Job Discussion Forums

[moosetown]

Hi,

I'm a newbie thinking about moving to Prague. I am a British citizen with a BA (hons) degree and I recently aquired the Trinity TESOL certificate. I was wondering if it would be worth it to go to Prague for a week or something to approach schools with my CV/resume.

I would prefer to job hunt from home and find a job with a school that sorts out flights and accommodation for you, but am I wasting my time? Would it be easier to meet employers face to face? Are jobs where flights/accommodation are sorted for you pretty scarce right now? If I were to go to Prague and approach employers there, what should I budget for the trip?

Any help or advice would be really appreciated!

[spiral78]

Schools don't sort flights and accomodation for you in the CR, and very few hire from abroad. Those that would tend to be dodgy - teachers in the city are likely avoiding these schools, probably for some good reasons.

This is basically true for the whole European region - you're much more likely to find flights and accomodation provided for Asia, where teachers are in more demand. Here, employers can afford to wait until candidates show up in their offices and make a decision after seeing you do a demo lesson.

Your timing is a bit off, as well - most contracts run September - June. You will likely still find something, but you may well have to cobble together a couple of part-time contracts, as most 'good' full-time positions will have been allocated already by now.

As for budgeting, best case scenario is that you will get a paycheck at the end of October - more likely end November. Landlords will probably want a month's rent as security and the first month's rent up front. You'll need to support yourself for a couple of months and to arrange for housing and flights, so you can figure.....rents in Prague can be anywhere from 8,000 - 14-16,000 per month, depending on if you find someone to flat share. You can google the conversion to pounds if you need to.

Good luck

[moosetown]

Thanks Spiral for taking the trouble to reply to my post. Lots to think about there! Working part time for a couple of schools might work, but my guess is that it's not going to be a particularly enjoyable experience.

[Sigma]

You might find a school or two outside of Prague which will provide some sort of accommodation. Although, these are few and far between.

I remember a website which listed public schools looking for English teachers, and a few of them provided accommodation. However, most of these were in small towns.

[smithryansmith]

[Inga.Svensen]

I'm not a native speaker of English (Swedish) and I was able to find a few jobs in Prague last year. (I got certified in Prague). I worked for two schools and in a pub at weekends. I didn't make much money, enough to live on, but the experience was very fulfilling.

Ingrid