Job Discussion Forums

[Stephadella]

Hey all,

After much deliberation and wondering where I should go (and I have been back and forth between everywhere in Asia but keep coming back to Indonesia!), I've decided indonesia is the place I most want to go teach English, so on that note, is anyone there now and have any advice for me? Mainly on places to teach or not teach, recruiters to go with, best places to get a job, kinda dont want to live in jakarta but im flexible really..I've read a lot about EF Swara so wouldn't consider them, maybe other EFs in Surabaya or somewhere, maybe if there is nothing else, i am thinking about applying to TBI and see how that goes. Would ideally like to be somewhere close to the coast, I surf so if there is anywhere that is handy for that it would be a plus but I just really want to be somewhere nice!!

Im from the UK, currently living in New Zealand, I have an English degree (just getting my transcripts and certificates from them now) and almost finished my tefl course so will probably start applying in a month, just want to get prepared and get more advice off of others who are or have taught in Indonesia before! Do I need to get a criminal records check?

Thanks in advance for the replies, anything Indonesia and teaching there advice would be a great help!
S

[Atoms for Peace]

With an English degree, TBI should snap you up. They have branches in Bandung and Surabaya - also Malang if you want to be closer to Bali for surfing. Pays better than EF...

[Stephadella]

Awesome! I was hoping that they would...I have no teaching experience though so that's why I thought maybe they wouldn't but yeh, going to apply in about a months time, hopefully they are looking to take people on sometime soon.... Yeah ideally closer to Bali would be awesome...working somewhere close enough for weekend trips would be sweet! Thanks! Are you in indo by any chance atoms for peace? Thanks for the reply

[drandreasbrown]

I worked for EF in Surabaya for almost 4 years, and yes, they don't pay much initially, but it's worth it if you stay awhile, plus you get some extra benefits (housing, flight money etc), and it was my first teaching job, and I thought it was excellent as a new teacher in terms of resources. I understand there're a lot of kids classes now though. I don't know much about TBI so can't help you there. I do work in Surabaya (thought not for EF anymore), and if you want to travel to Bali it's pretty easy, half an hour or so on a plane, if you have the money, overnight executive class on a train is long, cheap, but not too uncomfortable, except for the bus ride at the end.

I've been off this site for a while, but if you have any questions, feel free to message me.

[LinkH]

Indonesia is an interesting place to live. Jakarta is a city buzzing with activity. When I was young, I liked that. It's still okay as a middle aged man. I think old folks like to live in the country, right?

The downside of Jakarta is, aside from being more expensive from most other places in the country (except maybe Bali and remote places like Irian),is that the pollution is so bad. Sometimes you can barely see across the street. The nice layer of smog is pretty effective against sunburn most of the time, though. Suburbs like Serpong, Lippo Karawaci, and BSD seem a little less smoggier.

One town I wouldn't mind living in is Semarang. How big is it? Maybe a million people? I went there for a business trip. They had a decent hotel with a restaurant, and a pretty good foodcourt in the mall there. I like Korean food, so I tried out the Korean food. I was a little disappointed with the fake Japanese style kimchi instead of the real thing. There was also a Korean bibimbap food stall in the mall food court, but they used some kind of local cabe rawit instead of the real Korean gochu jang (sp?) hotsauce, so it wasn't good IMO.

Still, it was a nice town, with these little horse carts that take you around the city square and lots of food tents set up there on weekends. They have these lunpia, egg rolls, that the town is famous for. It seemed kind of quiet, but also had a mall with some western comforts.

Bali has it's own appeal of course. I don't know how hard it is to get cheap housing, but the waves on the beach are great.

Jakarta has it's own appeal. The people are warm in Jakarta, as in much of the country.

Where to work? Well, a decent gig, if you are certified as a teacher in your home country, is to teach at an international school or national plus school. Way back when the government made it illegal for the rich to send their kids to international schools. You had to be international. So rich Chinese people and others started building private schools and hiring expatriate teachers. Sekolah Pelita Harapan is a school that hires Christian teachers started out of this trend. There are lots of schools like this, BiNus, and I think Global Jaya would be some other examples.

If you have a degree and a TEFL certificate, maybe, just maybe, you could get a job like this. The problem is if your certificate is for teaching adults, that's not quite the same. If you are certified to teach in primary or secondary school, that's a better career path.

If you just want to teach a couple of years and aren't too concerned about the money, EF may pay you enough to eat and travel a little. When I was in Jakarta back in 2007, they paid maybe $700 or $800 a month. I was looking for a job, but I wouldn't go to an EF interview. I insisted on getting an idea of the salary on the phone because I didn't want to waste my time and then get offered less than $1000 a month. An EF called me once for some kind of education director job, but wanted to pay some low wage. When I told them my minimum over the phone, they said that was more than they were considering. (I had kids. I couldn't do the super-low wage teacher forever.)

The weird thing about Indonesia is if you accept one of these low-paying jobs, you'll be rich compared to a lot of locals working in what would be much higher paying jobs in your home country. It's kind of weird. You feel poor. They think you are rich.

If you don't have many financial obligations, it can be a lot of fun, though. I don't know if it's possible to get a job around lake Tobah, but that sounds fun. Again, it's kind of quiet. Medan might be interesting if you want to go to Tobah, but there are not as many western comfort foods there. Jakarta is the place to go for that, or Den Pasar.

Indonesian food is really interesting. Padang is a great cuisine. So is Manado food. Of course, Javanese food, and Sunda, which is similar, is good too.

[plumpy nut]

Try for a job in Yogyakarta. If you could land one there that would be great.

[bradleycooper]