Job Discussion Forums

[apricotdatefig]

Hi everyone. Was hoping you could offer some advice.

Ive got commitments where Im currently living until around the beginning of May. Im quite anxious to leave soon after that because I feel like Im stagnating here and want to begin the next stage of my life.

On the other hand Im pretty confident that Im better suited in lots of ways to the pros and cons your standard job on the university circuit in China than I would be the language mill side of things, but I wouldnt be able to come in that case until around the start of the September term.

So, Id be happy to work a language centre job until maybe the beginning of Spring term next year, maybe a 9 or 10 month contract. Is it industry standard that people want a bit less or more on their year contracts? I would be willing to adjust the compensation for flights by whatever amount Im shortening their standard contract.

Alternatively, I could work the full year, say till May of next year, and then take a contract for the following September somewhere and then live off my savings for 4 months. Any experience doing that? Is there somewhere, like a train station or other long term storage, to put my stuff for a couple of months?

Thanks for reading

[it'snotmyfault]

Nearly all the contracts I've seen here have been for one year, but some do have conditions about how you can leave early such as giving x amount of notice/ paying a breach penalty.
In reality though how easy or hard it is to carry this out probably depends on lots of variables.

Another option is to get a business visa and work on the sly until September, but that's obviously totally irresponsible advice.

[Non Sequitur]

There's another thread running on this topic.
My suggestion is don't wait until the main Sept start uni ads start in say March, but proactively apply now. Once you have something secured for Sept, ask about arriving early - say June and get summer camp or local language school work to tide you over.
If your uni employer is legit and keen on having you aboard they may be helpful.
Remember uni FAOs will be on holiday June/July so you won't get any sense out of them in that period.

[apricotdatefig]

While not averse to breaking the law in general if breaking's what it needs, think I'd feel a bit more secure going legit till I have at least coping skills in the lingua franca. Also Im already taking a bit of a risk by not really having any money apart from for my one-way ticket over so no sense exposing myself further.

Sorry I didnt see the other thread. I know there's another one around about storing stuff over summer. Thing is that Id be looking for it for an extra couple of months from your average uni teacher so thought Id specify that.

Yeah I like your idea about getting in early on the good jobs Non Sequitur. Got a fair idea of where I want to work. The problem is being able to live over the summer without any savings, even if they put me up from June.

You guys think people will be throwing money at me to teach privately even over summer and if Im fresh off the boat?

Edit: ah I see you do... Well I'll have a think about it so.

[Non Sequitur]

In my scenario you would have the elements of your Z visa in place courtesy of your fulltime employer, although they wouldn't complete the paperwork until mid Sept.
By lingua franca, I assume you mean Chinese. Any summer school or language school employer will have several fluent English speakers on staff.
The thing is to have this all fixed up asap.
A one way ticket will cost almost as much as a return from most start points.
Although if your total time in country is July 2013 to August 2014, you may not get an airline to sell you a return as many require the return travel to be withing 12m of the outbound leg.