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Post by GYM30 on Jun 22, 2013 16:14:33 GMT
Dear All,
I am new here and just registered. I wish my post find you fine and having a pleasant life. I got the offer and have some concerns and questions as follows:
1- It is family status with 2 kids below 6 yrs old
2- I am a senior ******* with around 8 yrs experiences in well know oil field service company and holding a master degree from a European university. They offered me ****** II in exploration department. It is written that salary code is 13.
a. My question here is my experience match with ***** II with my experiences and qualifications?
b. Is salary code meaning the code grade which is 13?
c. And based on my experiences and qualifications, where should I stand based on ARAMCO scale. In my current job I am like 5 grades ahead from entry level and considered senior staff but here I heard that entry level is 11 which mean that I am only 2 levels ahead.
3- I am an Asian person and the salary is in GBP, any reasons behind that? Is it advantage?
4- No furniture allowance, is that for everybody? As far as I know some other regional operator provides onetime payment of furniture allowance? Is that mean all ARAMCO staff even high position has no allowance support?
5- No car allowance, is it normal?
6- The offer me lower salary than my current one (gross one) but the net is higher as I pay tax here whereas in KSA no tax. Is it a good deal or I should negotiate with them to match my current gross one at least?
7- Medical insurance is worldwide ?
8- Working place is Dhahran whereas home is Abqaig. Why? The lost 2 hrs at least per day is really painful? I prefer to stay in Damam or Al khobar and even outside ARAMCO accommodation, can I?
Thanks very much for your prompt advice as I urgently need to decide before the offer expire within 7 days.
cheers,
GYM30
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Post by vpainter on Jun 22, 2013 18:45:46 GMT
Hi! congratulations on your offer. I will attempt to answer your questions.
1,2 - Yes the 13 is your grade code. Although, GC's in Aramco start at GC 3 and go up. The difference that hits at GC 11+ is that those GC's are eligible for family status and the use of all residential facilities. Below GC 11 cannot bring their family without an out of policy exception.
They have their own facilities, ex: exercise gyms.
Yes, there are people with more experience than you at GC 13.
3. Are you living in the UK or Europe? What passport do you hold? Being Asian and being hired in/from/thru the UK can place you on the GBP.
4. No one gets a furniture allowance. When you first come you can choose to ship your things or have cash in lieu of shipping. You will have Aramco furniture in your home when you first arrive. You can then replace that when your shipment arrives or you can replace it at your leisure if cash in lieu is taken, or you can live with Aramco furniture for the length of your stay. The furniture is rented if not replaced and if you have a shipment come in it is free until it gets here and anything you decide to continue to use has a rental fee after that.
UK payroll folks on the forum will let you know if that is incorrect for their payroll.
5. No one gets a car allowance.
6. You can choose to negotiate if you choose to. They can meet it, say no, or withdraw the offer. Only you can decide if the offer is good for you and your family.
7. This question will have to be answered by someone on the UK payroll and has UK insurance.
8. Dhahran camp is full. Families are all going to ABQ at the moment where there are homes available for people with children. The compound is a good compound. The commute is compensated for by about 5 hours of pay per week. Over a year's time, that is a nice piece of change. As I have previously said. Pretend you moved to Houston, TX in the US and choose to live in the suburbs but worked downtown. You would take the metro bus to work each day and back home and it is the same commute people make by choice every day there. And you definitely would not get any monetary compensation for having to commute. Use the time on the bus to nap, read, socialize, etc.
As Hadia on the forum has said, recommended that you get here, experience the life inside an Aramco compound and then decide if you want to live out in the local community. Your wife and children may prefer camp life while you're at work where she can drive and have activities readily available as your kids grow and get involved.
Aramco does give a housing allowance for some who choose to live off camp, but it probably will not cover the entire cost. Also, many local accommodations must be paid for a year in advance.
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Post by GYM30 on Jun 23, 2013 12:30:11 GMT
Thanks very much vpainter for your comprehensive answer.
I am an Asian person based on one of the best SE Asia capital and really afraid that I will regret the nice super life i have in such nice downtown where I live next door to my office and walk around 5min to office? and have lunch at home with my family everyday. In fact during all my work experience I always life 5-20min from home to office
What do you mean the commute is compensated for by about 5 hours of pay per week?
I don’t know if they consider that I am paying tax when they prepared my offer. I replied them saying that my current gross salary is higher but I am still wonder if I still have the room to negotiate as no reply from them since 2 days ago and the offer will expire within 7 days?
