New job - new life

I've been searching for a new job here in Syria for almost months but nothing interesting and most jobs were really entry level while I'm looking for a better job on both financial and technical level.

I've decided to move to Gulf Area because the market there is much bigger and I will be working on a bigger scale than here and it's of course better wages.

I've been lucky to find a contractor job at Aramco which is one of biggest oil company in the world through a friend of mine. I'm waiting for Visa now and expected to travel next Thursday/Friday.

The job is located in Al Khobar - KSA and it's a one year contract I will be working in ITBCM (IT Business Continuity Management) as a Coordinator my job will be dealing with many departments so that's a plus it's not heavy on the technical level but it's really interesting on communications level and I will be working with multinationals employees.

My family will be moving with me, it's a huge step for them especially for my 2.5 years old daughter she will be missing a lot . My wife will struggle at first since women are not allowed to drive there.

On the other side the pay is almost 300% what I'm making now

I hope that I will be able to finish the last exam I have for 2010 which is 70-647 the good thing is that I can do the exam there in Khobar so no more trips to Lebanon

Well I guess you gotta do what you gotta do

Will Miss Syria and Damascus for sure

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Comments

MrAgent

Congrats! Ive never been to Syria, but I have been all over the gulf area (I used to work for the US State Dept). Hope it all works out for you and your family.

za3bour

MrAgent wrote: »

Congrats! Ive never been to Syria, but I have been all over the gulf area (I used to work for the US State Dept). Hope it all works out for you and your family.

Thanks a lot, I've been only to Dubai (I hated) and Abu Dhabi (I loved). It's gonna be my first trip to Saudi Arabia.

rogue2shadow

Congrats man! I'm happy to see your progress!

WillTech105

Wow -- thats nice! I've mostly been in the NY area so I have no idea how it'd feel to literally MOVE to another area for a job but congrats either way!

I recently got a job myself in working more with Cisco (my goal) so it looks like its true what they say, beginning and end of year is usually when companies start hiring.

JBrown

WillTech105 wrote: »

Wow -- thats nice! I've mostly been in the NY area so I have no idea how it'd feel to literally MOVE to another area for a job but congrats either way!

I recently got a job myself in working more with Cisco (my goal) so it looks like its true what they say, beginning and end of year is usually when companies start hiring.

I have moved twice, and both times as further as possible from middle east

. It's all right when you a have job and place to move to, but much troublesome when moving somewhere with out knowing WTF is in store for you. and yes New York rocks.

Turgon

za3bour wrote: »

My wife will struggle at first since women are not allowed to drive there.

Is this true?

MrAgent

Yes. Saudi Arabia is quite restrictive on what women can and can not do.

varelg

Congrats za3bour on your promotion, regarding jobs on "better financial and technical level" there may have been back in your country just in a different segment of the IT market- however I assume this without knowing actual conditions of the job market in particular countries, just my experience of seeing Windows stops being a viable solution at a certain level...
Good luck on your new job!

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

Thanks a lot, I've been only to Dubai (I hated) and Abu Dhabi (I loved). It's gonna be my first trip to Saudi Arabia.

I guess the good thing is you and your family get to do the hajj. That's something positive, I guess.

Congrats on the new job.

erpadmin

MrAgent wrote: »

Yes. Saudi Arabia is quite restrictive on what women can and can not do.

Syria is also much more secular compared to the KSA. Women have to cover up over there and always defer to men (at least in public).

za3bour

WillTech105 wrote: »

Wow -- thats nice! I've mostly been in the NY area so I have no idea how it'd feel to literally MOVE to another area for a job but congrats either way!

I recently got a job myself in working more with Cisco (my goal) so it looks like its true what they say, beginning and end of year is usually when companies start hiring.

Thanks indeed, well I didn't experience this feeling before as well it's pretty a combination of joy, excitement, business and sadness in some areas. I will not move my furniture because it will cost a fortune so it will be at my house in Damascus however I did pack almost every thing else.

The last 10 days have been really really busy trying to pack and buy stuff. I was actually shock to get the offer I didn't really know that they do hire at the end of the year.

The funny thing is that just this week I got 2 jobs interview which I turned down while in the last three months I got only one

za3bour

rogue2shadow wrote: »

Congrats man! I'm happy to see your progress!

Thanks a lot, it's a good step for me

za3bour

erpadmin wrote: »

I guess the good thing is you and your family get to do the hajj. That's something positive, I guess.

Congrats on the new job.

True indeed, you need to get permit to do the Hajj and usually you don't get it unless you are over 60. Every year they only take around 25000 people from Syria. Living in Saudi Arabia you can easily get the permit.

I'm not that religious but I do wanna do the hajj someday.

Thanks

za3bour

Turgon wrote: »

Is this true?

Yea

it's pretty weird, my wife is used to drive and go to her work/gym and do her visits which she can't do anymore.

