Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Jul 9th 2023, 6:36 pm
#46
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Thanks again. Yeah, I am not sure about an agent. I still don't have an offer yet, I am just trying to plan ahead for when/if it happens but was thinking to bring my wife on a tourist visa first like you said, but not sure about the logistics of it all. Sounds like it's complicated and quite opaque.
Aug 19th 2023, 7:47 pm
#47
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Has anyone landed a role with Parsons recently. They seem to go off the grid with their on/off communications.
I was told they had numerous roles but after applying I haven't heard anything back from them.
I was told they had numerous roles but after applying I haven't heard anything back from them.
Aug 20th 2023, 4:35 am
#48
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
I dealt direct with my hiring manager after initial contact so communication was quite good.
HR and corporate are famous for being rather useless within parsons.
Aug 20th 2023, 1:42 pm
#49
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
We are waiting for someone to sign off on someone who was recently hired, but management is being stingy about paying the recruiter their fees..
I dealt direct with my hiring manager after initial contact so communication was quite good.
HR and corporate are famous for being rather useless within parsons.
I dealt direct with my hiring manager after initial contact so communication was quite good.
HR and corporate are famous for being rather useless within parsons.
Aug 24th 2023, 12:12 am
#50
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Location: Madinah Province, KSA
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
I recently got a role with them. I am mobilising to KSA next month.
From my experience the whole thing moved pretty quick. I applied late June, had 3 rounds of interviews by early July and confirmation of the role by late July.
From my experience the whole thing moved pretty quick. I applied late June, had 3 rounds of interviews by early July and confirmation of the role by late July.
Aug 24th 2023, 3:32 am
#51
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Thats great news. All the best!
What was the role you applied for?
Aug 24th 2023, 3:50 am
#53
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Aug 30th 2023, 7:58 pm
#54
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
I hold a senior/unit lead position. To be honest, when I was approached for the position, I held off requests over several months until they gave me a base figure, 5x what my UK wage was. I think most wages range from about 55k to 65k sar a month (about £150k+ annually) for senior/principle roles and more for senior management. But you have no outgoings beyond what you chose to spend money on. You are housed, fed, transported and your cabin is cleaned daily, laundry service twice a week. This is another 18k a month which they cover directly. They do also offer an 11k living allowance if you want to live off base. Some have taken it, some have not.
Remote location comes with a premium remuneration. They've also introduced a 13 month salary as a retention bonus. It's a hard location to recruit for as it's not as glamorous and profiled as the other mega projects, so it's good to know when negotiating your salary.
Our project is almost an entity upon itself in terms of sapl (Saudi Arabia parsons). Some things are pretty useless things, some tricky people, but overall it's ok. Staff turnover rates seem to have dropped, but they are still looking to hire a significant amount by the end of the year. WEX positions are all senior/principle levels and up.
The project is the aptly named, Jazan city for primary and downstream industries - jcpdi for short. Located all the way in the south, about 100+km from the Yemen border, on the red sea. Theres some beautiful mountains to the east, and some amazing islands off the coast. Boats can be hired with a captain for the day to go fishing and snorkeling, farasan island has a free ferry and is completely untouched. All in all, not awful. The closest town is about 30 minutes from the base, the nearest city about 45-60 mins away.
There is a direct flight to Dubai, and abha is about a 2 hour drive for more regular Dubai flights. Riyadh/Jeddah has plenty of daily flights and takes just over an hour or so to get to.
Remote location comes with a premium remuneration. They've also introduced a 13 month salary as a retention bonus. It's a hard location to recruit for as it's not as glamorous and profiled as the other mega projects, so it's good to know when negotiating your salary.
Our project is almost an entity upon itself in terms of sapl (Saudi Arabia parsons). Some things are pretty useless things, some tricky people, but overall it's ok. Staff turnover rates seem to have dropped, but they are still looking to hire a significant amount by the end of the year. WEX positions are all senior/principle levels and up.
The project is the aptly named, Jazan city for primary and downstream industries - jcpdi for short. Located all the way in the south, about 100+km from the Yemen border, on the red sea. Theres some beautiful mountains to the east, and some amazing islands off the coast. Boats can be hired with a captain for the day to go fishing and snorkeling, farasan island has a free ferry and is completely untouched. All in all, not awful. The closest town is about 30 minutes from the base, the nearest city about 45-60 mins away.
There is a direct flight to Dubai, and abha is about a 2 hour drive for more regular Dubai flights. Riyadh/Jeddah has plenty of daily flights and takes just over an hour or so to get to.
