got contacted about a construction management gig overseas.

details on the gig:

"Permanent opportunity working directly for client (Lasting several years)
Based in Tashkent (Capital of Uzbekistan)
Start date ASAP - Will take 1 month for work permit
Client will pay for your VISA/ Work permit
All-inclusive monthly salary - 12,000 (NET), this includes your salary, accommodation and transport
Client will pay your taxes in Uzbekistan
3/4 flights paid back home per year"

thoughts?

Mexico, but poorer, with a love for J. Stalin.

Do NOT get involved with the police or local politicians.

Food was...Unique!

Public toilets are squat holes with an older  female attendant handing out TP.

Outside TK the roads range from acceptable to dry river beds.

18Z50

My GF is from there. It sucks bad.

It’s a predominantly Muslim country with soviet style legal system. They have one nice city but the rest of the country looks very 3rd worldly.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uz.html

Construction Management? How do you feel about child labor and human trafficking?

You should ask the Uzbek Sheikh that's paying you if you will have access to his women.

IT's where Milana Vayntrub, Lily the AT&T girl is from. That exhausts my knowledge of Uzbekistan.

it has "stan" in it, usually a red flag

I’d like to know how high up the chain the guy you’re working for is.

I’m fairly certain that all of the former Soviet “stans” are quite oppressive and you might be in for a shock about the things you can/can’t do or say. I’d be wary of privacy concerns such as bugs or video surveillance within your domicile

If your employer has good connections then you might get some leeway/protection from some things.

How are they guaranteeing your safety?

12000 what? $ or pesos or som   10177 som/$

Go for it and tell us about it.

Sounds like it could be an adventure that ends badly.

thanks!

Never been there OP but go to Google and type in Tashkent Uzbekistan "travel"  and then "expat".   You will find lots of good info and some forums to talk to people.
Next do a Google image search for "Tashkent Uzbekistan nightlife" or "women".  I hope you are single cause it looks fun

They are assholes.

that's funny.  

great question.  how do i suss that out when talking to the hiring folk?

Some people regard Tashkent as the earthquake capitol of the world.

great question.  i'll ask 'em.  

12000 euros/mo.  

'bout $13,500/mo merican.

hey, at least i won't have to wear a mask at work anymore.  

Housing provided?

oh, indeed.

thanks.

i really like you.  

Lived there three just under three years. Last left 2017, so I'm pretty current.

Ignore 87% of these idiots. Pay looks right. Never saw much foreign construction management except for Western Hotel chains. Hyatt had a hard time getting the locals to understand things.

Most of the foreign managers I know there are GM employees. You will be getting paid more than the guys I know, for what it's worth.

Confused about the lodging though. You are paid that and you also will be housed? What kind of housing?

Housing is key. Lots of nice areas. But, you're going to want some sort of support system for maintenance, etc.

Also, ask about transportation. I had my own car. GM wouldn't let their guys drive, provided them a driver.

Not exactly easy to buy a car in country.

i'm also an asshole.  

$12k a month?  You single/kids?  If I was single, I would take that just for the adventure point of it.  Family, no I’d wouldn’t want to risk it.  

Granted it was a different time, but my grandfather was a part of team to help South Korea after the war to rebuild and establish farming.  He said while it was horrible, hated the food, hated being away from his family, he would have done it again in a heartbeat.  Said his work was rewarding and he was on the adventure of a lifetime.  Said most people were nice and friendly.  My experience in middle eastern/Islamic countries over the years (tourist as I never served) was the general populations were welcoming.  Granted, they really wanted our money, still the people we talked to were all friendly and generally just wanted to converse with someone different.  Just like me.

this could be problematic for what they're looking to build there.

great point so let me ask about that as well.

yessir.  all living expenses covered plus local taxes.

i'm on the hook for merican federal taxes and MT taxes, of course.  

Never been there but been to a couple of other stans. Guessing it’s not much different. Ever seen borat?

outstanding.

let me check on the housing and transpo.  

$13.5k/mo merican money.

$12k euros/mo.

single.

no kids that i know of.  

love that movie.   need to rewatch it.  

Not enough money. Unless it’s $12k +accommodations, transport, per diem

One trip home a quarter is not enough unless it’s for at least two weeks at a time.

Caught up on the thread pay seems about right. It’s been a few years since I’ve worked out of the country.  You should be able to work tax free and that’s where the real benefit is.

From my experiences as an expat CM:
Expect to work long hours with few days off
The skilled labor probably won’t be skilled
Forget about any concept of schedule that would apply here.

If you’re only getting 3-4 trips home a year it should be in first class.

The whole city was about leveled by an earthquake in the 1960s. They have a pretty cool memorial built. The resultant new city is still known by some locals by the sector a given republic was assigned to help rebuild (Latvian. Ukrainian, Kazakh, Russian. Etc.). It could happen, but California might fall into the sea as well.

If it does, you don't want to be in or near one of those old Soviet gingerbread buildings.

let me ask how long the quarterly leave is.  

let me make sure it's $12k euros + housing, transpo, per diem, prostitutes, beer, cigarettes, tacos, etc.

holy shit.  

