Man, what a time it was to work overseas making a 50% premium and 30 days off at a time compared to working the normal work schedule. Those days are dwindling and if you didn’t take advantage of it you should be kicking yourself!
13 replies (most recent on top)
“You make good overseas premiums ONLY IF you go to the worst countries.” Not exactly. Depends on the location, your family size and local exchange rate. Argentina for example is a 20% premium, most people wouldn’t be overly excited about that vs. say Nigeria or Angola or KZ, but when you crunch numbers and all the allowances and factor in the actual cost of living against local inflation per year your USDs will go much farther than other locations. All of a sudden a 20% premium can become 35, 45 even 55%, so don’t discount a location because it doesn’t have a fat premium. All this information is out on the Chevron expatriate intranet site, (including calculators) you can look it up and crunch your own numbers.
As someone who has worked expat I can say absolutely you can save as much in 1 year as you can in 3 to 4 years domestically. Also as someone else commented you need to make sure if you have a partner/family etc that everyone is on board, I’ve seen more than one marriage implode in my time overseas.
Expat assignments are not stress free company paid vacations, there is a reason they pay you the premiums and allowances.
In a lot of locations you can easily save your entire pretax salary and bonus.
My calculation in Angola was for a single income 1 year in Angola = 3 in US.
(In terms of savings)
I think the divorce rate is about the same, expat or not. Don't go overseas if you husband is not on board, of course.
Ah, but you’re forgetting to add on the 10-15 years extra the expats have to work to support their 2nd and 3rd wives and kids after all the divorces
Depending on the overseas location and your home savings rate, one year overseas could easily be equal to 3-4 years of savings at home. So, possible to shorten your career by way more than 75%.
@ddgm haven't seen much of that on these threads. A little projection. perhaps?
Too many Chevroids can’t survive without their Whataburger triple cheeseburgers and aggy football. They are the same posters that think white people have it so bad in the company. Poor little snowflakes.
At least Turner and Hidalgo never led an insurrection against the United States. They have that going for them, you f’ing traitor.
Overseas work is not for everyone. More for the rest of us!
Well said @mqr. Truly. Couldn’t agree more. The thing is, after Successfully working an assignment in Angola, for example, one requires a mental and probably spiritual break in a place like CTC or mcbu reserves. Places like that will grind you up to compensate for the laughable nationals. And many expats don’t make it successfully, hence the capital S. They get chewed up and sp-t out - entering the PDC after the min 3 years. Each year at 50% premium plus benefits is $$ times two in the States after taxes - is it worth it? I dunno.
Whoa, HR trolls are running this thread. You make good overseas premiums ONLY IF you go to the worst countries. Perth and Aberdeen (obviously) postings no longer exist. Your family suffers, no opportunities for spouses and sub-standard (or really expensive) schools. You will be working 60 hr/wk to make up for the work the locals can’t figure out or mess up. You will return to Houston and either become a CTC team lead or work in the reserves group. Either way, you’ll spend your days making spreadsheets and PowerPoints all day. In other words, your career has plateaued. If that’s the future you’re looking for, go for it!
I still see plenty of friends and colleagues raking in the cash in Africa, Tengiz, Latin America and the midEast (now including Israel). Current PDCs have good offerings. Get out there!