A friend of mine referred this forum, I like the way fellow desis help and appreciate for those who are maintaining the site.
Perhaps this has been discussed here many times before, but I believe everyone is different and has different situations.
I recently got a job offer from the Middle East to work as Engineer, with the gross monthly salary of 16000 CAD (192K CAD yearly tax free), a friend of mine living there gave me the details of the estimated monthly expenses there (in CAD):
Company's house rent --- 800 (Unfurnished with basic uti+cable+internet).
Food ---- 700
Other expenses--- 1000 (Clothing, furniture, shopping, any other Mis. )
Saving plan contribution ---1000 (Company matches $ to $).
NET Saving---- ~12500 (Potential net savings of 150K CAD per year).

Company provides relocation (all household shipments from Canada) + pays annual retrun airfare for the family +medicals +6 weeks paid holidays yearly.
The job site is considered a remote location there and the weekly work schedule is 10 hrs in 5 days (the overtime is included in the package). My family will stay in the main housing (work location is ~700 km away), I will be flying weekly to the work site (~2 hrs each way), will work and stay there on the camps during the week and return back for the weekend to join the family. The weather is extreme (50C hot humid summer) and the job may require some field work.

Here in Canada, I have quite stable job in the private sector as professional engineer (currently making 110K yearly + bonus and stand. perks), here my current company provides work and life balance, therefore there is tonns of opportunity to spend time with family. I enjoy my work (most of the time), wife works part time and makes ~15k yearly (she will go full time once kid starts schooling in a year or so).
Now that another opportunity is knocking, I am seriously thinking about the offer and thinking about pros and cons in case I join the ME offer:
Pros
- Closer to home country
- Potential of savings
Cons
- Long work hours, away from family so less time with family
- I am citizen but wife’s citizenship (applied in June 2010) and parents sponsorship application will be in jeopardy.
Here in canada the net savings are minimal and weather is another extreme (I personally prefer canadian winter over hot and humid summer).
I will appreciate all positive feedbacks and responses, what would you do if you were in this situation?

Fab............

Please verify your offer with employer as with my long ME job exp and knowledge in Engineering consultency and local Govt working exp I can surely tell you that number's you provided are not real and possible by looking at your age group and expericne (with a samll kid)....... exception some times in Oil & gas Field they may offer some thing near to this provided you have 20+ years exp.


"""""""""""""Offer in Middle East to work as Engineer, with the gross monthly salary of 16000 CAD (192K CAD yearly tax free), a friend of mine living there gave me the details of the estimated monthly expenses there (in CAD)""""""""""""""


cmanyam

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Hi to all...

cmanyam, thanks for your concern, the offer is genuine from one of the giants in Oil & Gas in ME.
Just to give you some details, in the offer the "variable component" is overtime (OT) amount (1.5times per hour), which is estimated to max (~2k CAD per month), even though subtracting the OT amount (worse case), gross figures come to 14k CAD a month.
I am no where near 20 years of exp. I have 12+ years exp. masters in Engg. and p.eng designation. Intersetingly, the base salary in the offer is little less than what I am making here, but the expat allowance+ overtime (variable)+remote location allowance etc make total $$ higher and attractive.

FAB - The offer is out of this world for the given exp. & age. But this is a very subjective question and the answers will vary wildly depending who you speak to. Especially on anonymous boards you'll get all kinds of feedback. In the end it might be harmful to know opinions from strangers with assumptions that everyone is nice and are like you. I hope you get the gist of what I am mentioning here.

As said, the offer is cool but the location is not so cool. What do you value more, family or money? If you are in tonnes of debt and not doing well for yourself here then surely go for it.

If it were me and I was doing good financially here and value my family time then I might not have taken it. BUT it might have made me think several times knowing how lucrative it is. Also, if I was planning to retire early in Canada while sacrificing few years then I would've gone for it.

Good Luck man! You have a great offer in your hand. It is ONLY you who can decide. YOU are the best judge.

unitz, thanks for your input, yes this is the kind of feedback I am looking and the main reason behind to discuss it on this forum, perhaps I will get new prospects/ideas which I am not thinking right now. I fully understand that it will be myself and my family who are the best judges and will decide at the end, but just want to explore all the avenues before making any decision.
No, I dont have any debts (except car finance), but not alot of equity either, sold my home recently (break even price, the intentions were to buy bit bigger and closer to the job), currently renting, which is a plus in this situation.
If I accept the offer, perhaps in 5-10yrs in ME, I will leave with some handsome savings. But wife's citizenship will be a big problem, we even don't have an ack. yet! Parents (they are not enthusiatic about living permanently in Canada).

While working in the payroll section for one of the Oil and gas co for 10+ years, I have seen this type of salary (even more than this ) only for white and locals, Not for brown skinned people.

May be you are luckky ...see...western education pays off....after all this lending and bending...

The only one caveat is considering the job is genuine....ask ...what type of work culture is...sometimes...those locals are hard to handle....for a browny...though they are quite ok with white people...

I have seen a lot of western expats working and enjoying themselves...that's the reason I migrated to give better education for my children...

The work life balance what you have it here you can have there also...

Good luck

This is a tough decision to make, especially when your ME offer is so good. Here are a few things to think about:

1) How much will your ME experience be valued when you come back to Canada? I am not familiar with your sector, but many of our family members and friends have had difficulty getting the same amount of respect for foreign (non-Western) experience. Considering that you have a good, stable job here, you may want to think about whether you can get back in that position once you wrap up in ME.
2) Life in the ME is like living in a cocoon. No freedom of speech, government controls the press, no real freedom of religion (some exceptions apply). No libraries, no universities or educational/cultural institutions. Chances are you will have a small network of Indian friends and that's about it.
3) What will the impact on your kids' education be? Yes, I know there are CBSE/ICSE schools in most of these countries, but keep in mind that opportunities for their intellectual development will be limited. Spelling bees, science fairs, science and math olympiads, school plays, arts and craft festivals etc. are not as common as they are here.
4) Are you okay with not having your own house for the next 10 years? I know you will have saved up enough money to buy your house in Canada without a mortgage when you come back, but there is something to be said about slowly building memories in your family home.
5) Will your family be okay with only seeing you on weekends, or not seeing you when you go on your field trips?
6) Assuming your wife will not work in the ME, is she okay with putting her career on hold? Will she be able to get back into the market when you move back to Canada?

Reflecting on my family's ME experience, I think the above points stick out a lot. Salary was fantastic, savings were great, but I'm not sure there was much else positive.