Saudi Aramco Reviews

Pros

its a nice place to work at , they pay good , and live in saudi arabia is very cheap compare to united state. i see the job is easy and the allows taker for any problem that you might face

Cons

nothing really , but the weekend is kindly different from all the word , which are thursday and friday . also not all the people speak english

Pros

As a Saudi citizen myself, these are the pros:

- Job security for life.
- Fairly good salaries.
- Company would send Saudis for Master's, internships, overseas training and so on.
- Safety is always taken seriously.
- Camp is great (though boring).

Cons

Oh where to start:

- Innovation is killed.
- The slowest company on earth. Takes tooooooo long to finish anything and everything.
- Did I just say slow?
- Boring.
- Incompetent employees and management. You can be the laziest and non-productive person and yet won't be fired or punished. You may even get promoted. It's mind boggling to see such incompetent people still handling critical activities. The company is surviving due to the great and sound procedures that were put in place back in the day when it was an American company. Though the procedures are outdated now, they are still the reason why the company can still produce oil.
- Unfair distribution of work.
- No leadership. Forget management. No leadership. I never felt there was a leader who knew what he/she was doing and led us through with enthusiasm and close monitoring.
- Can go for DAYSSSSS without work.

If you're looking for a "job" where you do whatever you're told and go home, you'll be fine. Pay is very good. No competition whatsoever so you'll probably be appreciated even if you were just average. But if you're looking to improve yourself, feel a sense of reward and accomplishment, this is not the company for you. If you're looking to do a job, get paid well and go home, you should come here.

Advice to Senior Management

So much to do. I don't think that this box would be enough to say what I want to say. However, the current CEO appears to be a knowledgable one. He has unleashed a huge transformation program that is supposed to transform the company into something great. For some reason I don't think I should hold my breath.

Pros

Cinmas and other recreation facilities.
Near home.
Easy job.
Plenty free time.
The recently Shaded Parking.
nicely furnished / air conditined office.
Professional juintors.
Little supervision.
Friendship culture.
Relaxed atmosphere..

Cons

many many incompetent people in Middle Management,
Attract unfaithful and Unpatriotic people.
No Quality Control System.
No punishment systm.
lack of harmony and team spirit.
Demotivation.
Lack of competition.
Profitability taken for granted.
No drive for improvment.

Advice to Senior Management

no comments.

Pros

Low stress Job
Happy & cheerfull enviroment
Fixed working hours
Nice facilities

Cons

Slow, Slow ,Slow
More rotine driven
Can go for days without work
Old timer mentalities " we have been doing this for years no need to change!"
Can go for years without getting promoted or change job
lots of defensive and cant do work culture

Pros

Benefits and Compensation (US payroll)
Retirement Package
Job Security
Balanced work load
Beautiful residential compound with many amenities
Lots of field data, operational experience
Great shopping centers, restaurants in the neighborhood

Cons

If you want to relax, you still have job but lose your expertise. Management positions not for expats. Many young Saudis now in management who neither have technical skills nor are good in inter-personnel dealings.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to get people of competency (technical and dealing with personnel) in management levels. Just being a Saudi should not qualify. Good filtering is needed.

Pros

Excellent benefits - salary + retirement
You can do what you want as long as you do what you are asked to do.
Lots of time to spend on your pet projects.

Cons

No room for creativity.
Your technical skills witl stagnate, atrophy.
Middle management is full of incompetent, vindictive, self serving egotists. If you know how to bs and make good powerpoints, you will succeed in getting a promotion. BS works. Real ideas and work does not.
Some colleagues are quick to put their names on your ideas.
Innovation means nothing towards promotion.
Slow to adapt to new ideas.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at the PMP results and see who actually produced towards the bottom line.

Pros

1- Good salary
2- Offers good housing and family benefits
3- Cares a lot about safety
4- UPDC is awesome and very helpful.

Cons

Very limiting
company growth in terms of innovation and creativity is scarce
Lots of bureaucracy
I hate the SAP system .... no one knows how to use it !!

Advice to Senior Management

We need to provide better planning and more innovative and diverse career paths for our incoming (new) employees

Improve work place to be more innovative and friendly rather than too competitive. We need more motivation. other than MONEY

Pros

Of course the pay! Work/Life balance is wonderful and lots of activities to be involved in. My family really enjoys it and we love traveling around the middle east. We travel a lot around the world because of Aramco and my children have visited more countries in a few years than most Americans have visited during their entire lives.

Cons

If you are expat, don't even bother trying to move up. You do a job and you do it for the entire time you are here. No advancement but you are able to move within the grades of your job band until you max out.

Advice to Senior Management

The work environment is reminiscent of an era gone by. Very hierarchal and many great ideas are squelched by non-visionary supervisors and managers that are too focus on outdated procedures. Aramco wants to be an innovative company, but its culture is not designed to incite innovative thinking. Maybe it's time to benchmark some successful organizations outside the oil and gas industry to use as models for transforming this company toward its next level of challenges.

Pros

There is good infrastructure and support for families on the Saudi Aramco compounds. Families are important in the culture. Saudi Aramco is the only place in KSA where you will find this level of support.

Cons

You must learn to "make progress in a sideways manner." Difficult to explain if you have not worked in the Middle East.

Advice to Senior Management

It is your country, you company, your culture, and ultimately your responsibility.

Pros

The salary package. However, other oil/gas companies in region and in europe/USA have caught up in recent years and have become serious options.

Cons

Expatriates are fully exploited if they happen to be good at something. They should nor expect top performance ratings/annual merits as these are restricted to locals. If an expatriate crosses or disagrees with management, he is shunned/marked for life. There is an air of extreme vindictiveness througout the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat expatriates failrly; do something pretty quick about gaps in competency throughout the company; otherwise, serious plant/process incidents are inevitable. Rethink approach to selection of middle management; this is slowly killing the company.