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where the jobs are

 
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Dennis Parish



Joined: 09 Nov 2004
Posts: 18
Location: santiago de chile

PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:25 pm    Post subject: where the jobs are Reply with quote

A lot of people ask the same logical question before they get here: where are the jobs? There are a lot of schools here and it�s highly unlikely you can make a go of it with only one school; as for private students, Chileans are highly unreliable and almost no one makes a living from privates, just icing on the cake.

A lot of schools will demand you sign a contract and give them exclusivity. A contract is neither good nor bad but it�s not necessary to work here with one. The problem is that the amount they pay you on a contract is rarely more than enough to pay basic expenses so bring your own money; Chile is rarely very profitable.

Let me continue the theme about schools in additions to this letter but I will first warn everyone: wait until March before you come down here or you will just burn through any money you have looking and waiting for work to start. Summer is dead.
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Dennis Parish



Joined: 09 Nov 2004
Posts: 18
Location: santiago de chile

PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, let me continue what I was saying. There are all sorts of schools for all sorts of teachers here, from those that rely almost exclusively on video (Wall Street Institute) to those which require no sort of skill at all (Tronwell, where you learn to teach one lesson, then teach it to different groups of students every class.) There are the more rigid methodologies (Berlitz and maybe Bridge-Linguatec, who are out of Colorado and based on the Berlitz method, if I remember their website info.) There are the schools which pay crap (Tronwell, Linguatec, Sam Marsalli and countless others), some of which will nickel-and-dime you with fines for lateness or set bonuses which are impossible to attain. A rough way to measure is that if they advertise on the Internet, they are probably not very good.
[b]Note: the exception is Comunicorp who I find very fair and honest.
They will also answer e-mails, generally, asking for your resume.

There are also a lot of good schools and they tend to be smaller, pay more but ask more in terms of experience. You should think very hard before accepting any class which pays less than 5,000 pesos/hour and a better school should pay from 5,500 to 6,000 but some schools will pay up to 9,000 for classes further from the center. Try places like ABELS, Polyglot, Chileno-Norteamericano (who may pay less and ask you to sign a contract but keep you BUSY), Burford and others but ask what they pay and how they'll pay you. Why? The law states that they must retain 10% from your pay, which you can collect back the following April: this is the tax, in effect. You MUST present "boletas" which are bills for your services and you can only get these if you have gone through a series of complicated procedures with the government. Many schools will handle this for you in a way that you don't need to worry about it (such as boletas issued in someone else's name, the usual quasi-legal manner) but you should find out if they are going to get that money back to you somehow. Just something to think about... but the point is that you need to think about the fact that whatever pay rate is quoted to you, it'll end up 10% less at the end of the month. (Some schools deduct more but that's illegal; I guess they pass it off as "training fees" or whatever.)

Any questions, I'll try to answer in my usual slow manner. Smile
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eileen



Joined: 15 May 2004
Posts: 71

PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 2:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From someone who works at Norteamericano...

Depending on how far from the center, Norteamericano will actually pay you a huge amount in transportation and what I call hazard pay, having to schlep up to the middle of nowhere. I�ve got one class that they pay me nearly $14,000 for, but it�s hella inconvenient.

Another thing I�d add is that some schools will cover you with ACHS, which is worker�s comp, which I�ve unfortunately become very familliar with. It covers you 100% for accidents on the job or on your way to or from the job. Some also require you to put money into AFP, which is a pension plan. You can get it back when you move out of Chile, apparently. Some schools will also help you get health insurance, which, if you�re staying for the long term, is probably important. For about 35k a month (50 bucks), you can get state insurance, or a little more can buy you private. Norteamericano does all of these things, also they tend to have an hour and a half minimum on class times, which helps balance out the slightly lower pay.

Hope you don�t mind me jumping in on your post.
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Dennis Parish



Joined: 09 Nov 2004
Posts: 18
Location: santiago de chile

PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jump away! Any information is useful, I think, to other people out there. I worked at Chileno-Norteamericano in 2001 and they really kept me busy but they didn't pay me as well as you. Also, they wanted me to sign a contract and I was reluctant to do that at that time. I certainly would recommend them but it was tough to put up with the disorganization when I was there. How are they now? They wanted teachers to do progress reports by Internet when I was there but didn't provide computers so you either had to find a friend who was connected or blow money at a cyber-cafe. How "inconvenient" are we talking about? I teach in Quilicura so that's about an hour from the center, which is 30-45 minutes from my house... For anyone who doesn't know Santiago, my point is that a lot of schools will send you WAY OUT in Timbuktu and not pay you for travel time so it's something to watch out for.
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