Discussion
z4RRSchris said:
There are some pretty mental numbers jobs going in Saudi at the moment mostly around NEOM.
Anyone doing it? Have you gone mad yet?
Big talent drain from Dubai to them, we (large multinational) have seen quite a few jump ship and go.Anyone doing it? Have you gone mad yet?
I know a Head Hunter that has placed a few senior people into them, was chatting to him last night, I quote 'hard gig but worth it if you can stick it out 2-3 years', the money they are throwing at people is massive.
It would still be a last option for me, I like the lifestyle here too much and wouldn't want to move the family.
Spent 4 years in Saudi doing aviation engineering - Leave all your expectations of what levels of work ethic you expect from people, and how truthful you expect people to be at the border when you enter.
If you're lucky you'll be directly interfacing with mostly various nation ex-pats with minimal Saudi oversight or direct work contact and at least your "work life" won't be a morale drain. If you're unlucky you'll directly interface with Saudis above/below you and you'll get the blame for everything and you'll have to accept that being knowingly lied to your face is the norm from 95% of the Saudis you'll meet but try not to take offence, it's just cultural not personal.
I did 4 years, made enough to leave and never go back but you can see that those who've spent 15+ years there are like Life sentence prisoners who don't know how to cope on the outside, very few ever return to the UK, most head of to Far East instead.
Outside of work it's not as bad as you may imagine TBH, although the cost of living in the 4 years I was there doubled at a minimum (Petrol costs went up 500%!!!) so it's not as cheap as it used to be so the wages, as great as they can be, may not be as amazing as they first seem once you factor in the huge rise in basics like food where a can of RIO tuna can be £7.50 etc.
I enjoyed my time as much as I could but it was very much a "bite your tongue, get through this and think of the money after all this is over" rather than genuinely enjoying it, although thats a very personal opinion rather than a general "everyone thinks like this".
If you're lucky you'll be directly interfacing with mostly various nation ex-pats with minimal Saudi oversight or direct work contact and at least your "work life" won't be a morale drain. If you're unlucky you'll directly interface with Saudis above/below you and you'll get the blame for everything and you'll have to accept that being knowingly lied to your face is the norm from 95% of the Saudis you'll meet but try not to take offence, it's just cultural not personal.
I did 4 years, made enough to leave and never go back but you can see that those who've spent 15+ years there are like Life sentence prisoners who don't know how to cope on the outside, very few ever return to the UK, most head of to Far East instead.
Outside of work it's not as bad as you may imagine TBH, although the cost of living in the 4 years I was there doubled at a minimum (Petrol costs went up 500%!!!) so it's not as cheap as it used to be so the wages, as great as they can be, may not be as amazing as they first seem once you factor in the huge rise in basics like food where a can of RIO tuna can be £7.50 etc.
I enjoyed my time as much as I could but it was very much a "bite your tongue, get through this and think of the money after all this is over" rather than genuinely enjoying it, although thats a very personal opinion rather than a general "everyone thinks like this".
Edited by IanH755 on Saturday 20th August 19:15
https://careers.neom.com/search/ … if you think it might float your boat. No idea about money though.
mondie said:
I too would be interested to know what kind of roles are up for grabs and how big the money really is. Where are these roles promoted as I haven't seen much in the usual places?
You won't see the salaries of the "big" roles like project leads, head engineers etc posted, it'll all be negotiated instead, but the "lower" end jobs with advertised salaries are starting at around £3k+ a month tax free (still have to pay NI for 1 year though) but on average a dude fixing equipment should be asking for around £4k, based on my prior experience, which would be the equivalent to a £70k a year job in the UK.Then on top of the base wage you get all the "perks" like travel money (to/from UK), free housing, medical etc and then any negotiated monetary perks like school fee's etc.
Where I worked our "top level" folks were on £10k a month tax free, about the equivalent of £220k a year in the UK, where the pay for the same job would be about 1/3 of that, so the money you can earn sounds impressive at first.
IanH755 said:
You won't see the salaries of the "big" roles like project leads, head engineers etc posted, it'll all be negotiated instead, but the "lower" end jobs with advertised salaries are starting at around £3k+ a month tax free (still have to pay NI for 1 year though) but on average a dude fixing equipment should be asking for around £4k, based on my prior experience, which would be the equivalent to a £70k a year job in the UK.
Then on top of the base wage you get all the "perks" like travel money (to/from UK), free housing, medical etc and then any negotiated monetary perks like school fee's etc.
Where I worked our "top level" folks were on £10k a month tax free, about the equivalent of £220k a year in the UK, where the pay for the same job would be about 1/3 of that, so the money you can earn sounds impressive at first.
What sort of role do you mean by top level folk? What sort of responsibilities do they have? Then on top of the base wage you get all the "perks" like travel money (to/from UK), free housing, medical etc and then any negotiated monetary perks like school fee's etc.
Where I worked our "top level" folks were on £10k a month tax free, about the equivalent of £220k a year in the UK, where the pay for the same job would be about 1/3 of that, so the money you can earn sounds impressive at first.
I’m seriously considering a potential lifestyle change to working somewhere outside the U.K. with my family
Edited by mk2driver on Monday 29th August 21:06
IanH755 said:
You won't see the salaries of the "big" roles like project leads, head engineers etc posted, it'll all be negotiated instead, but the "lower" end jobs with advertised salaries are starting at around £3k+ a month tax free (still have to pay NI for 1 year though) but on average a dude fixing equipment should be asking for around £4k, based on my prior experience, which would be the equivalent to a £70k a year job in the UK.
Then on top of the base wage you get all the "perks" like travel money (to/from UK), free housing, medical etc and then any negotiated monetary perks like school fee's etc.
Where I worked our "top level" folks were on £10k a month tax free, about the equivalent of £220k a year in the UK, where the pay for the same job would be about 1/3 of that, so the money you can earn sounds impressive at first.
I would normally expect to see 1.75-2 times UK base for Saudi delivered tax free based on my experience working in Saudi.Then on top of the base wage you get all the "perks" like travel money (to/from UK), free housing, medical etc and then any negotiated monetary perks like school fee's etc.
Where I worked our "top level" folks were on £10k a month tax free, about the equivalent of £220k a year in the UK, where the pay for the same job would be about 1/3 of that, so the money you can earn sounds impressive at first.
The “perks” you list are not perks they are costs!
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