Waiting for the offer...reasons to take a job with Aramco?

1. People do get promoted, it’s a slow beast and  that is the nature of the region. But obviously you will only rise so far due to jobs moving over to Saudi nationals. People do tend to come and stay 20 years or arrive at the end of their careers once they’ve pretty much risen to their top level. And people still present, publish papers, have wider professional development within the industry.

2. That’s a risk anywhere, it’s certainly not a given here. 

3. Depends on the department. Like anywhere.

4. the Hills is 80’s, main camp is older. Yes, bathrooms and kitchens are dated, but the bones of the houses are fine. Very neutral, easy to live in. They are a means to an end.They are incredibly cheap, even cheaper than the tax we had to pay on company housing in other countries.

5.That’s a risk, anywhere. We’ve known a few with different companies, one had their offer pulled whilst in the air to the location.

It’s less of a gated community and more a small town, plenty to do if you choose or you can be private and less involved. The weather is hot, but like Houston, only really extreme in summer. The rest of the year is very pleasant. The reputation, well, living here is different to reading about here. It’s not a bad place to live. It’s easy, it’s safe, it’s a good place to raise children. The work/life balance is nice, there are few late nights, weekend working, long trips.
But, I will say, we are in our 50s, spent the last 20 odd years overseas and our entire lives in oil towns so our expectations will be very influenced by those. I’d also bear in mind, that as in the way of any review, people with a negative take are more likely to share than those with a positive. There are about, I believe,10, 000 in Dhahran, they can’t all be miserable.

Depends on your expectations, your age, your point in life, your approach to change, your family (does your wife have a career?), your patience to dealing with difficult situations etc..

Few other points:

- This is Dhahran which is a backwater in the Middle East, not London or New York.
- You cannot expect fairness or western business practices, remove any expectations of progression or climbing the corporate ladder through hard work, because as an expat there is none.
- Aramco is just a money gig, if you are not making at least double what you are on then WALK AWAY. Don’t be fooled by the long term incentives or tax savings, it’s a false economy.
- Pollution is an issue here, at least 6 months of the year are at hazardous levels.
- Career progression is a dead end, no Expats are in even middle management roles - you’ll be working behind the scenes for a local who will take all of the credit for your efforts.
- Professional development is also a joke, you’ll be stagnating, so this might be an issue if you are at that point in your career when you are still striving.
- You will be working for management who mostly are really quite useless/arrogant and have never worked outside Aramco. This will be an issue if you value your work and sanity.
- Very few expats stay beyond 2 years these-days.
- There are now only around 2000 expats left in Dhahran and the numbers are falling, the camp is now a Saudi community.
- Government policy means your job will be gone in a few years anyway, see Saudiziation.

Don’t get me wrong, It works for some, especially those that are closer to retirement or without a working spouse. But it isn’t what it used to be in the past and the benefits are not even close to what Aramco used to pay. In that regard Aramco is a short term place to make some money then go elsewhere.