It's not something I've tried before and the idea of making public all the personal thoughts that would probably never go further than my own consciousness is more than a tad daunting for an introvert such as myself.
For those who happen to stumble upon this blog and take the time to read it for whatever reason my name is Chris. I'm 30 years old, single, no children, no mortgage and currently no real commitments to tie me down to one place. For the last 11 years following a two year apprenticeship I've operated chemical plants for the same company at the same site 25 minutes away from the area in which I grew up. I suppose I'd always had a background desire to see more of the world. I know where that comes from though. Witnessing others going off to travel or live and work abroad always stirred up a slight envy but one that quickly went away when I compared the job I had with those of my closest friends and the thought of what might happen if I ever were to leave it to go and see the world. After 11 years, with no degree and no significant career prospects other than climbing a blue collar managerial ladder I still earned a lot of money (and spent it) and thanks to an incredible shift pattern had felt practically retired from the age of 22. For some reason though, unlike most of my now ex-colleagues, that had never really been enough for me. Throughout my time there I'd endeavoured to do more. Get more involved. Expand my knowledge beyond just the necessary or expected. From the day I started I was praised to a high standard and held to a level above most so the thought of maintaining that reputation was enough to motivate me to go way above and beyond, occasionally to the frustration of others who didn't want the same expected of them I suppose.
Unfortunately however, these additional responsibilities I took upon myself only ever brought me recognition within the same company and only ever to a point at which a higher level manager took most the praise. Not being a fully qualified engineer I could never do anything on my own. No matter how much something was my idea it always had to be handed over to someone else at some point to 'look into'. The fact that the majority of the time I'd already proven the value of whatever idea I'd had before I was willing to let anyone else look at it and then wait an eternity for an engineer who really had no interest in doing anything about this thing that didn't effect their own working lives made it all the more frustrating. I guess it's what you get in a mid-size company without the financial or physical resources to impletement all the improvements they could but in fairness I continually had to remind myself that what I was allowed to do was likely to be significantly more there than I would be able to at a bigger firm. In the end though I decided I should at least poke my head out of the burrow and see whats what beyond the existence into which I was so settled to the point of severe boredom.
This led to an online CV which further lead to being contacted about a number of jobs. After a few interviews for similar roles to what I was already doing based not far from home I had a phone call about positions in Saudi Arabia. I think if you asked most people I know where they could see themselves working Saudi would be somewhere toward the bottom and therefore it wouldn't be hard to imagine it had never been somewhere I'd thought about in my wildest dreams. Fortunately the recruiter on the phone had the good sense to dangle the carrot right from the word go in order to retain my attention long enough to give it proper consideration. He explained the salary and benefits which would effectively double my UK salary when the tax-free element came into play as well as a gernerous benefit package to pretty much cover the entire cost of living whilst there. This initial recruiter was looking for operators to help build and commission a brand new refinery currently being built at a significant cost through a Saudi-American joint venture, however on the open day I unfortunately had to work and couldn't attend, meaning I never heard back anything further. The second contact came a couple of weeks later from a different recruitment agency for a job as an Operator Trainer. It wasn't quite as much money and the benefit package was pretty much 'find it yourself' but still compared to the UK was again more than double the salary and after looking into the cost of living there the lack of provided accommodation shouldn't be a problem with the allowance they include (65% on top of the base salary).
