Expat in the Middle East (AMA)

[Primetime]

From my original thread from last year: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/110...update-i-took-expat-job.625688/#post-34495288

Update:

2 months ago I quit the 110k contract job, bushed the 85k+benefits offers, and accepted an expat job to work in the middle east, a corporate job in the petroleum industry.

Left field shyt lol but i moved out here about a month ago. It's a 6 figure job but the big thing is that US expats get the foreign earned income exclusion (FEIE), which means the first 105k you earn is tax free (the remaining is taxed at whatever tax bracket the 105k falls under); this number increases slightly every year.

Benefits-wise, the company matches 9% of your salary to your 401k, gives 42 days vacation (that's for single/bachelor status... it's 50+ days if you're married/family status), 2 weeks of national holidays, and one travel allowance a year of 9k for single/bachelors to use or pocket (you get 2 or 3 allowances if your family status.. so close to 30k); and they fully house you in their expat camp; basically i live in a 2-story town house in a 10,000 person "city" with a bunch of Brits, Texans (oil n gas hub), South Afrikans, and mismash of other foreigners.. with elementary schools, golf courses, shopping centers, gyms, etc. The expat city is "westernized" and has about 3 levels of security gates. Don't ever lose your ID card.

A month in and i'd need to make a whole other thread to go into all the fukkery that happens in the camp and the surrounding areas like Dubai and Bahrain that ppl travel to on weekends. It's like college but with adults who all are making money. i.e. Alcohol is "banned" but any and everything is smuggled in, or just brewed. Long story short, everyone says stick it out for 5 years bare minimum, or 10 years if you want to secure a milly+ (can probably do that in 7-8 years if you're a minimalist).

So far so good but obviously it's a hell of a shift

A few of you guys wanted me to share my experiences so far. I've only been here a month (since end of June) but let's just say it's been a hell of a month

Ask me anything

 

[Primetime]

What all type of roles they got? Mind PMing me?

Hard question to answer because i'm not sure how i'd group it, but any/every type of engineer (chemical, electrical, mechanical, etc), as well as medical (doctors/nurses), education (teachers), and relevant corporate gigs like auditors, supply chain management experts, training & development, accountants, HR reps, secretaries, flight attendants, etc.

But the thing is, they target certain groups for the roles. i.e. All the secretaries and flight attendants are 24-30+ year old British white women. Mainly because they cost less than getting American women and the UK women accept the job bc they still get their own major tax break. All the white women here are from UK or Irish.

Whereas most of the American men (white, black, brown etc) are from Texas, and skewer much older (40-55yrs). I'm 33, and i'm considered hella young. Basically they want the technical skill people to be expats with a lot of experience, so they pay premium (USA people) whereas the secretaries are more of a status thing; i.e. the big time managers hire the young hot blonde with the accent to sit around and look pretty, whereas a lesser manager may have a filipino or dude secretary.

A lot of the expat nurses are filipino and lebanese.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Hard question to answer because i'm not sure how i'd group it, but any/every type of engineer (chemical, electrical, mechanical, etc), as well as medical (doctors/nurses), education (teachers), and relevant corporate gigs like auditors, supply chain management experts, training & development, accountants, HR reps, secretaries, flight attendants, etc.

But the thing is, they target certain groups for the roles. i.e. All the secretaries and flight attendants are 24-30+ year old British white women. Mainly because they cost less than getting American women and the UK women accept the job bc they still get their own major tax break. All the white women here are from UK or Irish.

Whereas most of the American men (white, black, brown etc) are from Texas, and skewer much older (40-55yrs). I'm 33, and i'm considered hella young. Basically they want the technical skill people to be expats with a lot of experience, so they pay premium (USA people) whereas the secretaries are more of a status thing; i.e. the big time managers hire the young hot blonde with the accent to sit around and look pretty, whereas a lesser manager may have a filipino or dude secretary.

A lot of the expat nurses are filipino and lebanese.