Thank you for your detailed answer. I have been contacted by Parsons after registering on the website a month or so ago about a potential move to Saudi from the UK as a Senior in Project Controls/Planning. I was initially leaning more towards their projects in Riyadh but am a little swayed by the picture you detailed above. I was hoping if you could please elaborate on a few things you mentioned.
- Does Parsons ask for previous pay slips in order to put together an offer?
- Given the 60k SAR average for senior roles, what is the remote location premium on top of that? another 10-15K SAR?
- Are the camp facilities in JCPDI anything like at NEOM? Gym, sports area etc?
- What is the mobility within Parsons like to move about into other Saudi Projects?
- Are the years of experience indicated in Parsons job specs a must? some of the role descriptions for example do not require 15yrs
- Will Parsons apply for a multi-entry/exit visa or do you have to go through HR every time you want to fly out?
GW
Last edited by Grey_Witcher; Aug 30th 2023 at 8:27 pm.
Aug 31st 2023, 10:50 am
#55
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Joined: Jun 2023
Posts: 65
Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
- Does Parsons ask for previous pay slips in order to put together an offer?
- Not sure if it's what they base their offer on, but it seems standard practice
- Given the 60k SAR average for senior roles, what is the remote location premium on top of that? another 10-15K SAR?
- The offer is broken down, the hardship element is 20% of your base salary. I. Guessing the 60k will be your all in inclusive of the 20%. If you live off base you do get the full sun regardless of what you pay in rent, so you can pocket a bit extra if you fancy commuting a few hours a day. Not worth it in my mind.
- Are the camp facilities in JCPDI anything like at NEOM? Gym, sports area etc?
- Basketball courts, swimming pool and a gym. They aren't fantastic, the camp is a bit old. Some have joined gyms elsewhere or go to a hotel and use their facilities. But theres a decent size group of guys who regularly use the gym. The pool is normally too hot to be used. We are also just by the red sea, so you can swim there too. And Aramco built a corniche there with football pitches
- What is the mobility within Parsons like to move about into other Saudi Projects?
- Several have transferred from Yanbu and Neom and vice versa.
- Are the years of experience indicated in Parsons job specs a must? some of the role descriptions for example do not require 15yrs
- I got hired with less than the minimum requirement
- Will Parsons apply for a multi-entry/exit visa or do you have to go through HR every time you want to fly out?
- You pay for it via your bank, send hr the receipt and they get you the exit visa. If you get a multi entry for x months, you only do it so often. It's fairly cheap, I tend to just do single visas unless I have several trips out of the kingdom over the span of a few months. It's a five minute jobbie really.
Sep 1st 2023, 4:34 pm
#56
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Joined: Aug 2023
Location: England
Posts: 6
Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
- Does Parsons ask for previous pay slips in order to put together an offer?
- Not sure if it's what they base their offer on, but it seems standard practice
- Given the 60k SAR average for senior roles, what is the remote location premium on top of that? another 10-15K SAR?
- The offer is broken down, the hardship element is 20% of your base salary. I. Guessing the 60k will be your all in inclusive of the 20%. If you live off base you do get the full sun regardless of what you pay in rent, so you can pocket a bit extra if you fancy commuting a few hours a day. Not worth it in my mind.
- Are the camp facilities in JCPDI anything like at NEOM? Gym, sports area etc?
- Basketball courts, swimming pool and a gym. They aren't fantastic, the camp is a bit old. Some have joined gyms elsewhere or go to a hotel and use their facilities. But theres a decent size group of guys who regularly use the gym. The pool is normally too hot to be used. We are also just by the red sea, so you can swim there too. And Aramco built a corniche there with football pitches
- What is the mobility within Parsons like to move about into other Saudi Projects?
- Several have transferred from Yanbu and Neom and vice versa.
- Are the years of experience indicated in Parsons job specs a must? some of the role descriptions for example do not require 15yrs
- I got hired with less than the minimum requirement
- Will Parsons apply for a multi-entry/exit visa or do you have to go through HR every time you want to fly out?
- You pay for it via your bank, send hr the receipt and they get you the exit visa. If you get a multi entry for x months, you only do it so often. It's fairly cheap, I tend to just do single visas unless I have several trips out of the kingdom over the span of a few months. It's a five minute jobbie really.
Thank you for you detail response again mate. I really appreciate you taking the time. I won't feel too cheeky applying for a 15yr post with 9yr experience in that case. Am more used to matching myself against requirements and responsibilities rather than years in the game.
