Because of the problems and issues I faced at the company, my health and mentality deteriorated. I easily caught sickness and my nerves were always on fire. This was reflected upon my relations with friends, family and wife.

It was hard for me to seek another job, because of the long working hours. The only time I was managing to go job-seeking was during sick leaves. Even if I was unable to walk or move, I forced myself just for the sake of leaving this damn job.

But the method of printing out your CV and wandering around companies did not seem useful at all. I had to know someone in some company to let me in!

Until one day a co-worker came to me while I was working and she asked me to send her CV to her friend’s email address since I was the only assistant consultant with an internet access! Yes, we were not given internet access nor emails!

So I said to her: “No problem, I will send it right away”. Few minutes later it was sent to her friend’s email. When we approached the end of the day she came back to me just to make sure that the email was sent and I confirmed that to her. Then she suggested that I sent my CV as well if there is the slightest chance, especially knowing that it is an engineering and manufacturing company ( I am an engineering graduate.). At first I didn’t feel like sending it. I felt that her friend would say: “He is only sending his CV because he sent my friend’s one”. But upon her request I accepted to send.

Next morning, my colleague came rushing to me saying that her friend wanted to talk to me. There is an opportunity for me that I might be interviewed by her Regional Manager. I was not that much happy, because of couple of reasons:

1-     I went to many interviews, some rejected me, some offered me a job but with a lower salary while others said they will get back to me very shortly and they never did.

2-     This was company #1 in its speciality and there is little chance they would hire a Bahraini with very basic work experience and worked for a while in a field away from his academic background. They would better hire an expat who spent the last 13 years in another competitive company.

However, I called her friend and she invited me to an interview the next day at 10a.m. I accepted without hesitation and directly went to my former manager and it was the end of the day. I told him: “I have a job interview at 10am and I am going.” I was like not asking for his permission to go. I was rather telling him that I am going whatever the consequences are. He replied by saying: “Don’t you get tired?”. He knows that I have been to couple of interviews and he’s been sick from me wanting to leave this crappy job. He said: “OK, you can go but don’t be late”.

End of Part 3

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Part 2

My second disappointment was when I saw that there is no training provided as we were promised.

After sorting out the files we were directly thrown to do the job without the slightest introduction to what we have to do (Go and discover it yourself).

Third disappointment is the way we were treated as employees. We were not employees in the full meaning, we were just some schoolboys. I was just sitting there in the office from 7.30am till 6.00pm filling out some stupid excel sheets with numbers. A national project but with no automation or utilisation to prominent IT solutions (i.e. CRM, Data base Management, etc.).

My brain just clogged and I was unable to think properly even outside work. I became kind of stupid.

The Fourth disappointment which triggered me fiercely to leave this job is when the director of the project decided to bring a new employee from his same country of origin to monitor our work and also report to him. This guy as young as us with no work experience and had similar degree to what we (Assistant consultants team) have. On top of that he earned 3 times what we earn as assistant consultants and possessed the title of “Business Consultant”. He is now a dear friend of mine and I do not have any issues or grudge against the guy. My blame is all fired to the top management who favoured a guy that did know nothing about the project we worked in for the past 6 months. We had to teach him how to do the job in order for him to become superior to us. How does that feel aaay? We became very experienced in the project and we were very capable of supervising people. However this was not possible to happen.

It was strict military environment (Yes my dear old manager, I know you are reading now!). Sometimes you yelled at us like we were 6 years old kids, slammed the door forcefully to illustrate your anger and even threatened to fire us if work is not done properly. You always saw us guilty of doing mistakes in the job unless we prove ourselves innocent.

We did not demand impossible things. We wanted less working hour OR better pay. Whichever is possible.

We were working 10 hours a day which is against the regulations of the Ministry of Labour that specified that the total basic working hours per week should not be more than 48 hours a week while we worked for 50 hours/week.

Yes, thank you for offering 25BD as a rise to all the hard times we face with these cruel people whom you call “Business Clients”. The people we dealt with were mainly people conducting their own businesses. Those owned places such as barber shops, small private schools, restaurants, laundries and many other types of retail shops. Those people came to us to apply for the Labour Fund grants. Free money given to improve your business. YES YES YES free money. I am sorry to say that, but some were very novice to run a business by themselves and they hardly knew what is a financial report meant!

And we faced many problems because of this free money. Everybody wanted to get the biggest piece of this juicy cake. Some business owners even falsified their financial status just to be able to get some of this free money. Every day I had to bear with people yelling and shouting asking for the money and how I was not doing my job properly. I did not have authority and all the mistakes were cause by the project management of our company and the Labour Fund. I only had to bear the yelling, shouting and swearing, feeling tired, angry and depressed by the end of the day.

End of Part 2

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After graduating from university. I returned back eagerly to my home country seeking a reputable job that pays well enough to cover my basic expenses and provide me with the enough chances to improve and advance in my professional career. I have included sufficient information about my job hunt and how I landed on my first job to be an assistant consultant (click here to read it).

After a while I came to realise how lucky I was to find that job since some graduates took up to 2 years to find any job (and I say any!) while I only had searched for a month and a half to have a job offered to me. I was so happy back then as the job title seemed very glossy to me and I was happy to be called as (Mr. Assistant consultant!). Besides, the amount that has been offered seemed very juicy according to my very stupid understanding and I was so happy that I would be earning such an amount since I know many new graduates as myself were earning as low as 200~300BD.

I did not value myself and my capabilities properly and I accepted the job with no questions asked. I did not know how the market needed some graduated who were exposed to different cultures and have brilliant academic backgrounds, even if it was without the professional experience.

I write this thing because I do not want anyone to fall into my mistake. When I started, I was promised that I will work on this very big national project in coordination with the Labour Fund and how I will be supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

I was so euphoric to get involved in such a big project while I am still a fresh graduate with no relevant experience at all. During the first week I sat in the meeting room of the company along with other fresh graduates such as myself reading about the company, the services it offers, and the project we will be working in. It was such a depressing room. Spot lights are hot like you were in a microwave with no windows to the outside at all. I love open places with lots of sun light in.

Anyways, they promised us that they will be training us using top-class methods on how to deal with business clients.

In addition, they promised me that my title while change to a Business Consultant as soon as the probation period ends and I prove myself to be adequate to handle responsibilities. Furthermore, we were relocated in seef area for easy access and to be closer to the Labour Fund.

After moving to Seef office, the first thing we did is to sort out files like we were office boys! These dusty old files were thrown to us from the labour fund since we will be handling the project in full. This was my first disappointment.

End of part 1

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Since I am married and not living in my own house, it is an essential need to own a little house which hosts me, my wife and any coming kids (In Sha Allah). Earlier this year I applied to the ministry of housing for a loan to buy a house. I was novice back then and did not realise the amount granted is not even close to buy apartment! 2 months after applying, my name was published in the local newspapers as one of the people who have been granted such loans. I was overjoyed (Although it is a loan and an expense I have to pay from my income on a monthly basis for the coming 25-30 years). Now the problem is that when I went to the ministry of housing in the Diplomatic Area, they informed me that they will notify me via an SMS or an official letter sent to me by post on the next action to be taken.

I waited and waited and waited ……. 5 months gone, nothing appeared. I waited for 5 months because I know that such a period is very short to any governmental body. When we talk about lateness and delays in ministries, we are talking about 3 years+!

Now I decided to take an action and call the ministry of housing to get some update. But how fool you are Mr. T. because who is the stupid bastard that is going to answer your calls? But Mr. T. kept calling, anything to burn time at work (nasty isn’t it?). Anyways, after trying for many many times that I lost counting, somebody answered!! (horaaaay)

T.: Hi, is this the ministry of housing?

Housing Guy: Yes….

T.: I have been granted a purchasing loan and I want to …. (The housing guy interrupts me here)

HG: Have you found a house?

T.: Sorry, say again? A house?

HG: Yes, A house.

T.: Yes I have some choices and I’ve….. (HG interrupts again).

HG: No, No. No, No (in a very rude accent), I mean a formal offer.

T.: No, because with a formal offer I would be sure that I have the funds to pay for it. I am waiting for you guys in the ministry of housing to supply me with the funds required to be able to make a down payment.

HG: You have to pay the down payment first so that we know you are serious and want to buys the house.

T.: But sir, I am depending on you to be the source of the down payment. As soon as I get the loan you will start getting your monthly instalments. Isn’t that enough as a guarantee?

HG: No this is not how it is. Find a house, make an initial payment (usually 10~20% of the original total price) then come to us with the relevant documents.

T.: hmmmm (puzzled). Thank you sir

HG: ……. (Hangs up without any comment!)

T.: ********** Weirdo.

I am so lost and confused. I am in a situation that I have to be independent and find a house. Whenever my wife brings the topic I feel like I am letting her down and could not fulfil her dreams.

I went to the many banks that offer mortgage loans, but to my bad luck, all of them demanded that I make a down payment similar to what the ministry of housing demanded. Even if I was granted the amount it would not be sufficient to cover the cost of the house or would deduct most of my petty salary. How the hell I would get at least (and I stress on at least) 90,000 (In words Ninety Thousand Bahraini Dinars) to buy a damn small house to shelter my family.

I am now feeling that all the doors are closed to possess a house. I feel like I have tried every possible solution. I wish I could go back to the 1970s, where it was easier for people to obtain lands and build houses.

Any solutions dear bloggers?

Regards,

T.

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It’s like that there is no single person staying at his/her home in Bahrain. Let alone the huge number of GCC nationalities fleeing to our small island. And do not forget the extra amount of expats in our country. I know, I know I have to live with it, globalisation and its sh***t. I only want to vent some of my feelings here.

I really struggle to find a dining place during weekends. Sometime it seems to me that you have to spend time waiting for a table more than the time you actually spend on eating. I guess restaurants should install those neon signs similar to those in hotels and inns stating whether there are vacant tables or not.

And this not only restricted to restaurants, wherever you go, cinemas, malls, markets, streets and everywhere in Bahrain, you will see it crowded. So my suggestion for a perfect weekend is to buy some of this “microwavable popcorn” or some fast-food dinner, rent or download a movie of your desire and lay down on the bed as a couch potato and enjoy it!

Regards,
T.

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1-     After been engaged (Now I am married) I thought that I have been writing too personal material that my wife will not be happy with. I have this tendency to go too personal and speak about things that I should not be telling everyone about. So just to be on the safe side I stopped, though I did not intend to let it go this far.

2-     Laziness in its very simple terms!!

3-     The new life I am trying to cope with (Taking new responsibilities at home and work) which made me less attached to the PC. When I was a student in the United Kingdom for the past 5 years the only thing I cared about was going to the university, listening to lectureres and make good mark by the end of the year and impress the ministry of education and my parents.

These are basically the main reasons that made me fled away from the blogging scene for a while.

Now, I have to say that I remained having this wellingness and determination to blog some subjects in the blog but reason #  always prevented me from returning back to the blogosphere.

I do not know where to start from. I have tonnes of stuff to talk about and it seems endless.

Just to summarise stuff.

• I got married after being engaged for 4 months (Fast isn’t it ay?)
• I shifted jobs after being at my first ever full-time job for 8 months only.
• I gained some weight and my skin got darker. Now I realise how to married people gain weight!
• I am melting in this soaring heat.
• I have two cats as pets.

I will talk in more details about all these topics and more in separate entries.

I know most of them are related to me. (I love me!!!).

NO! I am kidding.

Will be back very shortly,

T.

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Please Please Please …..

T.

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Everyone

I know, I know, I haven’t been posting anything for a while now (At least this matters for some people here!) and that’s why I am writing this post right now. Many things happened since the post where I announce that I’ve found a job in this post (click here).

Well, what made me fled away from the Bahraini Blogosphere are 2 things لا ثالث بينهما. First of all is the job I got with TAGI (Talal Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. International). I work as an assistant consultant within TAGPS (Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Professional Service). I, among a team of 5, were hired to work on the EDS (Enterprise Development Scheme) project, financed by the Labour Fund (LF).

Our TAGPS team was given a new office near the LF office in Seef District to make it more convenient to us to work closely with the LF and reach them easily whenever we require their assistance (it’s like 5 minutes walk between our offices).

The working hours of our office is quite similar to many other private-sector firm. We work 6 days a week (from Sat. till Thur.) from 7.30am till 5pm with the exception of Thursday, were we work till 1pm. This has been changed now since 15th of this month when TAGI’s Chairman signed the contract to handel EDS with the LF (More details can be found here or here). Now we work for 5 days a week from 7.30am till 6.05pm, which is more convenient for us in the first place since most governmental agencies, ministries and private-sector firms are closed on Saturday. Now the only thing which makes the working time such a pain in the a** is the long working hours per day and per week (9.5 per day and 48 per week).

On the first week, we were asked to attend at the old office near Bab Al-Bahrain as our offices in Seef District were not ready yet. We were literally doing nothing there. We were put like test animals in the meeting room and sat there staring at each other. It was so boring to death that once of the new recruits decided that he “had enough” and didn’t show up after attending for 4 days. For a period of time I was questioning myself “Did I chose the right career? Is that what I hoped form?”

I soon came back to my senses when I knew that I had to be patient and wait for the true work to come. This work is really promising and will offer me a lot of experience. Additionally, it will enable me to explore the Bahraini market and to know in depth the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) in Bahrain.

Apart from being too busy with work, I have proposed on 2nd of Nov. to get engaged, and thanks to Allah my betrothal was accepted. I was really feeling shy that day and was looking down at my knees all the time. Even when I was offered food, I ate in an irritating slow pattern. The most important thing that everything is all right and I got to relate to the girl of my dreams.

Now here is the surprising part. From the moment I proposed to her, I thought everything ( I mean the party and ملجة preparations) would run as smooth as silk. I thought that you only have to decide where to make the women party and how much would you pay the bride as a marriage portion (مهر).

This wasn’t really the actual scenario. Regardless of the financial expense, I’ve found that many minor details should be taken care of. First you have to go shopping with the bride and her family for dresses, accessories, make-up stuff. Then you have to decide how to decorate the stage where the bride and groom will sit. Also, there are these little boxes where you provide the guest with chocolate. There is also the شبكة Shabka and wedding card decoration.

What makes all this stuff painful and exhausting is that my family are asking me to prepare for it in a certain way. For example, make the invitation cards with this certain decoration, do this , do that etc. While on the other hand, the soon-to-be my wife is asking me to do it in another way. This leaves me stuck in the middle between two radical extremes

For me, all what matters is كتب الكتاب. I don’t mind setting up a humongous tent in front of my work or in Sakheer, inviting كل من هب ودب to it and serving them the cheapest Meat Kabsa مجبوس لحم in town while having Islamic chants playing in the background. Think of me as a fool, but I don’t know why making all the effort to make such a party as perfect as possible while it does not require that much.

رحم الله أيام أول لما المعرس يدش المسجد يصلي ركعتين شكر وبعدين يزفونه للعروس وكان الله غفورا رحيما

Anyways, I’ve been into 2 many personal details and I will surely come back to these issues in another post in sha’a Allah when I have more time to write.

PS. I don’t have internet connection at work. It has been disabled fearing that we might use it to chat or download

I Really miss UK sometimes.

Wait for me in another post

Regards,

T.

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The only place I could find was Berlitz and they did not have any group lessons as there aren’t any students applying for this language course. They offered me a personal one-to-one tutoring, though it is very costly (556BHD) and I can’t afford it.

Anyone knows any language centers that I can apply for to study the Persian language. Your suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

T.

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I managed to find a job at last after a whole month of job hunting.

I was offered an exciting position at TAGI which I couldn’t refuse, especially after knowing that it will immensely improve my career skills and the position will involve strategic projects in IT, constructions, engineering and financial services.

I was called for an interview to this position few days after emailing my C.V. in response to an advert in Al-Ayam daily newspaper.

It will also involve communicating with business clients and approach them with the services that TAGI offers. Honestly, I suck at face-to-face communication especially with strangers as I am the kind of guy who isn’t talkative, so I need to work intensively on that.

My recruiter also (and like any other recruiter) pointed out the challenges of the position and that I need to be a team worker. He also asserted that I should come to work wearing formal dress and having a clean shave after seeing me in a ruthless style while signing the contract!!

Uhh! Me wearing formal dress! Something I never thought it could happen!!

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Honestly, I don’t like facing the unknown. I am excited, YES (Although many argue that this job-excitement will diminish within months at the most!!), but I don’t know the shape of things to come. Though, I am accepting the situation as this is the way things work and I have to go with it.

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My other (or primary plan) before  getting this job was to continue with my higher education studies. I was offered a place to study a PhD degree in guess what???

SHOPPING ADDICTION Yeah strange isn’t it?? A Doctor in Shopping Addiction. HAHA

I had many research titles in my mind ( in logistics, social marketing and business engineering) to submit to many universities, but this attracted me the most. Some might see as an insignificant project to work on for 3 or 4 years, but I thought that as far as it interests me and I can make something out of it, then go for it T!!

Anyways the placement was as usual in UK, at the University of Durham . There were only 2 things which stopped me from accepting the offer.

1. I don’t have the enough financial resources to study the degree and to cover the costs of living for the next 3 or 4 years. Some might say ok, work and study at the same time. Well, this is a good option but a PhD is a very demanding degree and requires full concentration on the research and by taking a job it will be very hard to concentrate on the research itself. Just ask the PhD guys to see yourself . I also thought of taking up a loan from Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) (offering a maximum of 20,000 BHD). However, this amount will only cover the costs of the first year, let alone it will put me in debt that I must pay back within 7 years.

2. A very private reason you needn’t to know

I was hoping to get any funding offered by the university or any British research councils (e.g. ESRC ), but the university asked me to arrange the funding myself if I want to join the program. So I asked them to defer the offer till next year hoping to find suitable funding by then and to join the program.

A PhD degree was a goal I set only recently (3 years ago to be precise) and I won’t hesitate a bit to reach this goal. I guess this my nature. I am better at research and studying than any other thing. The period of 1 year will give me enough time to gain work experience and organize my future goals.

Anyways, that’s it for now

P.S. Notice to Lizardo: We’ll be in touch soon (son)

Regards,

T.

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