Job Discussion Forums

[Rover]

From the BKC website (in black), my comments (in red)

We offer:


Work visa and taxes paid by the School Read the contract you sign in Russian and what your official salary is (probably 10,000 rubles a month), then work out how much tax BKC is evading. If you are an hourly paid teacher, BKC will not give you a visa for the length of your contract, you'll get a few months at best, meaning they can at any moment say that you're not going to get a new visa (and therefore will have to leave the country when your visa runs out). If you are a contract teacher, and you are fired, the school may or may not try to cancel your visa, leaving you in the same situation.

If you are hourly paid, and work less than 24 academic hours a week (even though the number of hours that you work is completely out of your control), you have to pay a "tax" of more than 6,600 rubles a month. Consult the Russian version of your contract again (except that can't because they won't give you a copy of it of course because in the Russian version, apart from the salary which they lie about, there are a host of benefits which you will not get eg sick pay - the school will not pay you for the first 3 days that you are sick, maternity leave, etc) and see if you think it's really tax.

Monthly pay � from 1150 USD But the school's "special" ruble-dollar exchange will guarantee you much less than whatever you are promised eg for February 2009 the school's rate is 30 rubles to the dollars. If you try to buy dollars, you will pay a bit more than 36 rubles for every dollar, making your salary 950 USD, not 1150 USD as they suggest

Airfare reimbursement - this will be at the end of your contract, maybe part of it during your contract, if you are on contract

End of contract accumulating bonus � up to 1125 USD at the moment the school is extending teachers' contracts, rather than signing new contracts, to avoid paying the bonuses and airfare reimbursements

Shared accommodation - with another teacher, who you may or may not get along with, there will probably not be a washing machine, though you can rent one from the school. Over the course of your contract you will pay most of the retail cost of the washing machine and then the school will rent it to the next teacher.

Paid holidays - the school controls when you can take your holidays and may refuse your request. In October we were told no more holidays in December/January (except for public holidays) and I quote "Dear teachers,

Please note that no more holiday requests for the period December, 15 till January, 15 will be considered. However you can plan your vacation for the official Christmas break January, 1-8". So you may sometimes have to plan your holidays quite some time in advance.
.
Discount on Russian classes, health care and insurance fund There is no health care insurance - the school decides if it's going to pay for your medical costs or not. You will never be asked to sign any kind of insurance policy - because there isn't one. The "fund" they refer to is just some of the school's money.

If you are hourly paid, they may take your classes from you without any notice eg don't worry about coming in for your lesson today. You have to give them two weeks notice if you want to stop teaching a group.

Recently 3 of BKC's franchise schools left the loving BKC fold. BKC didn't need the teachers who worked there. In fact they are in the process of shedding significant quantities of teachers. The francise wanted to employ the teachers who had worked there. Those teachers were told that if they worked for the francise they would never get another Russian visa ie they were threatened. Nice.

And the worst part... the school signed a contract with a teacher and then told that person not to come to Russia because he wasn't needed two weeks before the teacher was due to fly in from America (this is just one example that I personally heard about, there may be others). The school is still signing contracts with teachers and there is no guarantee that those teachers will actually get jobs. If the contract is in English, it is not valid under Russian law. Even if it was, what could a teacher in eg England do, if the school just said, thanks but no thanks, we don't need you now? Is he going to sue a Russian company in Russia? So the moral of the story is that you shouldn't count your chickens before they are hatched - just cos you've got a "contract" it doesn't mean that you've got a job. Buy your ticket AFTER you get your visa invitation. If BKC says they don't want you, get your visa anyway, come here and work for someone else. There is still enough work in Moscow.

[Bradley326]

Thanks for the informative post.

I know BKC is (one of?) the biggest, so it's disappointing to hear so much bad stuff about them. Do you have any recommendations about good schools in Moscow? I'd be interested to hear of them (in PM if you'd prefer).

[canucktechie]

[Rover]

you're talking as if you've never been to Russia. you just need an invitation to get a visa. if you've already been sent an invitation, what's going to stop you getting a visa? and then with a visa, what's going to stop you coming to Russia? This is not the ideal option of course. I said this because this has actually happened ie someone had already signed a contract, probably bought a plane ticket, and then been told not to come. This option should only be attempted by someone familiar with Russia and how it works. but my post is not primarily about this issue.

