I get a lot of job offers from recruiters, none of which I'd be interested in even if I were looking for a job. But this one was more interesting than most:
I believe I have an opportunity that may interest you and would be interested in discussing it further. Please reply back to me as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing from you.
My Client is currently seeking several PM&R's to work at a US owned Hospital System in Kuwait City.
Kuwait City! That's totally my dream city to work in! Sign me up!
They are specifically looking for Physicians that have experience in a JCAHO accredited Facility. This Is a 3-5 year contract.
Oh good, I get to stay there a long time.
Relocation Paid, You are able to take your Family with you.
You mean I don't have to sign a contract to go to Kuwait for 5 years all alone without my family?
Qualifications: 7 years working in/for teaching hospitals post BC; trained in the US, American BC, and licensed in the US.
Why would anyone with those qualifications take this job? I don't even have those qualifications.
Well, as a kiwi who spend almost a decade of his childhood in a city on the persian gulf (not Kuwait city though similar) I don't think it would be as crazy as you'd think. There were certainly a lot of civilian doctors from western countries working there. Some of them had moved do their partners career, but some of them must have been directly recruited.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that Kuwait city would be a perfectly satisfactory place to live as a foreigner, if my experience is anything to go by. I'm sure they'll find somebody eventually if they are willing to pay enough.
kia ora! LOVED new zealand!! my plan post grad if my parents hadnt got all sick on me was to take off for a 6 mo-1 yr locum in Nelson. Love the south island. sigh.....
DeleteThere's plenty of people who take such jobs because:
ReplyDelete-the pay can be good
- they want to work for a healthcare system that doesnt make you work like a dog.
-they want a tax free income
-like to travel
-want to experience a different culture
Oh come now, it's just a job, if you like what they are offering what's wrong with taking it? I know plenty of people who have worked outside the US and enjoyed their experiences. I find that a lot of their fears were based on stereotypes or preconceived notions. Also, I the ones that hated their experiences were also the ones that had a narrow view of the world, preferred to hunker down, constantly bitch and live in their compounds until the contract ran out. So you have to give it a chance, be open. That goes for jobs everywhere, at home or abroad.
-Bill
What's with people hating on jobs outside the US? They constantly whine about their jobs and how broken the system is. Why not go see how people elsewhere do things?
ReplyDeleteMy dad says the biggest career mistake he evee made was turning down an opportu.ity toopen up a data center in saudi arabia.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteWell, this was pre-me in the early 70s, but my understanding is that it was the kind of work he was really interested in doing, with a group of people he enjoyed working with. He would have been a local expert also. Not sure the details, he's just always said that he was too afraid to go.
DeleteI know of several Americans who work in Dubai, and my first bf in high school grew up on an American compound in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. His father worked for Aramco. It's not as uncommon a thing to do as you might think.
I don't think there's anything wrong with living outside the US... might be interesting to spend time in a place like Australia or France. But I think as a female of my ethnicity, I would not have a great experience living in the middle east. Maybe that's just my stereotype, I don't know. But I'm never get far enough to find out.
ReplyDeleteBut what I think is irksome is that I specifically told recruiters that I was only interested in jobs in a very narrow geographical area, and not only have they sent me jobs all over my own country, now they're sending me jobs in other countries. Basically, they are spamming me with stuff I specifically said I wasn't interested in.
Not sure the middle east sexism issues are a problem for ex-pats. Typically you live on an American compound and your kids go to school with other Americans. You can even get booze. Someone else would probably know better than I do though.
DeleteTo be fair, of the places I've travelled/lived (including the Middle East), France and Australia were probably the two places that I ran into the most overt discrimination. I'm Asian and worked in France. I remember guests getting into screaming matches with my employer, telling him that he should be hiring French only. People would yell racial insults out the car window at me and would throw bottles/trash at me. Guys would sometimes try to follow me, again making racial comments. There were times when I was actually really, really scared.
DeleteAustralia was less scary but I was surprised by how many people I interacted with who harbored strong anti-Asian sentiments.
I grew up in Indonesia while my father worked for the Indonesian government in satellite telecommunications. (6 years in the 1970s) I am grateful that my parents took a chance and took the family. Many parents left their kids in bording schools back home. The experiences changed the way I view the world and made me a better person.
ReplyDeleteMy parents considered everything a teaching possibility. We took vacations specifically to learn about things. We went to places that are no longer safe to visit. I wouldn't give up those experiences for anything.
