Working in Saudia Arabia

[MixedBananas]

Hiya all, just to prefice me and DH are both Muslim and have visited Saudia for Pilgrimage. However he has been offered work there where he will earn 3x what he does a salary of more then £170k in Riyadh. He is way too over qualified for positions in the UK and he has been unable to progress here as the next position would be CEO and not many of those going around in his line of work (won't disclose anymore) he is at the max top of his salary £65k a year and we do live comfortably but if he moved abroad and earned that amount we could finally purchase a home debt free in cash and provide a good education for the kids.

Wouldn't want to stay in Saudia long term maybe 10years top amd then move back to the UK as this is where family are. BUT what is it really like living there? Day to day, travel, things to do. When I went it was for Pilgrimage and I spent 4 weeks but only 1 week in Jeddah, and 3 weeks in Medina and Mecca I loved it there but hated Jeddah. Such a massive overwhelming city and imppssible to navigate. Never been to Riyadh has anyone ever worked there? With kids? Whats it like living there day to day. What can I expect living there not just visiting. (Positive experince with people when doing Pilgrimage)

No direct experience of KSA.
I have a friend (male) from another middle Eastern country. He visits Saudi for work on occasion. He has been offered jobs there. He says he would never consider living there, as it would not be fair on his wife or daughters (he also dislikes the segregated culture). He doesn't want his daughters to see and experience things that make them feel like second class citizens. His wife has a career that in reality she could not continue in Saudi.
I think the question about if you have daughters was fair.

Qanta Ahmed, a British Muslim surgeon wrote a book about her experience working in Riyadh as a surgeon, In the Land of Invisible Women. Spoiler alert, her experience wasn't good

Ignore the nasty responses OP.

First things first, your experience will depend entirely on what your personal preferences are with regards to the kind of life you want to live. Are you very career-oriented? If so, it will likely be difficult to get an equivalent job (or any kind of job really) for a spouse in Saudi - I'm not familiar with the intricacies of the process of getting a work permit for a spouse but from what I understand it isn't easy.

My only concern is that 170k might not be enough to live a lifestyle attractive enough to be worth moving for. Life is great in Jeddah/Riyadh if you can afford to live in a compound, put your kids in an international school and hire domestic help. You can be a lady of leisure (and why not?). Expats are cut a lot more slack, and if you're in a compound it's pretty much like living in a Western suburb (abaya isn't mandatory, kids can play outside, good community living). Will your employer be taking care of housing and schooling on top of the salary you mentioned? If yes, then I would say it's a good opportunity, but if not I would urge you to reconsider or negotiate further.

Another thing, life there is changing rapidly (for the better, at least for expats) and the Saudis are pumping money into making the country attractive for foreigners. A LOT has changed in the last 5 years so I would suggest you get some help from Reddit or another forum from people who actually currently live there, not from people whose experiences are 20 years out of date.

Never lived there so not sure this is super helpful but had a friend move there for work and she loves it (architect) but she’s an arabic speaker, she’s not muslim but said she’s been enjoying the culture. Dh travels for work and says he seems more women working and wearing jeans etc so it’s possibly not as restrictive as people have previously experienced, he said he would consider a move there if I visited and was ok with it, he wouldn’t have moved 10 years ago I don’t think so stuff has moved on, you don’t have to wear a hijab obviously. You will need a lot of money if you want to live in a compound, I’ve lived in the GCC and never lived in a compound just private apartments etc (not dubai), it’s not a must but it would probably nice for your kids as there should be other english speaking kids there and they will organise transport to school etc).

A friend of mine did it and ended up divorced. She said they'd go for ten years make big bucks and come back to the UK to semi retire.

Saudi life was too stifling for her, so after a while they moved to Bahrain and her husband commuted the causeway, which was hellish for him. She resented him for taking them out there and he resented her for making him leave saudi. Her dc never really properly settled in international schools and now back in UK as teens they are struggling to integrate here after spending all of their childhood in the middle east.

From the outside it looked like they had the perfect life but they were all really unhappy there for different reasons.

as you’re Muslim it may not be too much of a culture shock. Are you from an Islamic state yourself?

My friend’s DS is there on a 2 year contract and isn’t enjoying it at all tbh. The heat, the crazy Islamic rules about everything, the lack of a normal social life, he’s lonely and desperate for the end of the contract.

OP you keep saying you are Muslim. Morocco and KSA are both Muslim. They are very much not the same as each other. Can you understand people’s worries about raising a girl in KSA? I meant it isn’t baffling.