Warning about F-15 jobs, AEC, Saudi Arabia

This is a warning for anyone being contacted or thinking of applying to jobs for AEC or AECL, working in Saudi Arabia on their F-15 contract. These jobs are for almost all aspects of the aircraft: engines, fuels, egress, avionics, modification, QA, etc.

DO NOT accept this contract. DO NOT come over here. Please do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY! The company lies about everything. You will have hell getting your family over here; if they ever make it. Paperwork for visas will get "lost", or they will sit on HR's desk for weeks before being processed. If it makes it to headquarters in Riyadh, it will take weeks to months to process it, and at times they will make you do everything over. We have people here that have been waiting 6 and 7 months to get family over here when they should have been here after 90 days.

The company has also recently decided to take money from our paychecks. The first reason they cited was due to "riyals to dollars exchange rate change", which after investigation some fellow employees found out the rates had not changed. The last lie about the money was that they were charging us a "transfer fee" being charged to them by the bank, which they were then passing along to us. I've been here a year and it is only in the last two months that they have begun this.

When asked to work overtime by the RSAF, the company likes to deny your comp time, but only after you have already worked the weekend, so you end up getting screwed out of overtime and comp days even though the Saudis you work for approved you that time off.

The company, which is supposed to provide transportation as per contract, often can not even get the work buses to run on time. There have been countless days where people have been left at work and supervisors have had to return to base in their cars to pick up the poor souls left behind.

Anyone that confronts them about these or any other issues is threatened with being fired.

Anyone that cares about getting payed on time, or at all, or who actually wants to ever see their family again, I highly recommend you pass up any job offers made to you by this company. It simply is not worth it. There are over a dozen employees who are ready to quit as soon as they find another job. The money may sound good, but it simply is not worth all the stress and headache. And it only keeps getting worse.

I read the warning and understand there are many cultural road blocks to overcome in the middle east. In the late 1970's I worked on the development of Crusie Missle Engines. Later I help develop hydraulic systems for B1 & B2 bombers. Since the late 1980's I have been working in the Automotive suppiler network. I am a Metallurgist and a Laboratory manager and recognize the A2LA and ISO 17025 management systems are the way forward with regard to testing.

I am pursueing an offer to work for AEC, because it could be the last job I hold in my life. Mt family is all grown up ; I have two boys ages 25 and 28. My wife will not be coming with me if I go. She is vested in a retirement program at the University of Michigan and she is 60 years old. We are both trying to put money away and pay-off the morgage so that we can stay in our home without payments when we reach age 65.


Another thing I like about this opportunity is it is not automotive and I would no longer be working under the heavy hand of Auto executives and Union officals. The whipsaw action of playing one group aginst another and then everyone wins except the customer. I am hoping to work in Saudi Arabia and be able to buy a Porsche when the contract is complete

Wow...

If the above 2 posts aren't two of the best counter-arguments one could make on this particular issue I don't know what would. Well worth the read.. Very stimulating and insightful.

Best wishes to that older dude getting his Porsche!

rbeard51, I understand why you would find the contract alluring; many of the reasons you mention are the same things that attracted me 18 months ago when I was contacted by the recruiter. As for the cultural differences, there are things you must adjust to, but for the most part if you take things in stride and adopt a more laid back attitude the RSAF are easy to deal with. Most of them are decent people that I generally have no qualms with. The problems are all company related; some due to Saudi workers and KSA regulations, some due to American AEC employees, and some due to ATTI as was mentioned above about the pay issues. The money can be good, assuming you get paid on time and the right amount, but other than that I can't speak well of this company. I urge you again to think about taking the contract. If you decide to accept, good luck, as you will need it.

I do have one suggestion for you if you do end up accepting the job. Make sure you have several AEC phone numbers and the number to your compound written down with you when you arrive in kingdom. Also make sure you bring Riyals with you for a pay phone. People often don't get picked up from the airport when they arrive in country and several have found themselves stranded at the airport with no contact numbers and no idea where their compound is. You may also want to get an address and directions to the compound should you end up relying on a taxi for transportation.

Also, you may want to think about health care, especially since you are 58. The medical insurance here is so bad we may as well not have any, and your wife will not be covered if she is not living in Saudi. If your wife has good insurance from her employer this may not be an issue for you, but there have been people misled by recruiters who are telling people their family will be covered back in the states and that is simply not true. If you do end up with any medical bills you will probably be paying for it out of pocket, the coverage is that bad.

