Tony and his family are looking forward to relocating from Australia to Riyadh where he has accepted a position. He and his family have kindly allowed me interview them in what will be a two-part interview. Part one – this interview – they will share their thoughts, views and expectations as Tony prepares to leave Australia. Part two will take place circa three to four months after his arrival in Saudi Arabia to learn how well he has settled in and how his views have or have not changed.
To begin with Tony and family, thanks for following American Bedu! Can you tell me exactly how you found the American Bedu blog and what drew you to it?
Well, firstly, we saw a position advertised that ticked many of the boxes we had when it came to seeking out and securing overseas employment. One of the boxes it didn’t tick was the “”Preferred Countries” box. Truly, Saudi Arabia was not on the radar. So, not prepared to let go of a dream so easily, we decided some research was in order. Neither of us knew anything about Saudi Arabia, all our friends had fairly subjective views and advice, contemporary books are difficult to source and the two I found focus largely on Islam but not much on the country, its history, people, culture, customs and politics etc.
So, to source up to date objective information, we decided to track down expatriate web sites that we could “censor” a little, ignore the clearly despondent and disappointed, temper the overly enthusiastic and exuberant and focus on the factual, contemporary and unbiased. That pretty much left American Bedu and very few others. We’ve been impressed with American Bedu from the start of our journey and are avid daily readers. The fact that we can ask questions, make comments and access a wealth of past entries, as well as have direct access to the author – who by incredible chance lives in the city we will be living and working in – makes American Bedu essential reading for the prospective expatriate worker relocating to Saudi Arabia.
Do you believe the American Bedu blog is a good resource for someone seeking information on Saudi Arabia?
This is a 5 star blog and an excellent resource for researchers and travelers alike. Should anybody ever ask me where to source current, accurate and reliable information on Saudi Arabia, your blog will be at the top of my (rather short) list of must see sites.
What prompted your desire to apply and accept a job in Saudi Arabia?
Like I said, initially, Saudi Arabia was not the lure, securing an overseas job was, and we had several other countries in mind. The truth is that we have passed up opportunities in the Pacific to pursue and secure a job in Saudi Arabia. Why? A myriad of reasons exist. Top of the charts is mystique, there is something alluring, intriguing and mystical about Saudi Arabia, we’ve been drawn in by that. Mystique is closely followed by our little family’s sense of adventure and love of travel. Professional development is a consideration and certain elements of Saudi Arabian daily life will provide me with relevant work experience in a volume, the like of which is limited in Australia.
Another big consideration was where our children are going to learn the most about another culture, another religion, another language, another people. Where can we as parents give our children the greatest opportunity to learn tolerance and understanding of the things that cause the greatest divisions between people? Saudi Arabia ticked all these boxes.
Have you lived in the Arab world before? And if so, what were your experiences?
This one’s easy, no and none. Watch this space.
If applicable, what was most positive from your time living and working in the Middle East? What was least positive?
Again, stay tuned.
What do you expect your life in Saudi Arabia to be like?
Amazing. We’re not starry eyed tourists. We’re a mum and a dad, both well travelled, with two little kids embarking on the family adventure of a life time. We expect to be challenged. We expect to be confronted. We expect to prevail. We also expect to meet and make lifelong friends and to share as a family an experience most people can’t imagine. We want to immerse ourselves in the culture, absorb the smells, take in the sights and delight in the food. We want to make the most of everyday and come away from the experience, when ever that may be, as better people, and an even tighter family, because of the shared experience.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, how prepared do you think you are about life and living in the Kingdom? And why?
On a scale of 1 to 10 you have to give us 10/10 for trying to be prepared. As for actually being prepared, barely a passing grade I think. 5/10 would be kind, and even then we only squeaked in on the bell curve. We’re probably better prepared than some. Lots of research has gone into this, we’re not blinded by the “attractive expatriate package”, we’ve researched this beyond what most people would consider reasonable. We’ve even managed to meet some Saudi nationals who live and work here in Canberra, a married couple, who have been gracious enough to meet us and answer our questions. So we’re not walking in completely blind – but we’re certainly prepared for the culture shock that will undoubtedly meet us on our arrival
What do you hope to achieve while living in the Kingdom?
