Saudi Aramco Reviews

Pros

Secured job
Many resources available to excel in improving yourself

Cons

work load is not distributed evenly affecting family life

Advice to Senior Management

Fair

Pros

good training development and average merit increase

Cons

lack of technical personnel to evaluate young engineers achievement and way of thinking. Favorism and appointing un-qualified superiors, sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

Establish a new KPIs that fit each engineering role.

Pros

For an Expat Employee, there is no better Company than Saudi Aramco. The compenstation and benefits...particularly retirement benefits...are fantastic.

Cons

Expat Employees are brought for specific roles...if you can accept that fact, it's a great place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is striving to create a safe and satisfactory work environment for all employees. This pursuit can be improved by reducing the turnover in the middle-management ranks.

Pros

it is a company that one feels proud to work for. there are unlimited opportunities for personal and career growth in addition to the wide range of opportunities and business field beig offered. it is an honor to work for Saudi Aramco.

Cons

Like in any other company in the world, there remains to be pockets of poor performers and sarcastic people at individual and managment levels.

Advice to Senior Management

Good things are hard to come by. There are a lot of employees who clearly understand the change takes time and we are all for it. Keep up the good work.

Pros

Saudi Aramco is a great place for those seeking job security (not career security). Career security refers to developmental opportunities that prepare you as an individual employee to compete outside your current employer. However, if you are interested in a job that will pay for the next 30 years or so but will turn you into a person with a set of very obsolete skills, then Saudi Aramco is the right place for you!!

Cons

very stagnant organizational culture and rigid org structure. Too much focus on PR both internally and externally and a lot of CYA events. Mid and high level management members seem to be aware of the current challenges facing the company and the industry as a whole; but have not been successful in creating the type of organizational culture that would continually learn to adapt to the current and emergent challenges.

Advice to Senior Management

The brain drain may be stopped by creating a lively organizational culture that attracts and retains the human capital needed to take the company where you want/need it to be.

Pros

The big paycheck is the base for coming here, but there's also the low cost of living (company subsidised housing).

Cons

The work life balance here can be difficult. If you are an expat there won't be any real advancement for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Either get rid of the expats, or treat them fairly. Hold everyone accountable in their positions, and get rid of the dead wood.

Pros

Job Security
Good salaries and benefits
Good health care
Work/Life balance
the company takes care of its employees, provide them with nice housing and recreation facilities. 6 weeks of paid leave a year. i would recommend it for anyone with the right experience who is looking for a scaled back workload and desire to use free time for out of job activities.

Cons

i joined as a graduate. the training for entry level employees is poor. The lack of engagement is frustrating and the vision for development is blurry.
it feels like a high school with billions of dollars in budget.
 i wouldn't recommend the place for fresh graduate who is thirsty for solid professional experience even though kick off salary is competitive. many of the good fresh graduates leave within couple of years due to lack of job satisfaction. senior management is concerned but they lack proper action.

Advice to Senior Management

it is a good idea to learn from other companies in the same field, but make sure when you copy a strategy that is adopted by other companies that it is the right one for you.

Pros

Saudi Aramco has on of the best working environment in Saudi Arabia . Its diverse workforce makes it sound as an international company with local prospective

Cons

I really could not find a real negative issue that makes you to hate this place . There is one thing that I can consider it as a disadvantage is the annual merit increase which is deducted by half this year

Advice to Senior Management

trying to give advises to management could be a little bit difficult that I do not have full information about the financial position of the company after the financial crisis that hit every company on the glob

Pros

Possibilities for growth and development are excellent.
Tremendous challenge if you are willing to fight a huge beuracracy
There are so many opportunities for change which allow you to pursue work you think is important.
relaxed environment if you want
you dont need to work hard, but i am not sure that is a reason to work anywhere

Cons

If you are not Saudi, then you have limited advancement.
salary scales
benefits are back loaded instead of front loaded, so you would need to stay to get the huge benefits
neptism exists, probably more than other big companies
very tribal
sometimes 'wasta' is a must to get normal things done

Advice to Senior Management

transparency, fairness, middle management is the problem.

Pros

Low stress work environment - can get away with doing little or nothing. Lifestyle for US expatriates in Dhahran are outstanding - like living at a resort. Compensation per unit of work output, is very high (not because pay is high, but required work output is very low).

Cons

Down side is that your prefessional skills will atrophy, rendering you unemployable anywhere else. Great place to retire from; horrible as a stepping stone to something better.

Advice to Senior Management

Be fair, be transparent, stop the institutionalized discrimination aganist non-muslims.