I am very disappointed because I thought that I would be able to make a lot of progress in my career here. At first I thought that it might take a long time before I can be seen as a valid candidate for promotion. However, despite all my efforts, it seems to me that it is just a waste of my time. What was your career progression like?
19 replies (most recent on top)
No shiit. Bit of advice: speak to people working here before joining. Do not believe HR lies.
Working for Aramco is a horizontal fall. Anymore more than two years there will lose their faculties and professionsl skills. Do plan what you can bank in these two years and go.
I tend to agree that posts here are simply stating facts. It should be clear to prospective candidates that if they desire career progression in the o&g industry, they should look elsewhere.
These comments are not due to negativity...people just stating the facts. It isn't negativity at all.
So glacial, or no career progress at all…thanks for confirming my suspicions!!
5 years for upstream, sometimes never for other departments. Unless of course some wasta via family name is involved (locals only).
I knew an expat in D&W contracts that never got promoted in 17 years. He got good money and yearly bonuses to compensate for the salary bump loss. Truth is that lots
of departments reserve GC promotions for Saudi YP's (young professionals). Looks better on the manager. Just the way the game is played, that's all.
How long did it take you to get promoted?
My career progression was great. Was it overnight? No. Did I have to put effort in? Yes. But it happened. Don’t be too put off by all the negativity here. It’s normal on a site like this. As others said, take advantage of savings potential while working on promotion. Travel. Use all the vacation days. Hopefully you are not working a 70 hour week like many in the US. Enjoy time off. Play golf and enjoy 18th ho-e. Plat tennis and enjoy third set. Swim. Ride a bike. Hope it works out for you. If it is not then just leave. All the best.
No career progression...you usually have the same title when you arrive and when you leave. Pay is slightly higher after half a decade. Work will be the same year after year.
Bank your cash. Keep quiet. Head down. Don't deliver bad news. Collect your "e" annuallly (e for expat). Milk that job for as long as possible. No promotions and no training (or very little of each).
There is zero career progress and head towards neom or riyadh.
Another difficult aspect of asking for promotions etc is that you have to compete with your other colleagues who are also asking for a promotion too. I think managers are limited in who they can promote so it is like pulling teeth. It can be done but could take years and only if you are lucky enough to have a good boss.
There is zero scope for promotion as an expat. Take to 25% increase, 30 days vacation and 25 days working from home and head to Neom. They also now have direct flights to Dubai and the UK from Neom Airport.
Doing something for the wrong Saudis (or other expats for that matter) will get you nowhere. That wrong person is probably your boss. Your work will be taken up the chain and your name will never even be mentioned. If you boss really wants to help you, he will take you to meetings he has with the VP. If that is not happening, you are being played. Simple as that.
If you are being played for a su---r, just do enough to get by, but show a bunch of data. Forward every email that you got from others about a project to your boss. If he asks for project summary slides, glue together a bunch of stuff you got from others and send it to him. Shove the mess you have to deal with in his face. When he asks what it means, give a long winded, complicated explanation with lots of technical jargon. He is very likely to meet with you right before he goes to the VP, so this will be very frustrating for him. Either he will have to take you with him or look stupid.
He is very likely to berate you for this, but just say that this is complicated and there is no way to make it simple. Keep beating this drum over and over. The key is to do it humbly. If he says you didn't communicate, point to all those emails. If he told you to stop forwarding emails, remind him of what he said. At some point he will either leave you alone or realize that you can't be played for a su---r.
Nothing about Saudi Aramco is fair as an expat when it comes to appraisals, merits, or promotions. All are dependent upon how many Saudis you can get looking good enough to be promoted, do enough of them and whine enough about not being promoted and maybe you will get promoted or surplused, as in the words of Janet Jackson the singer "what have you done for me lately".
It's all been said in the previous post. One major assumption that you got wrong, like a previous post stated, it is not a fair or level field. The promotions, accolades, recognition etc...are reserved for the green passports. Occasionally, an expat in upstream might get a grade code provided he/she were E+ for 5 years and that you aren't within 5 years of 60 years of age. Bank your cash and keep your head down.
Do the bare minimum. Collect salary. Try to enjoy life. Leave when target is hit. QED.
Everything else is just pointless - there is no career at Aramco for expats. Why waste your time when nobody actually cares or recognizes your work? If they don't care, why should you? You'll just damage your own emotional health and become bitter. It's a downward spiral, don't go there.
It's not a fair place and you are not here to progress - if you want that, there are lots of other places (outside of KSA) where you can climb the greasy pole and where there is an element of merit in who gets promoted.
Promotions are decided by the VP and above. Your boss can recommend you, but it doesn't mean anything. I was "recommended" three years in a row before I got disgusted and quit. Some goes for ratings. If you aren't getting face time with the big boss, its not going to happen unless management panics because too many people are leaving too soon and they decide to use promotions as a retention tool.
If I had a do it over again, I would have just played stupid, did the minimum possible to not get downsized, and served my "time" as quietly as possible. No point tooting your ho-n, nobody is listening.
If you don't toot your ho-n to the people who can promote you, you aren't going anywhere. Why should they promote you if you're not sucking up for the job?