest downside I've found so far, since apparently all the fringe benefits, including vacation travel, and location bonuses, etc., get taxed as well. State income tax looks bad as well. I've read that being off the compound can be a little dangerous, but that there's no real reason to leave. I'm not opposed to staying in and finding my own entertainment. I've also read that off compound is more dangerous for women, but my wife doesn't mind staying on the compound either. Supposedly its like a resort community. Everything seems too good to be true, and I don't trust anything like that. So, I thought I'd ask in here. Are there any other pitfalls no one else usually talks about?
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Jun 11, 2014 19:44
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bigpolar posted:I'm kind of scrambling to finish my research - US tax consequences are the biggest downside I've found so far, since apparently all the fringe benefits, including vacation travel, and location bonuses, etc., get taxed as well. State income tax looks bad as well. My girlfriend in college's parents lived there and she spent years there. The pitfalls are you're in Saudi Arabia and it's the most loving boring place on the planet, so you'd better hope your wife doesn't become an alcoholic on $100 fifths of Jack (smuggling is expensive). If you're in or near Dhahran, at least you can get to Bahrain, although Bahrain might be a lot worse post-2010. Otherwise you're looking at a flight to get anywhere, meaning weekend trips are tough. It's not dangerous -- you're about as likely to get mugged or caught in a terrorist attack as you are in Manhattan -- but since there's so little to do in the cities, it's not like you'd go off compound much anyway. I mean, movie theaters do not exist, nor does any other sort of cultural attraction, unless going to a shopping mall is your idea of a good time. Also you can relinquish your statehood, although there might be some issues for your first year abroad. You absolutely should not pay state income tax after your first year in Saudi Arabia, even if you're from some clingy state like California. Federal income tax only applies after your first $100k of income, so even assuming you make $150k, it won't be that bad; you'll probably pay $10–15k in taxes. Given that you don't get taxed in Saudi, your tax burden will be a ton lower. You'll easily keep well over that 40% raise, since there's very little to spend money on in Saudi, except plane tickets getting out. E: If you do go to a Saudi area during Ramadan (i.e. anywhere outside your compound) make sure you don't eat or even drink water in public unless you want to spend the rest of the month in jail. This seems pretty nutbag since it's going to be late June in Saudi Arabia, but hey, the US has stupid laws too. Saladman fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 20:06
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Saladman posted:The pitfalls are you're in Saudi Arabia and it's the most loving boring place on the planet This is the catch. Might still be worth it for a few years given the salary, but it's so loving boring. I hear some of the compounds can get pretty nice, but you're still essentially stuck on a compound, since there's no real reason to hang out in Saudi Arabian cities. I guess you can go to the malls, but only on certain days unless you're with your family. Xandu fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 04:31
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Xandu posted:This is the catch. Might still be worth it for a few years given the salary, but it's so loving boring. I hear some of the compounds can get pretty nice, but you're still essentially stuck on a compound, since there's no real reason to hang out in Saudi Arabian cities. I guess you can go to the malls, but only on certain days unless you're with your family. 'Thirding' this. I have spent time in Jeddah, which is the 'party' city of KSA and it sucks. Almost every family has a driver because if they don't, the wife is stuck in the house. The cities are completely non-walkable, from infrastructure perspective as well as from basically being some of the hottest places in the world 6-7 months out of the year. I hear oil compounds are slightly better for expats - apparently the larger ones (Aramco-owned) have private schools, a bar, a small cinema and is basically a non-horrible place. I don't know this for a fact as I have never been to one so you may want to check with the recruiter first. On the upside, you do save a lot of money. You get paid to suffer Saudi AND you don't have anything to spend it on because there's nothing to do anyway. Many people do weekend trips to Beirut or Dubai, so there's that I guess.
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Jun 12, 2014 17:50
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The trick to working in the Middle East is to still live cheaply. You can find nice things, but wouldn't it be better to have or do those nice things back home? Go there, watch Netflix and eat ramen for a year and come home with a ton of money in the bank. When I worked abroad I lived cheaply, only splurging on bacon flown in from Spain, but that was worth it.