We can get a driver though but that's not cheap. It's not the same now in KSA there are less restrictions than before but it's pretty conservative society.

To be honest my goal was to get a job in Qatar (and still) but the offer was too good to be rejected.

Turgon

za3bour wrote: »

Yea it's pretty weird, my wife is used to drive and go to her work/gym and do her visits which she can't do anymore.

We can get a driver though but that's not cheap. It's not the same now in KSA there are less restrictions than before but it's pretty conservative society.

To be honest my goal was to get a job in Qatar (and still) but the offer was too good to be rejected.

Congratulations on the job. Just be sure to observe all the laws over there and you will be fine.

za3bour

JBrown wrote: »

I have moved twice, and both times as further as possible from middle east . It's all right when you a have job and place to move to, but much troublesome when moving somewhere with out knowing WTF is in store for you. and yes New York rocks.

I agree it Rocks

I've been there for one day only and felt in love with it. I wish I could move to USA someday.

Middle East is pretty complicated and not easy to live in/adopt for foreigners.

za3bour

Turgon wrote: »

Congratulations on the job. Just be sure to observe all the laws over there and you will be fine.

Thanks a lot,

Yea I've been told a lot about this, Khobar though is more open comparing to other cities in KSA like Riyadh because many foreigners lives there.

dmoore44

za3bour wrote: »

Yea it's pretty weird, my wife is used to drive and go to her work/gym and do her visits which she can't do anymore.

We can get a driver though but that's not cheap. It's not the same now in KSA there are less restrictions than before but it's pretty conservative society.

To be honest my goal was to get a job in Qatar (and still) but the offer was too good to be rejected.

I worked in Doha for a few months - I had a blast. Qatar has a very open and comparatively liberal society, so I can definitely see the draw. Good luck on getting a job there!

mikej412

Congratulations on the new Job and new adventure

za3bour

mikej412 wrote: »

Congratulations on the new Job and new adventure

Thanks a lot

za3bour

dmoore44 wrote: »

I worked in Doha for a few months - I had a blast. Qatar has a very open and comparatively liberal society, so I can definitely see the draw. Good luck on getting a job there!

Yea that's what I heard I didn't like Dubai because I thought it's very artificial I heard Doha is not. My dream has been to attend World Cup (Soccer) and since Qatar is hosting 2022 it won't be closer than this

Thanks for the wishes

Essendon

Congrats mate, glad things are working out for you. I remember your threads about having to go to a different city to do an exam, and once the centre was closed or something. Good luck on the new role.

Tato500

za3bour wrote: »

I've been searching for a new job here in Syria for almost months but nothing interesting and most jobs were really entry level while I'm looking for a better job on both financial and technical level.

I've decided to move to Gulf Area because the market there is much bigger and I will be working on a bigger scale than here and it's of course better wages.

I've been lucky to find a contractor job at Aramco which is one of biggest oil company in the world through a friend of mine. I'm waiting for Visa now and expected to travel next Thursday/Friday.

The job is located in Al Khobar - KSA and it's a one year contract I will be working in ITBCM (IT Business Continuity Management) as a Coordinator my job will be dealing with many departments so that's a plus it's not heavy on the technical level but it's really interesting on communications level and I will be working with multinationals employees.

My family will be moving with me, it's a huge step for them especially for my 2.5 years old daughter she will be missing a lot . My wife will struggle at first since women are not allowed to drive there.

On the other side the pay is almost 300% what I'm making now

I hope that I will be able to finish the last exam I have for 2010 which is 70-647 the good thing is that I can do the exam there in Khobar so no more trips to Lebanon

Well I guess you gotta do what you gotta do

Will Miss Syria and Damascus for sure

Congratulations on the new Job, Dont forget ( da3waa 7alwa odam el7aram) twsal belsalamah in sha Allah

za3bour

Essendon wrote: »

Congrats mate, glad things are working out for you. I remember your threads about having to go to a different city to do an exam, and once the centre was closed or something. Good luck on the new role.

Yea it's a good memory you have, it was really hard doing the long traveling to do exams. Now this is gone and I can do exams at the same city which is pretty cool however and I don't know why now I'm paying 80$ for each exam through Prometric while If I want to do the exam in KSA it's 125$

I never realized there are different prices for different countries

Thanks a lot for your wishes

za3bour

Tato500 wrote: »

Congratulations on the new Job, Dont forget ( da3waa 7alwa odam el7aram) twsal belsalamah in sha Allah

Thanks a lot and inshalla for sure I will

za3bour

Time is ticking, traveling tomorrow @noon

earweed

Best of luck on the move and the new job.

rogue2shadow

earweed wrote: »

Best of luck on the move and the new job.

+1. Be easy!

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

Best of luck on the move and the new job.

Thanks a lot, I'm at Bahrain International airport now, gotta admit it's much more fun than Damascus airport

za3bour

rogue2shadow wrote: »

+1. Be easy!

Thanks