The family goals have probably been outlined previously in this interview I think, maybe at this point I can talk about what I hope to achieve professionally. I’m an intensive care paramedic and the position I’ve secured is with the Saudi Red Crescent Authority. I’m under no illusions here; this is a difficult role in a difficult environment. The cold, hard and sometimes brutal truth is that road related trauma will be the predominant clinical presentation during my duty hours. Clearly, I want to provide the best possible pre hospital outcomes that I can, the benefit to me is that I will gain incredible case exposure and experience in Saudi Arabia that simply does not exist in Australia.
Do you speak any Arabic? Do you think it is important for an expat working in the medical sector to know any Arabic?
No I don’t speak Arabic, and yes I do think it is important in my field, but not entirely essential. In a whole other life time I worked for the United Nations and spent some time working in non English speaking countries. Clearly this is difficult, but doable. Of course relevant language skills make it a whole lot easier however a lot of my work can be applied through medical signs and symptoms with some help from a language assistant. I’m assured that language assistants will be available to me in my duty hours (again, no starry eyes here) and over time I’m confident that I’ll pick up and be able to apply key words and phrases.
What kind of adjustments are you prepared to make for life in the Kingdom?
Is it blasé to say “whatever it takes”? We wouldn’t enjoy this experience if we arrived and wanted to live like Australians, we can’t see the point in that. We don’t propose to give up our nationality or identity, but we are prepared to accept and respect Saudi culture and adjust our lives accordingly.
You have a beautiful family who loves you dearly. What are their reactions to your accepting a job in Saudi?
Bizarrely, I’m the one who had reservations. I thought I was being selfish and that I should accept the Pacific option so my family could have a more “conventional” adventure. Amazingly, but then again, knowing her, probably not, it is my wife, Sky, who has been the one driving our decision. She’s been sourcing her own information, balancing that against what I’ve found, and importantly, she’s made the effort to meet local Saudi women here in Australia, join them for coffee and listen to their stories, anecdotes and advice.
The kids, at the moment, it’s still all about the camels!!
How much do you think your children understand about moving to Saudi Arabia?
Well, Hannah has her head around it a little, she’s six. She knows it’s a long way away, the cat has to stay with poppy, her friends can’t come but she will make new ones in a new school and yes, we’re moving house again!
Liam, he’s three (NEARLY FOUR) and hasn’t assimilated too much of the available information yet. It’s Sowbi Abdabia and it has camels!! That’s about it for him at the moment.
How have you prepared them for the move?
No secrets. It’s an open discussion around the house and our family and friends know about it. We’re talking about our new home, the plane flight, taking just a few favourite toys and books in our bags and so on. We’re talking about our annual leave and how their grandparents will meet us where ever we go on holiday, and of course, yes – one day we will be coming home.
We’ve looked at a few pictures, discussed how school will be different and that we’ll be living in a villa in a compound.
Importantly, they know we’re together, and our personal routines and family dynamics will remain unchanged
What advice can you give to other families considering relocation to Saudi Arabia?
This is a qualified answer of course seeing as how we’ve not yet arrived, but certainly, pre arrival. Be honest with yourselves; identify your strengths as a family, and importantly, your weaknesses. Validate your motivation and importantly – research, research research!
How does the family feel that they can not join you until three months after your arrival?
This is probably the toughest aspect of this move – we are very close, we share a great interdependence between all four of us so we know there will be sadness and tough times – but we can look past that to the joy of reunion and the benefit of our upcoming adventure.
What benefits do you hope for the family to receive from the time in Saudi Arabia?
There are many, some of which I’ve already outlined previously in this interview. The important and most genuine one of course, is the life experience that will come from living and working in a different country. From this we hope we will all develop greater tolerance, understanding and respect for other cultures and religions.
However, I’ve discussed the “nobler” of our motivations at length already, so now for the benefits we envisage that have slightly less depth to them.
We’d love to make friends with people from not just Saudi Arabia, but from as many nations as possible, and working with the SRCA and living amongst a large expatriate community will facilitate that. We’d like to think that our kids, as young as they are, will have grasped a second language during our time abroad. We love to travel, and what a great base to work from – Europe, Africa and Asia just a short flight away, as well as the rest of the Middle East! The cost of living in Saudi Arabia is considerably less than here in Australia (remember – research) and then there are the benefits that come from a tax free income and free housing, schooling and medical – not to mention the free flights etc, so we can anticipate some financial savings – which will more than likely fund the aforementioned travel.
Do you feel ready and prepared for this new chapter in your life?