For furniture, I have no furniture as I live in furnished flat now and I have only light things for shipping (dishes, hand kitchen stuff, juices mixer, iron ….etc) so what best solution for me regarding the furniture options. How much is cash in lieu (min-max)
So for grade you think it is quite good, is it senior position? what is your though about this grade comparing to my current one, is that mean that my current employer has lower standard to put me 5 places ahead whereas ARAMCO put me 2 places ahead from entry grade ?
For fligh ticket from my current place, they consider my origin as my home country and now I am not based on my home country so should I fly there by my cost? or they will provide it from my current place with my family
Thanks very much
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Post by vpainter on Jun 23, 2013 21:11:11 GMT
Curious, if you have a nice super life in such nice downtown, why would you change it?
Monetary compensation is given to those who commute to DHA from ABQ or RT. I am not sure what it is that you do not understand?
If you do a search on the forum, cash in lieu has been discussed and someone has posted how much that is for their payroll.
Your GC with your current company does not relate to GC at Aramco. It cannot be compared. Apples to Oranges. Your offer states what your position is. Only you can decide if it is a good offer for you and your family. No one else can tell you that.
You will have to ask your relocation agent for where they will fly you from, but I would guess it would be from where you are living presently. But changes are made and only your relocation guide will know the answer to that question for certain.
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Post by GYM30 on Jun 24, 2013 11:19:52 GMT
Thanks ver much vpainter. In fact I want to change cuz I want to work in operator company , to get the experience and widen my knowledge.
I hope they will consider my current place not my point of origin.
I wonder if they will consider cash in lieu from my origin not current place
Thanks
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Post by azraeil on Jun 24, 2013 16:19:49 GMT
1. First off, you are lucky to get GC13 with only 8 years of experience. Most professionals with 8 years of experience will get GC12 in Aramco because usually you need to have 10 years of experience to be able to get GC13. I know several people on GC13 with 15-20 years experience in the industry.
2. The British Payroll is where Aramco dump most of the nationalities who will never accept the Asian Payroll. There are 44 nationalities at last count on the British Payroll. Those whose country has established O&G Industry who are not the the US/Canada/UK/Eurozone area will be assigned to the Sterling Payroll.
3. There is no furniture allowance though Aramco does provide rent free furniture for the first 4 months. After the 4 months, Aramco expects your shipment to have arrived.
4. There is also no car allowance though some staff will be getting company cars if their department heads deemed that it is needed. For Area Exploration which is where you are assigned, you will need to be a manager level to get a company car.
5. Aramco would have taken into account that the net pay and relevant benefits would be superior to what you are getting but there is no harm in trying to negotiate for a higher salary
6.Medical insurance for the Sterling Payroll is NOT worldwide. They will have medical covee while you are in Kingdom but you will be on your own once you leave the kingdom. You will need to have your own insurance covee outside KSA. This applies when you go on repat or even to Bahrain for a quick break.
7. Dhahran and RT compound are Full (Maybe not RT, but then again, they are trying to get people from the Dow-Chemical Saudi Aramco refinery project in RT) and all new hires who are GC15 and below are assigned Abqaiq Accomodation. Dhahran compound are meant for the specialist compound (GC15 and above) so if you're not GC15, Aramco is sticking to the manual on this one. They have implemented some sort of commuting allowance as mentioned by Vpainter but you will need to get your managers approval which also means that you will need to leave at 4:15PM every day instead of 3:30 for those who opt NOT to take the allowance. Aramco has leased a 540 units compound about 10 minutes from Rakah but I believe this are slated for those who needs to move from RT and also for the American/Canadian new hires. You can live outside in Khobar but your wife will be stuck in the house until you come back from work as she cannot drive.
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Post by raman on Jun 24, 2013 17:12:17 GMT
o,
So, 10 years of experience to get into grade 13? and if someone just got into grade 13, how many years, on normal basis, can he reach grade 15?
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Post by GYM30 on Jun 25, 2013 5:27:35 GMT
Thanks very much azraeil for your comprehensive information.
What is the Asian payroll ? I though aramco have only USD/GBP/euro and local payroll.
Can u bring more light at the commuting allowance. In fact it will be really hard for me to sacrifice lunch hour with family as this is my life style during all my work experience? What is the working hours. I am not a good person who like get up very early. My current company is very flexible and mange people smartly by objectoves and productivity rather than strict working hours ?
