I use LinkedIn as a tool for getting work. Every so often I am approached by recruiters using it who think that I could be persuaded to give up my independence and take an employed job. Today I was approached for a job for which I am not only unqualified (and given that this person had checked out my profile, that should have been obvious) but this role is in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are investing heavily in new railway infrastructure and are drawing on British talent to set it all up. One of my clients is doing a fair bit of work out there. However, I’ve made it clear that there is no way on this Earth that I will work there. Quite apart from being away from home for extended periods, I have no desire to have to pussyfoot around their stupid, regressive, backward medieval Sharia law. It just isn’t going to happen. Ever. I am reminded of Al Jahom’s warnings about going to Dubai. The same can be said of Shoddy Absurdia. Any country that has religious police is a country off my list of those I want to visit.
So, even if I had been qualified for this job, the answer would still have been negative. I commented to Mrs L that the approach had been made as I was reading the email. “How long did it take you to refuse?” She asked. “Already have,” I said. So, nanoseconds…
Mrs 20 is about to begin a one-year stint in Riyadh.
She’s a nurse at an NHS hospital and despondent that she earns peanuts after tax. By her calculations, she will be about £20K better off at the end of it. Her sister’s family has been based there for a few years, doing oil stuff. They have two boys at public school, which is exceptionally expensive in Australia.
We shall see what happens. I would not even take a gig in Singapore because they frown on the things that I enjoy.
In Singapore, they would insist that I cut my hair. I do not allow anyone to tell me how long I wear my hair. Ever.
Indeed. I was warned about that when I went there in 1985, but I wasn’t given any trouble, and I went there for work quite a bit in the 90s. It’s not ponytail-long but well over the collar. I suppose yours is longer, but not as long as the chap I saw in the City on Friday whose hair went – and I am not exaggerating – half way down his calves.
A colleague of mine was based in SIN and had me send a Playboy through the internal mail to him as he was desperate for some scud :-).
Mine’s down on the shoulder. Long enough for a ponytail, but I only tie it back when wearing the motorcycle helmet.
I retired 11 years back and bloody linkedin still sends be job offers even though I describe myself as ‘retired’. Can’t make up my mind which is the more stupid – computers or the blokes wot program them?