We’ve moved beyond second thoughts now – we are most certainly committed to our decision, as well prepared as we believe we can be and we don’t believe we have missed or not considered anything in our preparations. Interview us again in a few months – you may get an entirely different answer!!
How easy was it for you to identify and obtain a job in Saudi Arabia?
Surprisingly easy really. Off and on over the last few years I’ve looked around for suitable positions and it was on one of these occasions, whilst searching the web, I came across an advertisement for Intensive Care Paramedics with the SRCA. As luck would have it, a mate from Australia had recently completed a contract with them and was able to put me in contact with other Australians (with family) still working there.
After some positive feed back, I made an online enquiry, followed by an online application. Things moved fairly quickly – initially – and my referees were calling me to say they had been contacted and clearly, my application was progressing.
No personal interview was conducted, however the amount of detailed, corroborated evidence (university qualifications, registration, authority to practice etc) I had to scan and forward to SRCA was considerable, and fairly so! Within 14 days, I had received an initial offer via e mail, and shortly after that an official offer via FedEx in the mail.
This is where things slowed down a bit – the offer came up short of expectations, and so sadly, I had to decline. Thinking that an opportunity had been lost, we were a little despondent, until, about a week later, in the middle of the night our phone rang and it was an official from SRCA seeking to renegotiate their offer (within limits) and make it more attractive for us. We were able to achieve an amicable solution that I think has worked out well for all parties.
I must say, at this point things have bogged down a little, the renegotiated official offer is yet to arrive, but I’ve been assured it’s “in the mail”.
What comments and advice can you share on the paperwork process for getting ready to go to the Kingdom?
I’m obviously still working through this – but it is a bit of a process. So far I’ve sent, and then resent seemingly endless copies of documents that are required to substantiate my claims of qualifications and skills. This is all perfectly understandable, however sometimes I get the feeling that “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing”. I’ve dealt with 3 different entities within SRCA HR, all extremely helpful and prepared to answer questions and provide guidance – and on one occasion go well outside of what their role requires – but then I end up dealing with someone I’ve never spoken to before and have to resend something I already sent a week ago!!
I sense that employment through an agency may have fewer hurdles to jump, but in my case the employer is case managing every individual applicant in what appears to be an international recruitment drive. Understandably there will be delays in such an involved process.
I’m not sure if it’s the right advice, but I’ve been, and remain, quite patient but gently persistent. I’ve sent everything I’ve been asked for, no matter if I’ve sent it before, and I see nothing to be gained by jumping up and down about the process. It is what it is and I have faith that it works. With millions of expatriate workers already in Saudi, it must work!!
How much of the process must you do and how much in turn is handled by your employer?
It’s been pretty much a case of just providing what’s asked for and leaving the rest up to them. That’s current at the time of writing – who knows what’s going to happen from here. I’ve no complaints about the process though – I’m the applicant, now the recruit, so therefore I need to be proactive at my end.
Do you feel like your prospective employer has given you timely and accurate information on your position and expectations of where you will be working?
I think so, and I’ve been able to enhance this, again by being proactive and conducting my own research with compatriots already working and living in Saudi Arabia.
And in closing, what do you believe are the most important attributes to have to making a smooth and positive adjustment from life in Australia to life in Riyadh?
In our case, our internal family bonds will make this transition easier and our adventure a more positive experience for all of us.
I also think that a big broad open mind is essential.
Being equipped with the knowledge that we will be confronted and challenged by what we see and experience, but having the strength of character and commitment to face those challenges and prevail is important.
The attitude that we’re not moving to Saudi Arabia to live like Australians in Australia. We’re moving to Saudi Arabia, as Australians, who want to live within the Saudi culture and experience Saudi life and reap the benefits that will come from that!
Thanks again Tony and family and wishing you all the very best! It will certainly be a pleasure to meet up with you next in Riyadh.
We’re looking forward to it – thanks for your interest in our story, and the help you’ve been able to provide to us, both personally, and through Bedu.
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There are Saudi couples who realize they cannot live together as a husband and wife. Rather than divorce and face external repercussions from family and society they quietly choose to live separate lives. The wife and children may remain in the home provided during the marriage but the man will live apart. Or the wife and children may shift to the area where the wife is from and the man remains in a separate city near his employment. Face and honor are saved. “After all, he works so hard or travels so much it is kind and honorable of him to allow his wife live near to her family.” The innate private nature of Saudi’s and their society allow this illusion of marriage to continue with very few, even within a family, to know the true circumstances of dissent between the couple.
