"If you don't like nepotism in banking, don't work in Saudi Arabia"

I would like to say some cautionary words to anyone in London or the UAE who thinks that Saudi Arabia might be a good place to go as Western banks build out businesses there. 

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Saudi Arabia is not like other markets. In Saudi Arabia, it's all about Saudization (Nitaqat), the government policy to increase the proportion of locals in banking jobs. This was relaxed slightly last year, but banks in Saudi Arabia still need to have a high proportion of locals on their books. It's like Singapore, but on steroids.

Nitaqat means that if you're a young, well-connected Saudi national with a Western education, you can go to Saudi Arabia with a few years' post-graduation experience and be first in the queue for a job in a Saudi bank or fund that might take years of experience to achieve anywhere else. 

It also means that if you're a Western banker, and you actually manage to get a job in Saudi Arabia, you may well be managed by someone younger and with less experience than yourself. 

It means that Saudi banks and funds are full of young Saudis who are Oxbridge and Ivy League graduates with good local connections, and who think they know everything. These places can be very difficult places to work for as a result. It's easier in Western banks, where they focus on hiring excellent young people who can genuinely deliver and making them work up the banking hierarchy, but it can be an issue there too.

If you're a Westerner, you will often have to defer to these young Saudis. You're a resource with a particular skill, and this is all. I know many people who have taken these jobs and left them again for this reason. Saudi Arabia can be a difficult place to work. The advantage, as ever, is the pay and the lack of income tax. But even this is not as generous as before, as the cost of living has risen. 

Go to work in Saudi Arabia, but my advice is this: go in with your eyes open.  

Edmond Poullain is a pseudonym

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