irishal

Hi All,

First post here, so go easy on me.

I have been looking for a job in the middle east for about 12 months now, with not much success. Suddenly last week I was contacted by an agent about RASGAS, yesterday I had two interviews, technical and with HR, and now they are organising a visa for a face to face interview. However, they have already sent me an indicative offer. Everything is happening very fast and I am not sure about the value of their indicative offer, as everyone here says you should get 1.5 times your home country basic salary. Also my agent says I should negotiate before the face to face interview, which I find a bit strange, without a job offer.

I am an integrity engineer with 15 years experience, I have a MSc and I am Chartered. I would be coming with my wife and two sons. In the UK I earn 68K, about 32.5k QR before tax per month. With tax this comes to about 19.5K QR per month.

The indicative offer is for, per month:

Basic 28.5K
Transport 2K
Site Allowance 2.3k (I would be living in Doha and working in Ras Laffan)
One off Furniture allowance 55K
Medical and Dental
Housing fully paid
5 months salary interest free car loan
One annual ticket home for me, wife and kids
Education assistance of annual registration and tuition fees
School age children transportation allowance of 375 QR

I think the allowances are pretty good, but I'm not sure about the basic salary, it is actually less than what I earn in the UK (before tax). My agent seems to think I could negotiate to 31K QR per month. I hope to save around 2K GBP per month.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated (even though I am sure you are all sick of reading are these offers suitable threads)

dragonladyoz

Always a good idea to at least try to negotiate - you might get it!

I would double check the education allowance as that is likely to be the killer if it isn't enough. You need at least 30K/year per school age child to fully cover fees at most of schools or more.

Rest looks OK

irishal

Thanks, they said the schooling would be "fully paid", however is there any hidden catches that I should be aware of?

To be honest the schooling is the thing that worries me the most, I have heard how hard it is to get a place and the move will be traumatic enough for my 4 year old lad

britexpat76

See above, ref phone interviews etc there is 2 speeds it works here, spastic intergalactic or Snail. Seems you have the 1st one, If you tick the right boxes for them they will move quick. They will try and get you tied on salary as to not waste time later when an applicant comes back saying he wants a million quid a year and 12 maids.

irishal

Thanks for the response and sorry for the noobness.

What is EOS?

They said the medical and dental is for the whole family (no cosmetic dental work) in the RASGAS medical centre in doha and the housing would be on a rasgas compound either doha or al khobar, our choice.

How much negotiation do you think i could go for (how much is a length of string, I suppose), but a ball park figure 10%, 20% etc

cheers
again

scrubbedexpat141

You get 68,000 GBP...that's about 3,800 quid in your pocket.

Then you pay rent/mortgage right? How much is that? Let's say, 1,000.
Then you pay for a car? Let's say that's only a littl'un, 100 a month.

3,800 - 1,100 = 2,700 = 15,466 QAR

So, your package in the UK is 15,466 QAR + Housing + Car + Schooling (it's free) + Medical (it's 'free').

They are offering you:

28,500 Basic (double your current nett basic after housing, car etc)
House provided
Car loan (Interest free!)
+ Car allowance of 2,000
Hardship Ras Laffan allowance of 2,300
Schooling provided
55,000 furniture allowance (That's 10k GBP for nothing....)
A flight home
Medical + Dental
Extra school bus allowance.
-------------
TOTAL: 45,382.33
(I'm assuming cost for 2 kids here for schooling + flights)

That equates to 7,922 GBP Monthly or 95,064 annually AFTER TAX.

To get that amount of money NETT, you need to earn (give or take about 60pence) 159,200 GBP.


Without sounding rude, I suggest the following action:

1. Go and ask your current boss for 159,200.
2. When he says no, resign.
3. Move to Qatar and earn much, much, much more money than you can and (no offence) probably will in the UK.

irishal

haha you don't round - its true!!!!

Excellent way to look at it.

thanks a lot you have reassured me immensely

britexpat76

Bad day pal?

EOS is End of service. Basically an extra 21 days basic salary a year when you leave. Scamp is very correct, try a cheeky extra couple of thousand on basic but in reality its a good offer and way more than you get at home.

Millhouse

you are getting your home salary sans tax, plus a free house.

let me think this one through a bit more.

scrubbedexpat141

I actually enjoy doing that maths for people.

You wouldn't believe the bottom line figure of basic after housing etc difference there can be.

I tripled a guys salary last month. He had to have those sums put into excel for him to grasp but when he did he practically blew me.

Bahtatboy

Wot Scamp, Millhouse and BritExpat said: your saveable income will be hugely more than you have on £68k in UK (and after BIK I doubt you'll be taking home £3,800, although on the other hand no doubt your employer contributes to your pension--so make sure you consider how much that's worth).

My view (or, more correctly, reinforcement of what's already been said):

1 Make sure the schooling's properly covered
2 Use the agent to make sure that you won't blow it by asking for a bit more. Most likely he'll be on a commission, so he'll want to maximise your salary while, at the same time, making sure you and he don't blow the opportunity.

P18PPS

I would double check the education allowance as that is likely to be the killer if it isn't enough. You need at least 30K/year per school age child to fully cover fees at most of schools or more.



Schools are more than that, each child cost is roughly :
Doha College & Sherborne - QR55,000 a year
DESS & Compass - QR45,000

irishal

thanks people, i have gone back to the agent to confirm exactly housing and schooling.

My saveable income on £68k in the UK is £0

nik00

Hi Mate,

Apart from the medical, what else was the ''face to face interview'' about ?
Anything technical? I'm anticipating a similar invitation anytime now so I need to what to prepare for.

Thx
Nik

irishal

what is the position are you going for?