How do I put together an action plan for getting to KSA?!

sleepycat wrote:

Hi everyone,

I'd really appreciate some advice about getting myself over to Saudi as an English teacher, preferably for a job with a company that doesn't have an awful reputation!

I've just started looking and researching, and I'm confused. So far, I've learned to avoid AETG like the plague, but any other company I google seems to get nearly as bad a press... I know people are more prone to complain than praise, but I'm hearing almost nothing positive so far. I've spent the last year teaching in Korea, and I feel like it was much easier to find prospective employers who didn't have terrible reputations.

I'm looking on the eslcafe job site, but what other sources do you recommend?

Also, am I sufficiently qualified? I have a BSc, MA, and MPhil (not majoring in English or education-type courses), I have 160 hours of online TEFL certification, 2 years of full-time TEFL (Thailand and Korea), and various years of tutoring jobs at university and college. I heard that online TEFL was no longer accepted (darn!), but not all the jobs I've seen stipulate that the course must've been face-to-face. What's the prognosis?!

Finally, how long does it take to get paperwork processed? I'm looking to start a job in May or June; is that realistic? Many of the job ads I've seen are looking for immediate starts, which surprises me.

Many thanks for any advice you can throw my way

I have always seen that online degrees/certificates aren't accepted here. 

Also, I think your time frame is unrealistic considering you haven't even been offered a job yet   You'll have to go back to your home country and have all your degrees attested, get medical tests, etc. and, of course, things move very slowly on this end. 

For me, from the US, it took me 7 months to get here after the contract was in place and I was hired (which took probably a couple months--things move slowly on this end, remember? lol).

Good luck!

Hi Alliecat,

Thanks very much for your response. Not the answers I was hoping for (!) but I appreciate getting this information. I guess I'll need to have a think...

Thanks again

Through the entire process, I never gave notice at my job.  Wasn't going to do THAT until I had the visa inhand.  THEN I gave notice.

I've read horror stories on here from people who resign their jobs and months pass and they're STILL not here!

I think the most important thing I've said is that nothing gets done quickly here.  It's not like at home.  They don't mind keeping a position open for 8 or 10 or 12 months here (unlike at home, where you're hired and they're pressing you to start the following week lol).

@Sleepycat, have you got links to the info from the AETG dissenters so I can read up on anything I've missed?  I have a fair bit of info about the changing environment there over the last two years because I've got friends/associates in there, but anything you could add would be interesting.

Well. It depends on how bad they want you.  i could have been here 2or 3 weeks after the offer.  but i wanted to relax at home w the wife so i took almost two months.  it depends in the company and their waste

Freshlikesushi wrote:

Well. It depends on how bad they want you.  i could have been here 2or 3 weeks after the offer.  but i wanted to relax at home w the wife so i took almost two months.  it depends in the company and their waste

Sushi, she doesn't even have an offer and it would appear she might have a problem with the necessary credentials.  So it's apples and oranges.

Alliecat wrote:

she might have a problem with the necessary credentials.

Only for the state institutions, and top rated private employers (on paper)

Alliecat wrote:

Freshlikesushi wrote:

Well. It depends on how bad they want you.  i could have been here 2or 3 weeks after the offer.  but i wanted to relax at home w the wife so i took almost two months.  it depends in the company and their waste

Sushi, she doesn't even have an offer and it would appear she might have a problem with the necessary credentials.  So it's apples and oranges.

but still. once you get your offer, it depends on the company as to how long.  what may take one person 7 months, takes others less than one.

Freshlikesushi wrote:

Alliecat wrote:

Freshlikesushi wrote:

Well. It depends on how bad they want you.  i could have been here 2or 3 weeks after the offer.  but i wanted to relax at home w the wife so i took almost two months.  it depends in the company and their waste

Sushi, she doesn't even have an offer and it would appear she might have a problem with the necessary credentials.  So it's apples and oranges.

but still. once you get your offer, it depends on the company as to how long.  what may take one person 7 months, takes others less than one.

True but you're in a somewhat specialized field.  English instructors are pretty much a dime a dozen unless they have high credentials, like a PhD.

valid area of emphasis for the topic at hand

E-ASEAN area has only just assembled a ruling as of last year, that comes into force in 2015, refusing work visas to any TESOL tutor without a degree.   It doesn't stipulate which degree as far as I heard, but no doubt it'll end up be like better places wanting a BA in Linguistics or Education.  What we've got coming up is employers turning down those with an MA in TESOL if their BA isn't in one of the two 'core' subjects.  Since most western HE institutions won't let people take the MA in TESOL without minimum 3 years work experience in the field, it's all getting knocked into shape finally. 

Given that the work is going to go downhill from 2020 and there'll be no reason for westerners to head out teaching the language by 2050 (and India trying to outsource teachers to China is one aspect of this), the recession spinning out masses of MA graduates where linguistics or education is not their field is going to hurt those in this pathway (and ultimately the learners) unless a universal framework of rules is applied.