Thanks for sharing your experience. For me it will 1st time to leave my 1st employer if I sign the offer, that's why I am hesitant
Regards
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Post by azraeil on Jun 25, 2013 6:46:43 GMT
GYM30,
Aramco has 7 different payroll, American/Canadian - Sterling - Euro - Asian - AOA (Any Other Arabs) - Saudi Payroll and Casual Payroll (for women)
Asian Payroll are for those nationalities from South Indian continent, the Philippines etc. Nationalities with countries with an established O&G industry (even if they are Asians) will be put in the Sterling payroll.
The commuting allowance were implemented early this year and it will add an extra 8% on top of your base salary. This allowance have to be approved by your department head (manager) but I am not sure if it has to be done every month or a one time thing. If you choose this allowance, you need to leave on the 4:15PM bus and cannot take the 3:30PM bus. I'm not privy to the detailed information as I live in Dhahran.
Working hours are 7:00 AM to 4PM so the buses from ABQ will leave probably at 5:40AM in the morning to arrive at the core area (where you will work) at around 6:45AM. You can obviously drive if you want to so that will give you some extra winks.
There is no way you can spend lunch with the family if you live in ABQ (or even outside the compound for that matter) because it takes at least 7-8 minutes to even get out of the compound from the office.
It is tough to make the change. I was in the same boat before but I have not regretted doing it.
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Post by azraeil on Jun 25, 2013 6:49:04 GMT
Raman,
Rule of thumb - 5 years for a promotion to another grade code.
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Post by GYM30 on Jun 25, 2013 11:10:42 GMT
Thanks very much asreail for clarification. So working hours is 7-4 including lunch hour.? And lunch is provided by aramco free of charge? In case not , restaurants are near by ? You said bus leave 5:40 oh my , I an going to get up very early like school time, if I drive when I can leave home ?
Thanks
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Post by GroveWanderer on Jun 25, 2013 17:50:47 GMT
As far as lunch goes, Aramco does not provide lunch for free but all the major office complexes in the company have at least one dining area and/or snack bar with relatively cheap food. However some of the smaller offices do not have any catering available. There are only two "commercial" eating establishments inside the Dhahran compound - again one is a proper restaurant, the other just does snacks. It would depend how close your office location is to them, whether you would have time to use them or not.
Otherwise the nearest restaurants outside the compound are too far away to be practical for a one-hour lunch break in most cases.
Some people bring a packed lunch from home.
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Post by expatwife on Jun 25, 2013 20:39:07 GMT
To add regarding places to eat, there 2 dining halls one by the commissary and one inside al midra. then there is 1 restaurant, tandoori at the moment, and 1 will probably open after summer to replace clubhouse one, and there is also another one at hobby farm. In your office there should be coffee and snack place, like sandwich and wrap type of thing. So, don't worry about getting food. Regarding driving to work, you may end up prefer to take the bus. Driving here is not pleasant and stressful  |
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Post by GYM30 on Jun 26, 2013 3:21:24 GMT
Thanks expatwife and GroveWanderer for your info, seems that if I sign the offer I will have to really change my mind and life style as I don't like to eat all the time in the restaurant as I have a super star cooker at my home  plus I need to have a real lunch break which I some time take shower to back fresh to office. My current employer is super flexible in term of working hours, some time I come to office 9am :lol: Can i make this conclusion, even if i live in Dhehran complex, no way to have lunch at home? Cheers |
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Post by GroveWanderer on Jun 26, 2013 5:00:54 GMT
If you were living and working in Dhahran, yes you would have a chance to go home for lunch - there are workhaul buses going from all the major office areas to all areas of the family camp at lunchtimes, or if you have your own car you can drive home. I would say that quite a large proportion of the people I know in Dhahran, go home for lunch.
But I thought you said your offer was to work in Dhahran but live in Abqaiq - in which case there would be absolutely no chance to go home for lunch. There are also no "flexible lunch hours" - at least not unless you have a very, very understanding (not to say lax) boss.
Just to point out that there are many more eating places than mentioned by expatwife, as I said earlier, most major office complexes (and there are several within the Dhahran area in addition to Al Midra) have at least one eating area and many that don't have a formal location set aside with tables, will have "food stations" selling things like sandwiches and snacks, including salads and fresh fruit, which can make for a fairly acceptable lunch.
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plus I need to have a real lunch break which I some time take shower to back fresh to office. My current employer is super flexible in term of working hours, some time I come to office 9am :lol: