Job opportunity - How would you respond?

[Kradmelder]

Last year I tendered on an international job in an African country. 6 people around the world were shortlisted. 2 yanks. I came out number 2 technically behind a European. My price was US 120$/hr. 3 year contract housing car etc provided. All tax free. Obviously a huge income. I was contacted yesterday that negotiatons with the number 1 have broken down. Did he misrepresented his experience?? So I was asked am I still interested and if so to extend the validity of my offer.

My offer was based on not myself being resident there but a good young white man, with me and others flying up a few times a year. But we never pinned it down. The young man is an English south African early 30s. Bright
Hard working. Self starter. Good future. I told him to be resident engineer on an intl job at your age is a huge boost. Your wife is not working and your kids are both pre-school, so won't be shocked and will gain from it. He is keen to go. His wife not. For a family it will be a huge boost and many offers will come from it in future.

Professionally you do this if young and single, kids young enough to uproot, like the young man I want to send, and you make enough to come home with a few million Rand, can buy a house cash and kids future secure. Your Cv is set and other work you can pick and choose after. I used to do that when young.You can't do it in middle age as you have too many other projects, a business to run and you lose all your other clients and come home to nothing. If i were much older and close to retirement you do this and retire very wealthy and need work no more. You can take all those dollars and spend years travelling in style.

Pros: Money. I don't need. Cv boost. I don't need. Experience. I've been to that country before.
Cons if i go myself which is what they want: miss last 3 years of my kids growing up that I will never have again. No money will by that time back or undo damage of telling kids cheers im leaving to a good job so I can make more money. Lose my client base. 3 years of kaffirs and my patience with kaffirs has reached its limit. Lose 3 years of riding my bikes i can't get back. Lose the time with new gf with whom things are going very well and good chance it will last.

For me it is a no Brainer. If i needed money badly, go so I can finance the kids future. Otherwise stick to my guns and negotiate on the basis I fly in for 2 week periods a few times a year for specialist stuff. Rest of the time they deal with our representative.

How would you Respond? It would say volumes about how different men rate life priorities. Single men and married men who see it totally different. Successful men and men desperate for work would also have different priorities.

[yick]

I think you know what the answer is though it is always nice to know that you are competitive for these kinds of jobs. If you are earning enough money and are happy with your life and have the house and all the essentials - then I wouldn't do it personally.

If I still had to get the house and secure my future then I definitely would. I worked in Saudi Arabia for two years so I kind of understand about working in shitholes, it's mentally and spiritually draining.

The wife not wanting the young fella to go, that might be a warning signal that she is firing off that she might not trust herself if he is away. I don't know that though without knowing the ins-and-outs of their relationship etc.

But for you, you are at that senior management level where you can make certain demands which the prospective employer might take or leave. Obviously you are one of the very top men in that field and you know what can and cannot be achieved with you not being a pro-active 'boots on ground' 24/7. So you can obviously make a demand knowing that the project won't go tits up. If you can handle it - going in and out for periods at a time and the money is good - then do it. Your junior colleague, if he has yet to cut his teeth then I would be more proactive and try and talk around the missus.

[MrMan]

Out of that list of reasons not to do it, the kids stick out as a valid reason to stay put where you are. If I were you, I think I'd stick to flying in and out. Are you saying you can hire someone there full-time to run things in your absence? If you can, find someone fast with the necessary skills, either early or late enough in life where he could work there. Take his salary out of the total. Is the package double or more a salary in your field? If the company that is interested in you really likes the man you chose for daily operations, they may agree to the arrangement. Do they pay for flights back and forth or would that have to come out of your money?

Are they making a deal with a corporation you own, or with you personally? If you can renegotiate it and it is with you personally, have them do it with a small corporation you set up to give yourself the benefits of limited liability. Employees of the company would also be required to perform the services, not you personally.

If you were still married, maybe you could take your wife if there were international schools or if she had the inclination and talent to do home school with the kids. Kids can do online home school.

I might do a fly-in/fly-out scenario like that, but I think I'd pass up on the extra money and stick to my normal job. If I were starving, I might take it and sort the other stuff out later.

[Kradmelder]

Out of that list of reasons not to do it, the kids stick out as a valid reason to stay put where you are. If I were you, I think I'd stick to flying in and out. Are you saying you can hire someone there full-time to run things in your absence? If you can, find someone fast with the necessary skills, either early or late enough in life where he could work there. Take his salary out of the total. Is the package double or more a salary in your field? If the company that is interested in you really likes the man you chose for daily operations, they may agree to the arrangement. Do they pay for flights back and forth or would that have to come out of your money?

Are they making a deal with a corporation you own, or with you personally? If you can renegotiate it and it is with you personally, have them do it with a small corporation you set up to give yourself the benefits of limited liability. Employees of the company would also be required to perform the services, not you personally.

If you were still married, maybe you could take your wife if there were international schools or if she had the inclination and talent to do home school with the kids. Kids can do online home school.

I might do a fly-in/fly-out scenario like that, but I think I'd pass up on the extra money and stick to my normal job. If I were starving, I might take it and sort the other stuff out later.

There is no one to hire there. There are no skills in black countries. I don't think the darkie government would agree to a darkie anyway The person I want to put there is in our group and he is in the tender at a lower rate. All staff had to be listed up front as their cv and skills was part of the overall technicall evaluation. So it won't come out of my share but my share will be less if i only fly up a few times a year. We budgeted for flights as well. Negotiations would be about who we place up from from project team we lisTed.

The contract would be with our group of companies that went in together. But we never specified who the resident would be.

The international school thing in my opinion works with young kids. If you have high school age kids they don't transplant easy due to friends and sport. My kids are university age. Not mobile. On top of that my daughter is a national level athlete so needs to train daily with right coaches so has not been mobile for years. My son is on a full scholarship at a private school. Just 2 years from University so not mobile. These are typical reasons why you can't relocate with older kids. It sounds easy to pack up and go but in reality it isn't. Another reason is the other parent can just refuse to give permission for the kids to leave the country.

The young man I want to send is mobile as kids are about 2. Wife currently has no job. And he is a self starter who can work without supervision. He is not a whiner who says oh poor me. He gets on with making a success of his life. He will grow in this post. But due to his age obviously lacks the high flying cv. Trick is to get the client to accept a young man as running the local office.

[MrMan]

If it were me, and my kids were college aged, I might consider it. They are already grown up and probably pretty busy with their own lives. Would you get to fly back frequently? How about several times a year? Is the Internet in the country sufficient to support Skype.

I was in my early 20's when I left home for South Korea, about the same age as a lot of college students who did not finish in four years. I was far away from my parents.

Do you need the money for anything, for paying for the kids education, paying off their loans, or whatever. If you don't really need the money, you don't need to sacrifice for it. I am looking for ways to get some extra money while I work because I need to pay for my children to go to the best college they can, among other things.

[Kradmelder]

If it were me, and my kids were college aged, I might consider it. They are already grown up and probably pretty busy with their own lives. Would you get to fly back frequently? How about several times a year? Is the Internet in the country sufficient to support Skype.

I was in my early 20's when I left home for South Korea, about the same age as a lot of college students who did not finish in four years. I was far away from my parents.

Do you need the money for anything, for paying for the kids education, paying off their loans, or whatever. If you don't really need the money, you don't need to sacrifice for it. I am looking for ways to get some extra money while I work because I need to pay for my children to go to the best college they can, among other things.

My son still in high school. Daughter in first year varsity. So it is really last years with them before they couple up and move on in life and make their own family. It is the time when they need a father most with life advice, kick out potential parasites they try bring home etc lIke some people on this site teen years are when kids can really make bad choices and you need to be there for them. I can do things like take them on bike trips, hiking, camping, shooting etc. And they meet my old mates and their kids. Experiences that they will have for life.

I left home for the army and never went back. Made my own way since 18 and never took a rand off my parents.

I have no debt and can pay both their universities cash with just cash flow and not tapping into savings. I paid her whole year upfront already. Also pay her overseas sports trips representing SA. Govt doesn't pay for white kids. So money is not a reason to go. I've done lots of work offshore before. I started after the army with nothing and did loads of work in shit places before all over the world. I made loads, saw the world and had great adventures.So there is not even adventure in it now. Just interesting work and will give a young oke a big career boost. He is not the type to run away to Australia and is a good white man.

[MrMan]

Keeping a daughter from marrying a parasite is a legitimate reason to stay home. If you can talk them into hiring the junior guy on the team as the office manager, that sounds like a good solution.

[Kradmelder]

Keeping a daughter from marrying a parasite is a legitimate reason to stay home. If you can talk them into hiring the junior guy on the team as the office manager, that sounds like a good solution.

He is already approved as part of the project team. It is get him approved as the resident engineer in country. That means he will be dealing with government ministries, assessing needs and basically doing the project management. Quite a responsible task for a young man up to it. In effect, the youngster now becomes the boss of the senior okes We report to him in line function He will also get exposed to the different specialists and a huge range of problems. Good hands on experience. When I was young I was also thrown in the deep end and told swim and only come ask if you have tried to sort it out yourself first. At times I was the only white man in the camp, responsible even for my own food water and security, training and arming guards, hiring labour, paying labour etc. No spoon feeding back then. Also we had no cell phones or email reception back then, and only HF radio with very poor reception back to SA twice a day if atmospheric conditions were right.