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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-13-2019, 11:29 PM
First, I am really grateful about this forum. Every conundrum a man can face in life can be googled in here. This is just terrific forum for men.
Here is my problem.
I am a 37 yr old black male. I currently reside in Oklahoma. I am an engineer in the oil and gas industry. A few weeks back my job announced a major layoff and myself and 30% of the work force has to find employment elsewhere by July. I just joined this company 6 months ago. I currently take home $112k after tax. In 2016, I was jobless for almost 14 months and lived on my savings. Guys, welcome to oil and gas industry.
As the way things go, Saudi (Saudi Arabia’s national oil company) called me from the blue and gave me an offer to come work for them. (I did the interview way back in 2016 when I was looking for job). They offered me ~$190k after tax, and a retirement package worth over a $1M and free healthcare for life after 10 years of services.
I look at the future of oil and gas in Oklahoma and it looks bleak. I look at the future of oil and gas in the USA, and the so-called shale boom was only fueled by cheap money, and when interest rate goes up a lot of companies will crash. Funny enough I have an interview coming up with another company in Oklahoma next week—it looks very promising. While I don’t mind Oklahoma, I rather live in a Florida, Dallas or Denver. My initial plan when I was told I was going to be let go was to go to nursing school in city I rather live and have a more of a social life, and live a stable less stressful life and chase tail. All my friends advised against this mostly because of the compensation of nurses.
With this new opportunity, I am rethinking. Saudi will be relatively stable. I can easily stash away $120k, while I live and travel the world with the remaining $70k. But at what cost? What will be the dating pool when I get back to the states at 50 single and set for life? What tails can be chased in Saudi? I can go to Bahrain and Dubai to go chase tail, how will the logistic be in a place I don’t live? What is the chance of meeting anybody in Saudi? Should I travel and try to find a second home in Eastern Europe or Mediterranean? Or should I be very stingy and save every single penny and jet out after 5 years? Does American/Americanize/Westernize girl even worth marrying? A lot of my friends has been taken to the dry-cleaner by their wives.
Am I going to sacrifice my life for money, and does it worth it? These are the questions rambling through my head as I am doting the ink on the paper work now.
Any word of wisdom will be greatly appreciated.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-13-2019, 11:43 PM
I've never been to Saudi, but if I were you I wouldn't count on pension or any kind of long term incentives that would vest after a few years of service. This is not necessarily because the company will scam you, but because you'll probably not want to get stuck in a place like Saudi Ariabia for 10 or even 5 years.
If I were you, I would ask for a much higher base salary and make sure I get as much free time as possible. For example, 4 weeks on/4 weeks off rotation. Work for a month in Saudi, then hang out in Thailand or wherever you want for a month.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-13-2019, 11:44 PM
IMHO I can see how those numbers are very, very appealing.
However, I would never ever ever do it.
Saudi Arabia is a disgrace of a society in every way. I don’t know where to begin but I could rant about this for hours.
I have had friends that have gone there for work and they absolutely dispise it.
Fuck Oklahoma. Get to Florida, Denver or wherever else you fancy and enjoy life not on a compound in the desert surrounded by fucking cavemen.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 01:05 AM
I do this kind of work for a living (although in Asia)
The money is very high, but the work is hard, and the sites and lifestyle is extreme,
If you want to get ahead in life, it's worth sacrificing some hard years to get set up for life.
I agree about not trusting getting any benefits after ten years of service. Make sure you negotiate the highest monthly pay you can get, its all that counts, the take home pay.
I been doing it for 20 years, retired early, still work for fun and beer money when I want, and could never go back to a "real job" now, way to boring and underpaid.
I say go for it, consider it a grand adventure.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 01:21 AM
Wouldn't do it for a minute. In 10 years you are getting like a year vacation time and will be in Saudi Arabia 9 years. Who knows how long you will live. Sounds awful. If it was a rotation job where you got tons of vacation then thats different but that sounds awful if you intend to say for 10 years. If you are looking to stack cash for 1 or 2 years then sure its a decent gig.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 02:10 AM
Fuck Saudi Arabia.
10 years is too long in a location like that if you're single. You're overthinking it.
I had a job offer in Bahrain which you mentioned as an oasis. It's not. In Bahrain locals are off limits, so there is nothing but FSU hookers and ugly Filipinas. And it's really not that convenient to travel elsewhere. If you like the mall and hookers, go for it.
That said, if you have an offer in hand for 190k and are about to be unemployed, I say go try it out. Stack some cash and bail if you don't like it.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 11:16 AM
Go for two years and stack some cash. Keep your living expenses low.
Ten years? Nah. View it like a hardship assignment. Or a long well-compensated vacation.
You'll have freedom to do what you want afterwards.
Regarding women... you haven't travelled internationally much, have you? There are a half a billion young, attractive, poor women who would crawl over broken glass to marry your 40-yr-old petroleum engineer ass. Latin America is full of honeys that will kill to be by your side.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 01:06 PM
How bad is the racism there for black people?
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 01:28 PM
Quote: (02-14-2019 01:06 PM)DarkTriad Wrote:
How bad is the racism there for black people?
