Job Discussion Forums

[mmarc]

Does anyone have any experience with this school? I have an interview coming up and am curious if anyone has some insight. Thanks!

[Fitzgerald]

[mmarc]

Hmm.. maybe it goes by another name? This is the website:

http://isq.edu.mx/?lang=en

[Fitzgerald]

[mmarc]

I ended up canceling the interview because I accepted a job elsewhere. They seemed very nice though and told me to get in touch if I move to Querétaro in the future, so maybe I'll have a better answer in the next few years. If you do find anything out in the meantime, please share.

[Fitzgerald]

[mmarc]

What do you do for work there? Do you mind elaborating on what you like (or dislike) about the city? My husband and I are trying to decide between applying for his green card or making a go of things in Querétaro, and it would be so very convenient if we could just skip the whole green card option.

[Fitzgerald]

I came to Queretaro last December, after a three-year stay in Culiacan, and a much shorter one in Mexico City. I like this the best of any Mexican City that I have been in. Puerto Vallarta is equally nice, but there are not as many work opportunities there.

Queretaro is clean, safe, beautiful, business-friendly, thriving economically, cosmopolitan, cultural, and historic. Although the very successful industrial parks where I do some of my teaching sprawl out in most directions from the city, the center is compact. I don't need a car because I live on the edge of the Centro Historico, within walking distance of most of what matters here. When I need to go elsewhere, I use the excellent bus system.

This is not only the nicest of the Mexican cities I have lived in, but also, amazingly given what it has to offer, the cheapest.

My apartment in Mexico City cost me 7,300 pesos per month, and the cost of utilities was high. The apartment was in Cuajimalpa, convenient for my job but severely inconvenient to the rest of the city, not on the Metro.

My apartment in Culiacan cost me 6,000 pesos per month at first; I later negotiated the landlord down to 5,500 pesos.

Here in Queretaro, I have a furnished, pet-friendly one-bedroom apartment in the heart of town (yet somehow quiet!), right near the bus lines and the city's most historic park, the Alameda Hidalgo, for 3,600 pesos per month. Be still my beating heart. At today's exchange rate, that's only $240 USD per month. Utility costs are much lower than in the D.F. Really, everything here costs less than Mexico City, and even than Culiacan.

I'm teaching full-time at a language school, and supplementing that income with a couple of private students, as well as a growing amount of freelance writing, editing, and proofreading. My goal is to concentrate my earnings in the latter category and eventually only teach a few hours per week, and I'm making good progress in that direction.

[Jultime]

I'm also in Queretaro working for a business language school.

I really like this city for all of the reasons stated above. I can see myself staying long term.

Many of the teachers and staff at the school where I work have been here for many years and have bought houses.

[esl_prof]

[BadBeagleBad]

[mmarc]

Thank you all for your insights!

Esl_prof, it is worth it to do the green card if I have to go back to the U.S., but of course I don't have to, and I don't really even want to right now. Instead I'm trying to figure out if I'll wish I had 10 or 20 years from now. I've read a lot of threads on this forum, but unfortunately I don't think that question's been covered.

BBB, you're right that you can't move back and forth with the green card (at least as far as I know). That wouldn't be my intention, though. We haven't been married long so maybe it's better to wait, but for now I'm leaning towards Mexico.

[esl_prof]

[wanderingxelmundo]