Anyone managed to salvage their career post Aramco?
I’ve stagnated in Dhahran for too long and need to get back to the real world.
Has anyone been able to use their Aramco experience as a stepping stone to something better?
I’m too young to retire and don’t want to stick it out any longer in this pit.
The only kudos from working in Aramco comes when people back home or anywhere but Saudi, express amazement that you actually lived/worked in Saudi and survived it lol!
Your courage and resilience become very attractive to prospective employers.
Haven't been on this site for a while and the new posts are so accurate as to what it's like there. Namely...awful!!!
ExAramcotrazCon
All I can say is that you must have found a naive employer outside the Energy space.
The only non Middle East companies I have found that valued Aramco experience were trying to deal with Aramco in some way and wanted someone to help navigate the chaos. Folks, this is NOT a resume builder in any way, shape or form. If you are long term unemployed or near retirement and KNOW FOR A FACT that the department you are going to is OK, then by all means take the job but understand that your self respect will suffer. This is NOT a job for anyone who still considers themselves a competent professional. Some people learn that the hard way.
How many of the people posted have actually had a role after Aramco? I suspect that either, they’re too s@&t scared to leave if they’re already there or just wait until retirement.
As a person who went on to a better role after Aramco, I can confidently say that most of the comments here are just nonsense. Yes, there’s a good deal of incompetence in Aramco, just like there is in other organisations to a greater or lesser extent. On the whole though, I found people impressed that I worked at Aramco previously.
The main reasons to leave would be skills erosion and anyone approaching 50, but both of these can effect any job.
Expats should organize a labor strike....DEI...equity.
Leave. There is no value in staying. Your wellbeing is more important than sticking it out. The level of disgusting behavior I have witnessed the last 3 years has been absolutely unacceptable. From lying about facility incidents so they don’t have to report to the government to claiming every single death on site is a heart attack or su----e so they don’t have to report it. A couple weeks ago we were having lunch at Ithra and witnessed the director who apparently is there temporarily throw a cup at a labour worker. The entire place is on the verge of a complete breakdown if all us expats leave.
Their statement does ring true. Better than being denial I guess.
@orn+1tyZHrqt they just keep telling on themselves...
There are other positions in the ME if making bank/tax breaks is still your goal.
The irony being Aramco is dying entirely because of the way said policy is being implemented.
If any other firm removed their best people and replaced them with inexperienced, largely unsuitable candidates, they’d be in a similar boat. How many in aramco senior management have any experience outside Aramco. Answer, zero.
Aramco only survives because of an accident of geography that keeps the cost base low.
Yes, it was declining for expats during my time there. It has to happen, a natural evolution. They will prioritize their own people over foreign expats. Wouldn't you? If the company/ kingdom suffers, it is their own leaders/ managers that bear that burden of that failure.
Didn’t you factor this in before joining? Did you not do your due diligence on Aramco? If you had, any self respecting expat worth their salt would have told you Aramco is a dead end for expats…
I don't really understand that last post but that happens quite often on this site.
I can say that it wasn't career s-----e for me. I, as a former Aramco 'retread', I left to a better position only to return to KSA 2.5 years later for reasons which aren't common to most. But that was then, and this is now, so I am sure that work life and home life in KSA have changed greatly, however; keep in mind that everyone's circumstances are different.
I'd say a horizontal fall would be foolishly assuming the company has deceived you are secured by two elevated morale fixed points only to purposely and happily seen you fail.
I would start planning now if you haven’t already. Keep your contacts and networks alive back home, goto conferences, look up old colleagues, arrange lunches, keep relationships going. Invest your time and money in your career options, Aramco won’t lift a finger in this regard. It’s up to you to keep options open. You have to be proactive.
Too many expats forget about this and lose touch with reality, then it’s too late. For those planning the retirement route that might be ok for others it’s a path to carer misery or at best another assignment in the region. I know it’s not easy being the other side of the planet, but that comes with the territory.
Saudis believe Aramco has a great reputation, live in their little world, dont care about anything. For us this is indeed as you said, professional -
career su----e. Having said that dont listen to most here but truth is if you have a high IQ and a good network of contacts in the West you wont run into that sui-idal plot. Keep your mind sharp and be happy you're leaving this evil place. Be brave
Companies will hire you to send you straight back to the Middle East to leverage your “contacts” (which is a waste of time for them and you). Consider a career change or start a business upon leaving Saudi Aramco.
I think the English gentleman was saying that you have the same job and pay (horizontal) but your skills decline rapidly because you don't really use them (fall).
IMO any employer outside the Middle East will consider you to basically be unemployed during your time at Aramco. That doesn't mean that you can't get another job in the West, it just means that you will have to do so based on your pre Aramco merits. Aramco is a place for collecting some quick cash so that you can go back to where you came from and accomplish some goal with said funds. That's it.
Those who plan to retire out of Aramco better have a very short time horizon. It won't be long before the only Expats left will be working for contractors.
Never got the English. Does that mean that Aramco was a lateral move? A zero-sum game? What?
As a canny Englishman once said over a coffee in Starbucks, "The company is a horizontal fall." How right he was.
Oh no! You've got to go the distance and make it to retirement now. That how it's supposed to work. The original modeling supports it.