[canucktechie]

Please.

Yes there are agencies than can get you an invitation for a business visa. You can no longer work in Russia with a business visa, because you can't live in the country continuously with one.

You must have an employment visa, which has to be sponsored by a school. When you arrive in Russia you must work for that school. There is no other way to do it, unless you have a Russian resident visa which can only be obtained by people with Russian spouses or similar connections.

[mdk]

Moreover you nust get the visa registered at the local OVIR office.

I brought the visa I had obtained from a Moscow agency to the local OVIR office and all I got was a derisive snort. Unless you are in Moscow - maybe not even then - you will need a patron to front you off.

[kazachka]

The only loophole is to keep getting consecutive 3 month visas. It's a realPITA and I'd not recommend it, though I know some ppl who do this.

[Sashadroogie]

Good post! But the bit about the washing machines is out-of-date. Last I heard, the school had magnamimously dropped the charges for these machines (after raking in about 10 times their original outlay). Interesting to see how long this post stays up...

[kazachka]

I vote to keep the info up. Ppl have a right to know and there is nothing vulgar or offensive in the post.

[maruss]

Things in Russia are only just beginning to get tough and will get much worse before they get better!My sincere advice to everyone is to read all the postings by 'kazachka' and take note of what she says!
These new visa rules are a pain and it is much more difficult to go there and work freelance anymore but with the way things are going,there soon won't be any jobs anyway......the number of firms recruiting has dropped drastically in the last few months,which is surely a sign of the times??

[Sashadroogie]

Sorry Maruss, but don't quite agree with you there. The level of crap companies' recruitment is falling (no bad thing), certainly, but there is still a lot of good opportunity here - touch wood. I do not plan to pull out of Russia right now, though things are changing economically. I can still live very well here, and hope to continue doing so. Still a high demand for English lessons. I'm on the ground here, but not sure what the exact sign of the times is. Still need to wait and see.....

[canucktechie]

I side with Maruss. Demand for teachers has fallen dramatically on all fronts, and this slide has only been going on for a few months.

Certainly there are still teachers who have decent jobs or are doing OK with privates, but the number of them is going to decline, and I would say the odds for any newcomer to find a good situation are getting very slim.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

While there probably aren't any more (or fewer) teaching opportunities out here, students haven't started dropping off (at school or privately) thus far. However, I predict this will start happening in late spring, due to the rise in car import tariffs, upon which the Vladivostok economy depends heavily.

[maruss]

Moscow was not cheap when I was there in 2005/6 and since then,inflation has driven up the cost of living even more.Except at the luxury end of the market,rents for appartments have not fallen much either from what I hear.Compared with the Mac schools teachers I was making quite good money which I did not splash around wildly, and even then I cannot say I managed to save much.Vibrant,exciting,historical and brash Moscow may be,but to appreciate it you need to have money,just like any other big city in many countries.I also found it cold,dirty,expensive,unfriendly, drab and often ugly, chronically overcrowded with people and traffic,unhealthily polluted, inhospitable(unless you have Russian friends-I was lucky)and physically and mentally exhausting to work and live in,particularly if you have to travel around on the metro,buses etc. everyday.So if you are going to end up somewhere like that,earning peanuts and probably in a room in shared flat with someone you may detest(mutually!) in what would be almost a hovel in some cases,and have aggro. with your employer,as people seem to be with BKC,especially nowadays,I think you really need to ask yourself one simple question:Is it really worth the effort for such an experience???
P.S.-Sashadroogie-glad to know you are still doing o.k. but do keep something for those rainy days,which may turn into months or even years!

[kazachka]

Shoot- I'm just about to have more hours privately than at my so called job simply because work has slowed to a screeching halt. I gave up on my company and just filled the spaces privately otherwise I'd still be 'waiting for the cows to come home' and work to appear. Shoot- 4 of my 5 evenings I now do privately. I'm beginning to get more folks asking about lessons, so maybe I will see a return to the long since missed waiting list.