Well someone else........Dont count on the White Shirts to back you up. They will screw you over in a New York Minute. Especially Benny Hampton Jr, Glen and Richard. Our great HR person today Glen just got this base pass for a newbie and said here you go ...... go to work without knowing where the hell the shop was. What a swell HR person Glenn Murray feed the newbie to the sharks..... A great way to start work.

Remember the more stupid you are the higher up you go in the food chain for AEC

rbead51 my advice to you if you really want that fancy car and have some extra money left over you would much better off going to Iraq or Afghanistan or someother Central asian country.... You cannot do that over here in Saudi Arabia.... The good days of good money and benefits are OVER Fini...... Look elsewhere

So is AEC where all the rejects go to work? ....If sh*t is so bad why stay?

Get a job with a local municipal government. Work 8 hrs a day - get good medical/dental at reasonable cost - get a cost of living increase every year - and work up the ladder quickly (since most prior military have some ambition) and not worry that a bad economy will cause you to be laid off - live life and enjoy!

I did not leave anything in the AOR that i would ever want to go back for - at any $$$$ amount.

To all AEC Employees prepare for a delay for your Bonus and HL payments... Roddre Massay is preparing another B.S. excuss for the delay It will say due to the current world economic situation. So if you ask Benny whats the delay with the money be prepared for this famous lies: I'll look into it, I'll make a note of this or I get back with y ou on that. Our current Projects officer isi Anti but when you stand up to him he backs down. His wife probably has more Balls than he does.

To rbeard51, forget about Saudi go to Lockheed Martin web site and then go to jobs and in job search key word put in PTDS. This is a great program with easy work and the money is great. The only bad thing is it's in Iraq or Afghanistan. Been here two months and I plan to milk this cash cow for all it's worth.

Curiously many newbie's on this topic?

Good Luck is when opportunity meets with preparation

Hey Triton tell us more about these jobs is the pay six figures and the benefits, number of vacation days per year ect..... Sounds tempting I'm ready to jump ship away from the Muj's over here in Saudi its time to help out our own kind.

Girls,

You low life, ungrateful, broke dick, trailer trash, to old for a job and probably didn't have a job because Walmart or Dollar General wasn't hiring; so you VOLUNTEERED to come to Saudi for AEC or ALSALAM-BISS-Boeing. NO ONE HELD A GUN TO YOUR HEAD!. RESIGN WE DEFINITELY DON'T NEED YOUR WHINING a$$ HERE NOR do we need your Dozen of unruly uneducated spouses and children.

The Quality of life on the Compounds has certainly gone to a new LOW status since Boeing and AEC started importing your qualified trailer trash selves with additional Brood in tow.GO BACK HOME TO THE LAND OF WALMART

More Quality Boeing Wrench turners; you all would whine if you were given a camel and a desert to ride it in.Here you are!!. If you had any BALLS you would confront your Boeing, Country Rep, DIRECTLY, Mr. Shaun FORD; another trailer trash caliber manager. You should be able to relate!. Perhaps your AEC, then try their Management Consultant and GURU; Mr. Dave "Quick Draw" McGraw.

YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY OVERPAID FOR YOUR SKILLS and additionally consider You have FREE Medical, FREE Housing, FREE Transportation to work; the BUS is so you feel like you are home!. No Taxes either; so you aren't eligible for FOOD STAMPS; that is probably what's really got you Pissed Off!.

RESIGN Wal Mart is hiring; you can use your mechanical skills to repair Shopping Carts and again use your Food Stamps and ride the Bus again!.

Now-now boys and girls

Lets all just try to get along.

There are some good points made here and some points that lack honesty.

The best is to speak of personel antidotes, and not rumers or here-say.

I can say that working here with the RSAF has been good for me and that most of my greef has come from clic americans abusing this program, which has run it and the people into the ground.

By and large it has been the americans who advise AEC, Al Salam, or the likes, on cost cutting, benifit eliminating or out right contract breaking.

These managers do a disservice for the Co. and the people who work and perform as professioals in the feild of a/c maintenace.

The SAG has said that expat-people over 60 years need work in the Kingdom, but if you are younger than that and would like to raise a family here, it is as safe if not safer than lets say LA, SD, NY, DC, ummm, any big city in the USA.

I'm not going into a lot of detail here but my life in the kingdom is far better than it ever was in the USA, don't mix that up with my Nationality, I am proud to be an American and I tell everyone I meet that I am. It is just that america is no longer the place I bleed for while I was in service, (26+ years).


Ethics are governed by the management of a co. and if they don't care to learn that, the product or the Co. fails to achive sucess.

I would nerver begruge anyone their honest sucsess in life, and I hope America can pull up in time (pull-up...pull-up...pull-up).