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Jun 12, 2014 22:10
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Saladman posted:E: If you do go to a Saudi area during Ramadan (i.e. anywhere outside your compound) make sure you don't eat or even drink water in public unless you want to spend the rest of the month in jail. This seems pretty nutbag since it's going to be late June in Saudi Arabia, but hey, the US has stupid laws too. Oh come on. Don't throw out sharia law like its in any way comparable with US law. That's just stupid.
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Jun 19, 2014 03:16
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Magic Underwear posted:Oh come on. Don't throw out sharia law like its in any way comparable with US law. That's just stupid. I meant just particularly the don't drink water in public during Ramadan law. The vast majority of the rest of the sharia laws are utter ridiculous bullshit throwback to terrible times of evil and I have no sense of cultural relativism for. I just mean specifically for that, getting arrested for drinking water in public during Ramadan is equally stupid to getting arrested for drinking a beer in a public park on July 4th (which happens in the US and blows Europeans' minds!).
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Jun 19, 2014 11:24
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The whole don't eat/drink/smoke during Ramadan is highly blown out of proportion. Depending on where you are in Saudi, most people around you won't really give a poo poo, maybe give you a look and even IF you do get caught by a policeman or worse, one of the mutawas (from the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ministry) you will probably be just warned and let go. Also, because Ramadan is a such an overwhelming event - it's the only thing in the press / on people's mind - it's not like you will suddenly forget about it.
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Jun 20, 2014 06:37
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The Capitulator posted:The whole don't eat/drink/smoke during Ramadan is highly blown out of proportion. Depending on where you are in Saudi, most people around you won't really give a poo poo, maybe give you a look and even IF you do get caught by a policeman or worse, one of the mutawas (from the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ministry) you will probably be just warned and let go. Also, because Ramadan is a such an overwhelming event - it's the only thing in the press / on people's mind - it's not like you will suddenly forget about it. I sure am glad we have The Capitulator here to tell us how sharia law isn't all that bad (unless the religious police catch you, of course). The irony is palpable.
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Jun 20, 2014 08:48
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Magic Underwear posted:I sure am glad we have The Capitulator here to tell us how sharia law isn't all that bad (unless the religious police catch you, of course). The irony is palpable. About half of the entire Something Awful forum is filled with jackass posters like yourself. You should go impress the kids over at GBS with your knowledge of the world; they might even worship you as a God of Wisdom, but at the very least they will welcome you as One Of Us. I'm pretty sure The Capitulator knows as well as everyone else that Saudi society is, even for the region, incredibly repressive, sexist, racist, and massively xenophobic. That said, the no public eating/drinking during Ramadan is about as randomly/rarely enforced as drinking in public in the US. Surprisingly, this statement does not mean that Saudi Arabia is a wonderful country of freedom. I can't imagine what score you got on your SAT verbal comprehension (was it bad? I bet it was bad.).
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Jun 20, 2014 18:06
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Have raunchy swinger parties in embassies!
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Jun 20, 2014 19:39
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My job interview turned out to be a bait and switch when I showed up to it. It wasn't the type of job I was told it was, and not even with the company the recruiter said it was with, just another company that does contract work for the big company. I passed on it. Thanks for the info though. I may still end up with the big company, they had engineers there to interview me as part of the approval process, and when I told them how annoyed I was by the recruiter straight up lying to me, they asked me to submit a resume for direct hire.
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Jun 20, 2014 21:04
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Saladman posted:I'm pretty sure The Capitulator knows as well as everyone else that Saudi society is, even for the region, incredibly repressive, sexist, racist, and massively xenophobic. That said, the no public eating/drinking during Ramadan is about as randomly/rarely enforced as drinking in public in the US. Surprisingly, this statement does not mean that Saudi Arabia is a wonderful country of freedom. I can't imagine what score you got on your SAT verbal comprehension (was it bad? I bet it was bad.). Pretty much this. I was just sharing my personal experience & opinion about enforcement of 'no drinking in public during Ramadan' in Saudi. Thought it would be interesting for the OP as I have lived through many Ramadans in the Middle East and actually been to Saudi. There was no intention whatsoever to express any views on anything to do with Sharia law. Good luck with the interviews bigpolar.
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Jun 21, 2014 07:35
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