Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

Keep in mind you'll likely have to purchase household goods including major appliances. And then there are the monthly related housing costs for utilities, Internet, and satellite tv. Add on phone, food, and transportation as regular expenses as well.

[veiledsentiments]

[dragonpiwo]

I teach 'tawteen'. These are adults who haven't done well at school. The oil companies take them on in numbers and we train them. Not easy. These are big guys who have never heard the word 'no' and are getting paid more than me for sitting there.

No easy task but it's all about patience, understanding, trying to help and lowering your own expectations. Some can do it and some can't.

[veiledsentiments]

So imagine a classroom full of 20-30 even more immature 11-15 year old versions of these fellows... back when they were totally out of control and not even pretending to try to be adults.

That is what male HS teachers are mainly dealing with...

VS

[Tazz]

That explains why the interview is supplemented by a question-or problem related to classroom management that the interviewee has to deal with and explain. personally, I'm warned off the whole thing by the start up costs. Not worth the gamble to shell out 15-16 thou UK pounds-to be on a three month probation in such a challenging situation.

[travelbug66]

It certainly seems like quite a hard gig to do. Of course, it is okay if the management suppport you and understand the students. It always seemed riduculous to me, that when in Saudi, teaching the air force cadets, you could be berated for letting students sleep. Problem was, you would wake up a student, get him to start an exercise, turn your back for 1 minute, and turn around, and lo and behold, it was slumberland again !
Like Tazz, the thing which is really worrying is the start up costs involved, if you don't pass probation or want to resign after a week - what would you do ? Very, very worrying.

[canadianinuae]

[On2TheNext1]

What is testing situation like? I mean, are teachers under pressure to see that students make progress in their language skills or as long as the students are happy (for whatever reason), management is happy?

I've taught in Chinese high schools with 50+ students in a class and seeing each class only twice a week, but it was pretty well understood that students were, at most, being "exposed" to English rather than learning it.

Plus, the students were having fun, so it was all good.

[rosalind]

I'm very glad to find this thread. I, too, have been offered an interview with the "MOE" (at the end of May). But it would mean flying out to the UAE (from Thailand, where I currently am), so I'm trying to do as much research as I can to figure out if it's worthwhile or not.

It's quite difficult to find any information about this online -- I gather that may be because the program has just changed its name? (Was this, in fact, ADVETI before? Or is the current program significantly different?)

The salary package looks very tempting to me. 21,000 AED/ mo ~=$68,400 USD/ yr, tax-free, is a hell of a lot more than I've ever made teaching ESL before. A major goal for me is to finish paying off my debts and save as much as possible. My needs are fairly simple, and I can live pretty frugally. So this seemed like a great opportunity to me.

However, this discussion of the cost of housing (and the up-front requirements!!) are really making me rethink whether it's worth it. If housing will eat up half the salary, then it might make more sense, after all, for me to look to KSA, where at least housing is included. :/

I've emailed the recruiter I'm in contact with, asking about these issues. I have a sense she's been sort of cagey so far (e.g. when I asked her to clarify how long the contracts were for). She also implied that there are so many people eager for these jobs that if I decided not to fly out for the interview, she could easily fill the slot with someone else. I suppose she'll get her commission, anyway. ... But I really wish I could figure out if this interview is something worth investing in, for me.

Any further information or advice would be very welcome. (By the way, peripatetic_soul , if you don't mind, I'd love to see that information, too.)

[oceanbound]

rosalind, my husband and I have been exploring too what it's like to work & live in the UAE, following an invitation to interview with an MOE job in the northern emirates.

With respect to concerns about rent & upfront setup costs, I've become a bit confused after our research and seeing threads on this forum. It appears that people who have experience in the UAE think 21k may not be that good of a deal given the high cost of rent. However, we found on Dubizzle and Property Finder that in the northern emirates (eps. Sharjah and RAK), there are many decent 1BR apartments costing 40k-50k yearly, and some are even furnished. This translates to 3k-4k AED per month, which would seem to allow for plenty of leftover for food, utilities, transportation, and savings. Studios in the northern emirates can be as little as 25k yearly in (seemingly) nice apartment buildings. And if you go for the furnished apartments, there will be significantly less setup cost. Many of properties also require only quarterly payments rather than one-year payment upfront. My husband's recruiter said the MOE schools may be able to arrange some kind of payment plan for our apartment (e.g., paying the 1-year rent upfront for us and deduct the monthly equivalent from pay).

But remember all this info was retrieved from the internet and the actual situation might be drastically different, as some people have reported.

Given the apparent discrepancy between info on the web and people's lived experiences, we'd love to have someone shed light on the rent situation.

As for other aspects of living & teaching in the UAE, some people on the forum (thank you, peripatetic_soul and canadianUAE!) have shared useful personal experiences that we found helpful. Our concern now, besides sorting out the confusion with living costs, is mostly with the nature of the job. It sounds like emirati children can be hard to control, and the job might entail more efforts managing the classroom than actual teaching.

The job looks great at first glance, but the more we dig the more we find reasons to be cautious. It doesn't mean we are entirely ruling out the possibility of going to the UAE, but our expectations have evolved quite a bit. According to the MOE ministers at the interview, there will be a 6-month probation, so at least you won't be stuck there for 2 years if you don't like it!

[nomad soul]

[TheEasyLife]

I'm going for my interview this weekend in The U.K.

I asked the recruiter the same questions and was sent this website with housing on it.

https://uae.dubizzle.com

Rent is paid quarterly in most instances but if you click 'short term rents' it gives the apartments with a monthly payment + any fees.

The range seems to be from 3,500AED upwards depending on the location. I expect to spend 25% of my salary on accommodation after looking at it.

Also, depending on the city, living in a hotel also seems an option.

I have no idea if I'll accept a position but I'm going just to see if I get an offer then I'll take it from there.

[nomad soul]

[oceanbound]

[canadianinuae]