Wednesday, August 18, 2010

It's not only China

Vagueness, evasiveness, ineptitude, incompetence - these are the dominant strains in human society all around the world. Alas.

When you live your life in one place for a number of years, it can start to seem as though that place has some kind of monopoly on these irritations, or at least manifests them to a much higher degree than anywhere else, but..... maybe it ain't so. (Well, OK, with China, it certainly is. But, with my steadily diminishing tolerance for putting up with any of this shit, I start to wonder whether I would fare very much better anywhere else.)


I find myself being tapped up by a headhunter back in the UK for a position in the Middle East. Big oil company, lots and lots and lots of fringe benefits. Yes, yes, very nice. How much do they pay?

Oh, well, the scales are very attractive; yes, highly competitive; comparable to what you'd get in a similar position in Europe or the US.

Hmm. This is working in a company compound in a desert hellhole surrounded by potentially hostile Muslims: there are no similar positions in Europe or the US. And since I have not lived or worked in Europe or the US for getting on for 10 years now, I have not the slightest idea what a typical salary for any kind of job there is. Be more specific.

I need an actual number, even if it's in a fairly broad range, with no firm guarantees as to my entry point. If you tell me it's likely to be between 100 and 150 spondoolicks per year, I'll assume you'll be starting me on 100 (no, I'll probably assume, pessimistically, that you'll be trying to start me on 85 or 90; maybe I've just been in China too long), and hope (optimistically!) that I can bump myself up to 150 or better inside two or three years.

But you've got to give me some hard figures. This vapid brochure-speak is just wasting my time.

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