Job Discussion Forums

[jpvanderwerf2001]

nemnoga,
An ad here is really quite cheap ($75?), and effective: I received more than 200 resumes from the ad we placed on Dave's last winter*.









*I do not work for Dave's ESL Cafe

[coledavis]

Reverse of Nemnoga's question:

Where can I advertise effectively for Russian teachers of English (ones with advanced language).

I'm now in an interesting situation. It looks like we're getting our licence shortly but I can't get a proper visa yet and we need somebody good to teach higher level students and because of the time of year it's difficult to hire anybody other than local newbies (who are nice but all about upper intermediate level).

[nemnoga]

find-a-teacher.org

[coledavis]

Thank you, nemnoga, that looks very good. And they have an English version (and one in Uzbek too!).

[sisyphus]

This is an excellent thread. I hope people dont mind me jumping in here. I am interested in starting a school in Russia and am looking at a few locations outside of Moscow and St Petersburg. My main concern, and I have started and ran a successful school abroad before, is having no Russian language skills,no Russian wife I would need a Russian manager. As I dont know anyone through contacts there would be a huge question of trust here. My model would be to set up a centre , get a local manager in to run it. I wouldnt be able to live permanently in Russia. Is this model viable or would it need permanent residence there. Probably naive I know just like to get peoples thoughts on that.

[coledavis]

Well, I'm not married and am doing it. BUT it is very much against the odds and I do have some basic Russian. I am only now extending from a business visa (90 days multiple entry out of any 180 days) to an employment visa. A couple of organisational hints: One model is to have a school which is essentially a business, which is ok if you don't want to issue your own certificates (a problem, as Russians like to have certification, even if it is at a lower level). If you want to become a licensed school, then you need a founder, who is unable to benefit from the school's income and a Director, who is the everyday boss. If you know no Russian at all, this is very problematic. Again, I'm doing it, but it is very stressful and relies on people I trust (another interesting business) to do lots of the legal stuff. Without a lot of support, the chances are that you will run out of money long before you start making it.

Maybe I am being unfair, but I get the impression that you think it possible to just set up the business model and let the thing run. No, your value as a native speaker is to provide that extra value AS WELL as the insights from your experience.

[sisyphus]

Im not saying let the thing run, the point im trying to make is that ,and the large schools obviously manage this, is how to, in the future perhaps, manage multiple schools, I mean if you have a chain of language schools you cant be sitting in one of them all the time. So you eventually need to hand control over at some point, the question is how do you have the trust to do that. I suppose this would evolve as you get to know your staff etc....But Cole you make some excellent points and you are obviously in the thick of it,great advice thanks.

[coledavis]

Sorry if I misread you there. Anyway, I am trying to grow our school organically, knowing the staff and offering opportunities where I can. However, it is possible to run it another way, but I don't know how or rather don't want to know how (I guess I'm averse to what may euphemistically be referred to as hard-nosed approaches to management).

You could get yourself a job at one of the chains which appear to work across Russia and see what they do. (There's plenty of stuff on the MacSchools on this forum. For a non-exhaustive list of Russian towns with schools, you could look at the Eslbase.com site. This has a section devoted to language schools in different countries.)

To summarise: Yes you're right, Russia is very very anglophile and money can be made here. But it is tough and you will need to make some good contacts. And it is bureacratically very difficult indeed. Expect to spend a lot of money...