Shad,

It's not Kazakhstan or Korea, but KSA. Thanks for the replies, I guess the divided by two does happen.

Question: Has anyone heard of this, your salary scale coming into a school will be your years of experience divided by two? For example if you have 8 years of experience, you get credit for 4, and thus 7,000 dollars less money. On the Search website the salary expectations are misleading to what was offered to me in a contract. Is this shady practice, or just how it is?

I got a question: Has anyone ever heard of this? I was offered a contract recently and the director said the way their school delegates your position on the salary scale is they take your years of experience and divide it by 2. They round up if it's half way, for example (7 years would be 3.5 so you would be at the year 4 scale). Does that make sense, or was I being bamboozled? Has anyone experienced something like this?

Al Khor is like one strip. Boom town if you will. Literally nothing around or anything to do. On the strip there is a bunch of fast-food places and thats it. They now have one little mall. No vegetation etc. And if you are thinking of teaching at QAAK, may god have mercy on your soul. Psycho ME admin and very undisciplined students who may hate you for being western. You also may die when driving. Literally. Education city you can survive. But just barely. American School of Doha is the one school in the country pretty much that is worth working at. There is also a London school as well thats supposed to be ok. Everything else, avoid like its an Ebola patient coming in for a hug.

If it's your first gig overseas, go to the UNI fair. There are a lot of first year people there and you will also find people with 3 dependents getting lucky as long as they have a teaching spouse. Just get your foot in the door in the best possible spot and then move on from there.

THEE school in Colombia I heard was CNG. They actually pay pretty decent. Apparently they got over 2,800 applications this year. So good luck with that. We saw them at the job fair this year and there was definitely a lot of interest.

Thankfully I have came across some actual teachers at the school via research and I got some actual facts. My instincts were correct, most of the stories were BS/exaggerated. Kids are good, school is getting ready for a new campus in two years, compound is still old, but livable. Supposedly the principal and superintendent are good guys and trying to genuinely make life better for the teachers. Overall there was some concern with the article that was posted, but nothing super crazy. Psyguy is right, the ME isn't Thailand, or Paris. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself if you are more of a homebody and just go out occasionally. Me personally I think the "dusty" climate is 100 times better than any other place cold. I'd take a beach on the Red Sea or Arabian Sea over winter in Norway or Boston any day. But that's just me. I'd also rather be at a German beer garden than at a Sheesha bar. Every place has it's plus and minuses. To each their own. In the ME you can save some great money which is always good if you have financial aspirations or debts. If the ME paid South America money I doubt anyone decent would be there, but all international schools have their own little supply demand flow they follow. Thanks for the comments guys/gals. It's been beneficial for sure.

Thanks Shadow,

I have also lived in the Middle East and am not worried about the general encounters of local people or life in there. These were specific and very recent incidents that have caused some real alarm. Attacks on the school bus going to school (rocks), being sited in ISIS posts as targets, being warned directly by the US embassy and them coming to the school apparently, serious mold problems from the recent flooding at Saudia City compound, etc. I was just hoping someone could confirm or disconfirm these claims. Or at least speak to them. Does anyone currently living in Jeddah or teach at one of the schools in Jeddah feel this way or have heard anything like this? Or are these claims erroneous? The school is specifically cited in this ISIS article. I have also heard that the ISIS affiliate who originally posted on the ISIS cite was a former teacher? These could be just wild claims, but it could make sense.

http://www.vocativ.com/world/isis-2/ame ... -say-isis/

Thanks for the replies.It kinda got off topic a bit. I was hoping someone who knows someone at AISJ or another school in Jeddah would be able to respond. I have actually heard its pretty crazy out there in Jeddah. MERS, crazy mold in the housing, people getting sick from it, expats getting shot outside of the compound from ISIS supporters. The state department contacting all the staff at the school saying they are targets. Teachers afraid to use the bus because its a target and people are scared of blowing up in it. etc. etc.

I heard through a friend that there is mounting pressure about ISIS threats, specifically at AISJ. Is this craziness or legit? Anyone know anyone teaching there or in Jeddah and feel this sort of new pressure in recent weeks/months? One claim was that ISIS supporters or the like (anti-west, anti-American) were throwing rocks at parents as they picked up their children from school. I want to call BS on it because I would have heard something in here right?