I just got a job offer for somewhere that sells the fact that it is a tort-reform state. I find that unnerving. Are they suggesting I will be sued? A lot?
ReplyDeleteI love how it's always sort of mysterious where it is. "45 miles from Indianapolis!" By what? Airplane?
By the way, I did a locum tenens in New Zealand (Kia Ora Chris!) and loved it. You get to experience a new culture and being a doc allows you to really interact with people in a way that being a tourist never will.
ReplyDeleteThey actually pay American doctors very well there, and it's all tax-free income. The rich sheikhs will constantly be showering you with expensive gifts, and you'd be living in an US-compound, so if you don't mind living in a very different society, you can see that the plus side is you get to live quite luxuriously.
ReplyDeleteFrom a friend who lived in Kuwait, they said it was fabulous. Amazing food, amazing culture and very western in openess and quality of life. I think you might have more problems in the countryside, but in the city - all is great.
ReplyDeleteI am jealous. I would love the opportunity to work in Kuwait, have a decent blissful well-paid life and save a lot of money before travelling some more with it. Like everyone else on here has said (while yes I appreciate that you didn't ask to be relocated to Kuwait so that was a bit silly of them) -- the middle east is not as scary as you think. They actually seem to have a lot of fun there, I can imagine living as an expat will bring you to a stronger sense of community, too. I know many Hindus living there (in a predominantly Muslim country), and they love Kuwait as home. :-)
ReplyDeleteBy 'them' I meant the job recruiters, not the commentors.
ReplyDeleteumm money! You can make a fortune in Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteI still have the email. Would you like the contact info to take the job yourself? Sounds like they're looking for all types of physicians.
DeleteHah, obviously that is a scam. I was just saying how I think many people would be willing to move to Kuwait (or other countries) for the chance to make more money - especially, for single people.
DeleteI happen to know (know of, I should say) a few young, single computer science/ software engineers that make tons of money by doing contracted jobs in various places. They, I'm sure, have saved quite a lot of money before 'settling down'.
Well, gosh. Now I feel silly for not relocating my family 7,000 miles away to Kuwait :P
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha
DeleteSeriously though, sounds like an adventure! Who WOULDN'T want to do it?
That may not have been serious.
I love your blog and I'm not trying to be critical, but I'm currently an MS3 at a US Medical school and spent a large part of my teenage years in Kuwait City precisely because my dad relocated the family to Kuwait (granted, it wasn't the first move and we were sort of used to travel by this point). As a very white non-muslim female, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed living in Kuwait, most expats don't live in a compound there and the people are lovely. All of my doctors (and my dentist) were Western and enjoyed being there as well. Great shopping, fantastic water sports and very safe environment.
ReplyDeleteI can understand being annoyed at getting spam emails about jobs you're not interested in, but living in Kuwait is awesome (plus, it's a great location for vacation travel elsewhere :)
Why would working in Kuwait be so bad? Have you been to the Middle east? Or simply seen reports of unrest on CNN?
ReplyDeleteExpats have a pretty nice life in the Gulf, pay no taxes, get a chance to travel and interact with a pretty ritzy segment of the population. Afterall thats why so many people are happy to have corporate jobs in for a time in Dubai etc. It's a great way to make some good cash in a safe and relatively unrest free place. In addition, the private hospitals in the Gulf are absolutely amazing and have access to some pretty nice technology (hello oil money!). My extended family worked for Weill Cornell University Medical Institute - based in Quatar. It was really amazing and my girlfriends had a fabulous time there, were never really concerned about safety etc.
I'm a little surprised by your reaction -have you ever travelled to a non-western country?
I'm surprised you're surprised that I wouldn't want to uproot my family and move 7,000 miles away, close to an area of the world that we're technically still at war with. If I told my mother I was moving there, she wouldn't be able to visit me either. Because she'd have a stroke.
DeleteWell Fizzy, that's your family. My family would most likely encourage me to go if I felt it were a good opportunity. Everyone's different.
DeleteI suspect when your mother comes to visit, she doesn't sob uncontrollably on the way home because the visit is over and now she misses her grandchildren.
DeleteNo, but my in-laws do. They live in Italy.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSounds sketchy...maybe they're trying to kidnap you
ReplyDeleteheh, my dad moved when I was one to a different country. It's not a bad life, moving around. I've lived in six countries now.
ReplyDeleteBut there's something to be said for settling down and living a stable life as well.
"Why would anyone with those qualifications take this job? I don't even have those qualifications".
ReplyDeleteBecause they pay. A lot.