gambit
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2009
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It is about 'face' and 'honor', even the false kind will do.
I remember when I decided to leave aviation in Florida and head west for semiconductor, the decision was due for family issues, I was offered a job to supervise a Saudi Air Force PMEL shop -- Precision Measurement Equip Lab. The pay would be $62k tax free, a two bedroom house at the American compound, and a Merc, which I could exchange every yr for the latest model if I wanted. I asked the recruiter -- from SAIC -- why are there no competent Saudi avionics engineer to run the shop. He laughed and gave me the run down on how the Saudis run their military, that anything that require high technical competency, personal sense of responsibility and duty, and discipline to show up for work on time everyday without any threat, they would rather have an American, a Brit, or a German for the job. There is no shortage of personal stories from these technical mercenaries in the employ of the Saudi military about the Arabs and how they see work. I asked about the ethnic/nationalities technicians composition of the lab and it was mostly Westerners and Japanese.
I turned down the offer, the response was +10k on the salary. No again, and it was another +5k. I told him that I was in the ME and found nothing outside the food that was attractive enough for me to return. It would have been a cushy job with little manual labor on my part. I probably could have negotiated my salary to over 100k and it would not have mattered. These offers usually starts out on the low side anyway. I sometimes wonder if I asked for a hot chick to go with the house, would the Saudis agreed ?
Yeah...There is something about the character of the Arabs, or may be of the modern day Arabs, that make them more lustful of the prestige of the rank and title than of the professions themselves. I think the oil spoiled them to the core.