Am I right that roles in Tabuk are based in sites/camps across the region in general and not Tabuk the city? Am guessing nothing in country is as swanky as the main NEOM set up.
GW
Sep 1st 2023, 6:45 pm
#57
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Joined: Jun 2023
Posts: 65
Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Hi Ilovegregggs,
Thank you for you detail response again mate. I really appreciate you taking the time. I won't feel too cheeky applying for a 15yr post with 9yr experience in that case. Am more used to matching myself against requirements and responsibilities rather than years in the game.
Am I right that roles in Tabuk are based in sites/camps across the region in general and not Tabuk the city? Am guessing nothing in country is as swanky as the main NEOM set up.
GW
Thank you for you detail response again mate. I really appreciate you taking the time. I won't feel too cheeky applying for a 15yr post with 9yr experience in that case. Am more used to matching myself against requirements and responsibilities rather than years in the game.
Am I right that roles in Tabuk are based in sites/camps across the region in general and not Tabuk the city? Am guessing nothing in country is as swanky as the main NEOM set up.
GW
Don't know much about the parsons setup elsewhere except Yanbu where after 40 odd years, parsons finally committed to providing some actual housing. When you are in these remote locations, at least personally, the stress of the work situation really doesn't give much energy for long commutes.
Sep 1st 2023, 8:30 pm
#58
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Joined: Aug 2023
Location: England
Posts: 6
Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Don't ask, don't get. But it is an interesting angle this with age and experience. It's valued a lot in the middle east, but subsequently there's also a lot of people sat there with their retirement spreadsheet day in day out. At least in JCPDI we have gotten a bit more fresh blood onboard, younger guys with perhaps a bit more ambition to drive things forward. I think this can only be a good thing. Prior to accepting the role, I'd only ever done competitions from the UK in the middle east, all of my foreign work experience was elsewhere and also mostly from a UK based role.
Don't know much about the parsons setup elsewhere except Yanbu where after 40 odd years, parsons finally committed to providing some actual housing. When you are in these remote locations, at least personally, the stress of the work situation really doesn't give much energy for long commutes.
Don't know much about the parsons setup elsewhere except Yanbu where after 40 odd years, parsons finally committed to providing some actual housing. When you are in these remote locations, at least personally, the stress of the work situation really doesn't give much energy for long commutes.
Are Parson's delivering the project or acting on behalf of the client to manager the contractors in a PMO setup?
There is a video on the Parson's YouTube channel where they state they practically master planned Yanbu from a little village. I'm from North West England, and any drive over 20 minutes is a long commute.
Sep 2nd 2023, 10:30 am
#59
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Joined: Jul 2023
Location: Madinah Province, KSA
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Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Just to add to some of the points above.
I note that my role at Parsons in Yanbu, there was no request to see my current salary. The salary was already set and there was maybe 3000 SAR per month wiggle room.
The thing I have noticed as well with the hiring process is that unlike Australia (and most likely many Western places) there is a lot more focus on credentials and qualifications than references. I had to submit my academic transcript from 2011, and there was no need to supply any personal references. This is the opposite of what I am used to in the West where people go more from references/experience than they do from university marks that are over 10 years old.
I found the questioning in the interview to be very technical as well. Usually when you reach senior roles, the questions tends to be more based on management of projects/people/resources, etc from my experience, however the interview process for Parsons got into the nuts and bolts.
I note that my role at Parsons in Yanbu, there was no request to see my current salary. The salary was already set and there was maybe 3000 SAR per month wiggle room.
The thing I have noticed as well with the hiring process is that unlike Australia (and most likely many Western places) there is a lot more focus on credentials and qualifications than references. I had to submit my academic transcript from 2011, and there was no need to supply any personal references. This is the opposite of what I am used to in the West where people go more from references/experience than they do from university marks that are over 10 years old.
I found the questioning in the interview to be very technical as well. Usually when you reach senior roles, the questions tends to be more based on management of projects/people/resources, etc from my experience, however the interview process for Parsons got into the nuts and bolts.
Sep 3rd 2023, 8:44 am
#60
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Joined: Jun 2023
Posts: 65
Re: Parsons - How different are they to Neom?
Are Parson's delivering the project or acting on behalf of the client to manager the contractors in a PMO setup?
There is a video on the Parson's YouTube channel where they state they practically master planned Yanbu from a little village. I'm from North West England, and any drive over 20 minutes is a long commute.
Yanbu was set up to be a knowledge transfer project as jcpdi is, but they are still there 4 decades later. And jcpdi is now where yanbu was 4 decades ago minus the house of Lawrence.