If memory serves...Ewan Mcgregor passed through there on his bmw in “the long way round”...might give a tiny bit of insight

Assuming the company is on the up and up and your conversations give you the warm and fuzzies, I’d seriously entertain that then.  I don’t know how much you make currently and how much you could make in an equivalent job here in the states, but sounds good to me.  I’d have to think, making that much money there would have you pretty high up in the food chain to afford almost anything you’d want.  For me personally, I’d live on the cheap as much as I could and save that money for when you get tired and want to come home.  

Geologically, it happened yesterday. I wouldn't sweat it, that was probably hundreds of years of pent up tension released. It's places that haven't had a big one in a while I worry more about.

And you can very easily do this.

It is very cheap and easy to live there, money goes a long way.

Another question you need to ask is how is the medical system and legal system there in case something unforeseen happens like that Richard Gere movie in Beijing.

If you end up going, first thing when you get there is find out where the American Embassy is and put them on your cell phone speed dial.

There is an excellent local medical and dental clinic for basic stuff, he definitely wants to toe into it. For more serious surgeries or what have you, he'll want to have a plan to fly elsewhere.

Legal anywhere can be tricky, and it's often hard to get a good assessment as people will weave their own narrative and deny any culpability. Somehow, despite the obvious role westerners play in prostitution, human trafficking, and drug trade, you never seem to be able to find one who was actually guilty, all were innocent angels railroaded by a system.

I know of one American an who had issues over prescription narcotics, it took a while to get that resolved, but it was resolved. Most of the other issues have been human rights protester types. Few on this board will have much sympathy for them. It's usually a "Muh Muslim dindu nuthin'" issue.

It's not a country whose legal system you want to experience from the inside. If that's a concern, you're pretty much limited to Scandinavia.

Well I’m sure I’m in the 87% of idiots but I’m curious exactly who you’re working for. You mentioned being paid in Euros so I’m assuming you’ll be working for a European contractor. Who exactly is putting out the offer? An American hiring firm? European?

I’m just looking at it from a standpoint of you’ll probably want to get out and experience the country in your down time rather than sit in your lodging. Maybe the officials have a “do not fuck with foreign contractors” order.

I’d just be up front with your questions

ETA I’m just basing my objective from seeing tourist documentaries of the area. They usually have some kind of “guide” in countries such as these

So bring TP?  I remember traveling overseas and having to pay the attendant for TP.  It's actually a toilet use fee (so give him/her the money) but have extra TP on hand and carry it always.

It is highly dependent on work you work for and how you are paid. Are you living on the economy? I was @ Karshi K2 for a while. Flew commercial from Baghdad. There was live stock on the plane; chickens, goats, sheep The plane looked like it was held together with duct tape. Everyone clapped when it landed which is sort of a tradition in Eastern Europe but I think people were truly thankful it landed safely.

A buddy of mine loved the place. He lived on the economy and was given a nice per diem to compensate. He was a player and liked live sex clubs and doing generally degenerate things and there were plenty of sketchy shit to get into. He said when he went out he paid a taxi driver for the night and he would take him to only "the best" clubs. He also told me there were clubs that were to be avoided at all costs. Eventually the govt collapsed and all contractors were shuttled out to Dubai. When i arrived we stayed at a hotel initially but were not allowed to leave, then we took a shuttle to K2 and never saw the outside again. We were flown out .mil from K2.

At the time 2003ish, it was pretty cheap from what I was told. Weather was cold as hell as to be expected. It was heavy Russian/Mongol population fairly poor. I had to work with some soldiers and they were rough, undisciplined, and under paid. Having gold teeth was a sign of wealth, and poor dental health. The young women could be very beautiful. However if you had spent much time in eastern Europe you would know that at about 30 their looks go downhill fast. I knew a guy who married one, we all told him it was a mistake, but he wasn't an attractive guy and she was smoking so he wouldn't back down.I know he had to travel to Tashkent to do some embassy stuff, then he took her entire family out to some place on the Adriatic Sea. I think he went home broke, I know he came back to AFG once again when I was there, then had to leave with no notice which got him blackballed.

As I was leaving the Air Force got word to shut the camp down. They had just built and opened a big ass gym two weeks prior and began to ship out all the equipment.

Take a hard look at your contract and make sure you get the per diem rate if you are living on the economy. If you are working for kinfolk, brothers, and relatives you should be okay.

I spent a lot of time working in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and a short stint in Uzbekistan.

I would see if it's a US based company like KBR, Fluor, IAP Worldwide, Dyncorp, etc. you'd be working for. If not i'd pass. If not you could easily get fucked out of a lot of money. Anything involving local companies and banks was always a fucking debacle with a lot of graft and corruption.

Most of the 'stans I consider "2nd world countries". They were fairly modernized under USSR but when it collapsed everything has slowly went to shit as far as infrastructure goes. Everything is very corrupt from the politicians to the companies, especially if it comes to getting bigger contracts. When I would go out in Kyrgyzstan I wouldn't bring my passport. I would keep some extra cash for the cops though. They would pull you over band basically want a bribe or they'd fuck your shit up. In the mid-2000s this bribe only came out to about a dollar so it's not like they were really putting the screws on you. There's a lot of drug trafficking and terrorism pass through in the 'stans as well. If you have any medical requirements make sure you bring your meds with you as you might not get what you need locally.