If you're Lionel Richie, life in the Arabic world is awesome.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter...33485.html
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 02:30 PM
The most important question is: how much experience do you have?
I’ll write more later. In the meantime let’s grab a drink sometime soon. Cash me around El Reno/Watonga.
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Game is the difference between a broke average looking dude in a 2nd tier city turning bad bitch feminists into maids and fucktoys and a well to do lawyer with 50x the dough taking 3 dates to bang broads in philly.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-14-2019, 10:53 PM
The good thing is that you have experience and should not have trouble finding another job in the industry. The sad part is that you probably won't find a high paying job in another industry. Houston's market should be betters than OKCs.
What do you want your next few years to look like? You could marry an american girl, just remember to get a solid prenup. Marrying a FOB thai girl will result in the same results during the divorce process, plus they're low IQ. What woman will want to live in Saudi ? You could have a Russian whore there and even then she'd leave for Dubai, so would any other girl. Conservative Okie women will leave because it's not a Christian place, Latinas and European too. The only kind of girl that would actually be okay with staying there would be a muslim woman and I'm sure you're not looking for that.
Saudi Aramco is dangling that retirement package carrot because they know you will most likely not stick an entire decade in that shit hole. I'd say either go work there to gain international experience and stack some major bank, then apply to work international in other companies with better locations like Mexico, UK, PNG, Oz, Colombia, Brazil. It's kinda how you work for a service company before you go to an operator, you have to pay your dues somewhere. And I say this as someone who hates those Saudi fuckers. You could stay there until you're 50 but then you'll look old as fuck, probably have some sort of health issue, and now you have to make up somehow when trying to snag a woman.
I asked about your experience because no one seems to be hiring <5 years exp engineers so I figured you might as well stay if you're in that category but the real shortage in engineers is 8-12 years of experience. Personally, I'd ride out this mini boom (or whatever you want to call it)....save money, and then do data science when the crash comes again. Either that or hit up Saudi for a few years then hit a country you like with hot local bitches.
Edit: I forgot to say this, but post-Aubrey 'Peak sucks.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-15-2019, 12:43 AM
Quote: (02-14-2019 11:18 PM)Leonidas_B Wrote:
Quote: (02-14-2019 01:28 PM)Savonarola Wrote:
Quote: (02-14-2019 01:06 PM)DarkTriad Wrote:
How bad is the racism there for black people?
If you're Lionel Richie, life in the Arabic world is awesome.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter...33485.html
From my Intel a lot of crazy shit goes down on the low low super low. From women preferring it to take it in the back door to hymenoplasty to saudi men topping Filipino men as that is the one partner they could fine. Apparently this saudi men don't consider themselves gay. A quick porn google of saudi arabian porn will show what these people do behind close door.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...et/305774/
https://observers.france24.com/en/201612...udi-police
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne...oyals.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...40906.html
It looks like getting the right connections is what matters. Also I will be in Dhahran which is not too far from Bahrain.
Man, I read that Atlantic article back when it came out and never forgot it. Saudi men fucking each other on the downlow because their own women are off-limits to them. It's perfectly horrible, and it makes perfect sense, both at the same time.
OP, stay two years. Pretend you're a well-compensated missionary and set yourself an end date. You'll have good stories the rest of your life. Even if the country sucks overall, you won't regret the experience.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-15-2019, 01:24 AM
No one I know who has worked in KSA liked it. Working there tends to be a short or medium term solution for men to save up money quickly in order to purchase a house in the UK where house prices are high.
The OP could try it for a year for the cash injection but putting up with life there for 10 years is unlikely and potentially damaging.
I knew a daughter of a Saudi diplomat. Her view is that it’s single men who are discriminated against in KSA not women. Single men are barred from many public places. As a Westerner the OP’s private life will be in a compound lifting weights.
Because there are so many laws and social pressures against male heterosexuality, gay and lesbianism flourishes off the radar. It is perhaps where the West is heading, not with Wahhabism, but with SJW puritanical politics.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-15-2019, 02:48 PM
OP:
First, I don’t work in the oil industry nor have I ever been to Saudi Arabia - so full disclosure. I have, however, done foreign assignments and lived in that transient state of knowing that I’ll be moving on eventually.
My thoughts would be to take the job and re-evaluate a year at a time. You do, after all, need a job, right? As others suggested, focus on saving as much money as possible. Of course, look at any stipulations in the contract. For example, you might need to repay any relocation assistance if you leave before x years.
This could be an adventure - more in the way of traveling to nearby countries, not so much about living in SA. It also looks great on a resume and makes for good conversation in interviews. Doing work abroad shows that you have balls and are relisient.
Good luck.
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To go or not to go to Saudi
02-15-2019, 03:44 PM
In your position I would go to KSA for 1-3 years. While I was there I would spend as little as humanly possible while still pursuing the opportunities in other places you would rather be.
I have a friend who is a Doctor(Internal Medicine) he took a job in Qatar for $650,000 a year on a 3 year contract-he saved every damn penny he could and is in excellent shape financially- He fucking hated Qatar and it was a big culture shock for him when he first moved there. Qatar is not as strict culturally as KSA.
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