I assume most the tech roles are indians

 

[Primetime]

I assume most the tech roles are indians

Most of the janitorial roles are indians and east asian brown-skin cats. They are the "mexicans" and do the back breaking labor outside, or cheap labor like mowing the lawn. The white-skin Asians are a step up from them; they get the more respectable low-end jobs like working the cash registers in the convenience stores and restaurants.

The hierarchy more or less is

1. Local middle easterns
2. US expats
3. UK/all other expats
4. white-skin asians (lack of a better term)
   
5. indians/brown-skin east asians (lack of a better term)

 

[Apollo Creed]

Most of the janitorial roles are indians and east asian brown-skin cats. They are the "mexicans" and do the back breaking labor outside, or cheap labor like mowing the lawn. The white-skin Asians are a step up from them; they get the more respectable low-end jobs like working the cash registers in the convenience stores and restaurants.

The hierarchy more or less is

1. Local middle easterns
2. US expats
3. UK/all other expats
4. white-skin asians (lack of a better term)
   
5. indians/brown-skin east asians (lack of a better term)

I’m talking about technology roles.

 

[Primetime]

^^Most of those tech roles are locals or US expats from what i've seen

the indians and east asian cats are often seen with the janitoral roles.

the few indians i've seen with corporate jobs, came in from the UK or America.

 

[Hahahaha]

I would do it in a second if single, but I can’t see bringing a wife there. What’s the social scene like there

 

[xXMASHERXx]

Any IT roles out there?

 

[Pyrexcup]

do people do drugs?

 

[Splash]

Congrats first of all.
This is a move myself and my wife are hoping to make by the end of the year( Im IT, she a math teacher)

So as someone actively trying to look I have a few questions:

1) When searching for jobs, did you come across pay rates? Im seeing alot of jobs that are "competive" i just dont wanna waste my time. Did you do your searching through a recruiter?

2) What is your apartment like, good quality? What about the broadband?

3) You drive? I hear its way cheper to buy a 2nd hand whip than to lease?

4) How them barbers treating you?

 

[Primetime]

I would do it in a second if single, but I can’t see bringing a wife there. What’s the social scene like there

So two things here.

One, it's actually the best place for families (raising kids). Everyone with a family there (be it Americans or any other foreigner) says the community and elementary schools are top class and you can get up to 80k to cover the boarding school expense. Because it's stupid hot in the summer, most of the wives and kids head back to their home country during the summer, so it's pretty much just the husbands and single women.. which leads to point two...

Point two: There's way more single women on camp than single men...
I mentioned earlier, there are a TON of secretaries and flight attendants (for private flights for the CEOs/managers) and they're all young 20-something year old British women. Middle easterners have a thing for them, idk why, so those are the ones they hire. But long story short, they have a bad rep for being easy... and the wives apparently hate them. So idk what to say, other than I knocked down a fat booty blonde British secretary on my 3rd day there ; i met her at a house party another girl invited me too; and a week later I knocked down a slim thick nurse from Spain i met while partying in Bahrain. Bahran is a neighboring country that's driving distance; very liberal place: drinking, bars/lounges, partying, prostitution, jazz clubs, etc... so that's where many expats drive to on weekends. If you're a single guy, there's a lot of fun to be had.

 

[Primetime]

Any IT roles out there?

Yes. They are big on IT and cybersecurity. Big fukking deal there.
If you got the education/background and a ton of experience, you'd be good money there.

 

[Primetime]

do people do drugs?

A lot of stuff that is prescription based in the US can be bought over the counter here. As far as the more hard drugs but I've been told there's a connect for anything that you're looking for. I don't venture into that territory tho lol

 

[Apollo Creed]

Yes. They are big on IT and cybersecurity. Big fukking deal there.
If you got the education/background and a ton of experience, you'd be good money there.

Whats the best place to look up roles?

 

[Wise]

what the hoes like?