Job Discussion Forums

Gamajorba · Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 357

Having just found this thread about the company, it's at least 18 months old so it seems. But has anyone had experience with it since?

I've spoken to Ron for the 2nd time in a week (in fairness, my extreme work timetable in Saudi makes arranging talking to anyone on Skype pretty hard, and with poor connections frequently occuring, I don't mind delaying such things)

He seems very keen to hire me, but I guess as me being enthusiastic to go to Moscow as I am, as well as being up for travelling to other places like St Petersburg and Chelyabinsk (which he said was possible if I wanted to), and claims he could get most of my work within 3 metro stations of where I live.

In regards to the visa, he said he would send a draft contract out soon, and I would only have to cover the costs of what the Russian Consulate charges, and they would take care of anything afterwards, as well as converting a 3 month visa to a year long multi entry visa upon arrival.

But having read that thread...errr...uh oh...I guess the general advice there still applies?!

Phillip Schofield · Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 5:15 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure why you are considering going with a school which is considered poor when there are plenty of other better schools out there.

May I ask what is guiding your thought process? What is making you want to work for these guys?

Gamajorba · Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 357

Phillip Schofield · Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:07 pm Post subject:

Fair enough.

Gamajorba · Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 357

One example is International House. I heard bad things about them back in 2012, I still hear bad things about them now. So at least that's been pretty consistent. Even if it's not in a good way...

Even Carfax Education seems to have gone downhill in the last couple of years as well! :S

Sashadroogie · Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:40 pm Post subject:

I'd sooner throw my lot in with IH-BKC...

Gamajorba · Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 357

Sashadroogie · Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 7:49 pm Post subject:

They are all awful. But IH is at least a known entity...

Phillip Schofield · Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 8:58 pm Post subject:

A colleague of mine just had an interview with IH-BKC in Spain.
Diabolical.

For every three hours of compulsory stand-by, you get 1 hour of pay. But hey, they give you seminars!

Screw the money, I want to sit in unpaid seminars and learn about about how timelines are an integral part of demonstrating all the grammarz.
I need more timelines in my life!

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 5:07 am Post subject:

Dunno why people think they should be paid for attending seminars...

Anyway, as dire as BKC is, at least they have a fairly well-oiled visa machine - at least in comparison to other smaller firms, such as the one mentioned in the opening post.

Phillip Schofield · Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 7:11 am Post subject:

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 10:51 am Post subject:

Nope. Teachers are being trained up to do the job. They should already know how to do it, but many don't. Hence the training. Should be happy they don't have to pay for it. Like they did Celta, and would have to for IELTS examiner training in most places...

No sympathy for lazy teachers who do not take professional development seriously. Off east to the camps with them!

Gamajorba · Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 357

Either way, I'd like to think I'm not some amateur freshman teacher who will just buy into anything, hence doing research into ALL possible avenues.

So far, my issues have been (understandably) one of the following:

1) Too far from where I'll live (i.e. involving marshtrutkas from the metro)
2) Insulting pay even with the crisis (IPT or BBLC or whatever it's called being examples, I'm not expecting a fortune but come on be halfway reasonable you know?!)
3) Pretty bad reputation (e.g. IH, WSI, LL, EF etc)
4) No vacancies (InLingua actually told me this!)
5) No visa support (MOST PLACES it seems...!)
6) Not experienced enough for the position (e.g. anything with kids..damn)

Thankfully, I've got enough contacts in Moscow to hopefully get around the visa issue, and I'm definitely going to get myself up to speed with the kids teaching (lets face it, that's where the money is), and the travel I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 3:12 pm Post subject:

Travelling just goes with the territory. Nothing to be done about that. Especially starting out.

Kids can be avoided, but that means more business clients with split shifts.

Gamajorba · Joined: 03 May 2015 Posts: 357