Job Discussion Forums

ecocks · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 899 Location: Gdansk, Poland

Thoughts on positions in the second and third tier cities?

Obviously smaller places are smaller but how does the cost of living vary, the attitude of the people, transit, the things that make a place livable (or noy)?

Apparently there are schools in towns as small as 120,000 people. Would $1400USD a month be reasonable in a city of 150,000 or so over in the central part of the country?

I'm not a party type but enjoy evenings with coffee and friends. Lack of clubs wouldn't bother me in the least but I like coffee shops, torts, historical sites, city parks, moderate restaurants and making new acquaintanceship.

Any places to watch out for in terms of religious background or other safety/economic/political issues?

Any comments about setting up private students and how long it takes for the sponsors to process a work visa would be appreciated.

Finally, does the work visa have to be done in the persons home country or can you fly out to a nearer embassy and process there?

Thanks in advance.

Otterman Ollie · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:03 am Post subject:

Perhaps you could specify which cities you had in mind. Which ever you choose you need an offer of employment from a Turkish school before you can apply for a work permit from your embassey outside the country.

ecocks · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 899 Location: Gdansk, Poland

Places such as Silifke, Trabzon, Urfa or Erzurum.

I was asking mostly about cost-of-living. This wasn't really a procedural question, just wanting to know how the money situations played out in the places other than Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara where most concentrations of jobs seem to be.

The visas are either required to be done in your home country or can be done at the nearest embassy outside Turkey. Seems like it's pretty straightforward to me.

From the number of schools spotted around the country I would have thought that there were people in cities such as these. Probably they rarely have more than one native speaker so maybe information is just not floating around in the experiences of the forum.

Otterman Ollie · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:13 pm Post subject:

Yeah, those places are not your usual tefl destination, you will be an oddity until you learn to blend in. the cost of living will be lower, so don't expect to find a starbucks or kfc on the street corner. You will earn less but it will go further and once you are accepted by the locals you will prosper and thrive, in theory!