After agreeing to allow the recruiter to send off an application on my behalf and sending her copies of all my apprenticeship certificates, driving license, passport etc. she contacted me again after a couple of days to ask me to attend an interview in London. At this point I still hadn't taken the prospect of accepting a job in Saudi as a serious endeavour and thought of myself as going through the motions for the experience come the time I might actually want to move abroad if the day ever came, to the point of only arranging to go down and stay with my sister two days before the interview date. The interview itself was a slightly strange affair. It was in the Marriott Hotel on Park Lane, right opposite Marble Arch. Why such a lavish hotel I'm not sure. Maybe it was just a way to prove they were serious or that they clearly had the money to back up their offers but whatever the reason it was quite impressive. I went assuming I'd still be too young and inexperienced in their eyes to teach others. The advert had asked for 11 years experience and I had just about got that. I was ushered into a waiting area among other people there for similar jobs in a number of different trades, all represented by four different contract companies sharing the same table. It soon became apparent that the contract company was pretty irrelevant in the whole process though. The interviews themselves were being conducted by two engineers from Aramco who were spoken of as if they were god-like and everyone else in the process was there simply to facilitate their needs to fill these positions. Clearly the whole process was no more than a formality to see if applicants would turn up and take it seriously because I doubt I could have given a worse interview had I tried. The questions were relatively incoherent anyway because of the strong accent of the Saudi interviewer but there was also a terminology difference which clearly arose from my working for only one company thus far. I guess I must have muddled through enough for them to realise I did actually know what I was doing.
Half an hour after the interview was over I was being presented with a job offer by the manager of the contract company who had recruited me. Munir the manager of the recruitment company had come out and let me know that it would be good news and they were just working out the figures to present to me so I had about 15 minutes to process the enormity of what I was about to agree to. If I'm perfectly honest there was a slight element of 'how can I turn this down now after coming all this way?'. Up until now I was still just assuming the worst and that they wouldn't offer me the job. Now all of a sudden that plan had backfired and I was on the spot! Thinking about how dissappointed the family would be after I telling them I'd had no intention of taking the job anyway I weighed up the pros and cons as fast as I could. For starters it's a lot of money! I know that's not everything but it does make a difference. The biggest attraction though was simply the potential of what could come after. Even just a years experience could open up so many doors to other places abroad. This could be my ticket to start to see the world.
Of all the advantages though was the thought of breaking away from the monotonous existence I had become both trapped in yet accustomed to. Not that there was anything wrong with it or bad about it but it had been a while since I had felt like I'd done anything significant or exciting. I knew that the family and friends would understand. Most of them have their own lives now that have grown away from the days when we'd spend every night round at one anothers playing video games or watching TV. Relationships had developed and in a way it felt like I was being a bit left behind.
I decided to accept. After studying almost every detail of the piece of paper presented to me as thoroughly as I could (without wanting to seem offensively suspicious) I signed the agreements, discussed the salary package and was told they would contact me to arrange the medical for my visa. The manager Bert gave me a brief run through of what would happen from then until i got to Saudi, including being met from the plane by a rep who would give me some money, a new SIM for my phone and take me to a hotel. He advised me not to buy a car during my initial probation period in case I didn't like the job and that was pretty much that. I left for a celebratory meal with Jen and John, her boyfriend, who were meeting me outside Marble Arch and had been waiting in the freezing cold for over an hour!
Due to the timescale of getting the medical results for the embassy to issue my travel visa and then handing in my notice to my existing employer (which I obviously didn't feel comfortable about giving without having my visa issued yet) it was agreed that there was no sense in me moving out over Christmas and to wait until I was available the new year.
The recruitment agency contacted me following the arrival of my visa to arrange my flights just before Christmas, which ended up being the day immediately after the date I told them my notice would be complete - I'm not sure if they're depserate or just worried about me changing my mind. Since then all has been quiet with the exception of a quick e-mail from the head of the agency to wish me a happy new year and ask if everything was still ok.
That's pretty much where I'm up to now then. Tomorrow I'll be getting up to go to the airport to fly to Dammam via Cairo. A nice 14 hour journey to take me to my new life for at least the next 12 months. One last family and friends meal tonight (you'd think I was leaving and never coming back!) and a night on the couch with the dogs. My best mate has a hot tub business and kindly dropped off one that's not being used for us to party in tonight. It's been warming up for 15 hours now and is still pretty cold - perhaps to do with the single digit temperature outside overnight? I suspect I'm going to miss that pretty soon...
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