Job Discussion Forums

MBee · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 68

I am interested in teaching in Vietnam and am wondering what jobs I might be able to land given my background.

I was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Indonesia for one year, I have an MA in Geography, and 3.5 years college teaching experience here in the States (Geography courses). I am also currently doing i to i's 40-hour TEFL certificate online.

Any ideas on what I could expect to make and what type of schools I could apply to?

Thank you so much! I really appreciate everyone's help on these forums. I hope you're enjoying your teaching adventures, wherever you are. Smile

vabeckele · Joined: 19 Nov 2010 Posts: 439

Vietnam can be a bit tricky as experience and education can be a small part of the equation. That being said, you have those, so you may be lucky and land a good job straight away or you might have to fight through a lot of BS to get to it.

You can get by doing part-time work for about a grand a month while you are looking for a more suitable and stable position elsewhere. The better schools will begin to pay closer to 3k and up.

A grand a month will see you well over here by the way. No savings, probably, but out every night if you want to.

MBee · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 68

Thanks for the great info. What cities would be good to give it a try in?

vabeckele · Joined: 19 Nov 2010 Posts: 439

If you want to begin working almost upon landing, Hanoi and HCMC would be your best bet. From there you can start to look further afield to Danang, Vung Tao, Mui Ne, Nha Trang etc... Once you leave the two big cities it becomes evident that education is 10 years behind these two cities, but there are other charms. Any major chain outside of the cities will be harder to get into as teachers are there for a longer time and will form close networks. Universities have to be pestered constantly for any work and the pay and conditions aren't generally very good, but bearable. This is the same for the language centres; pay is sometimes as much as 50 percent less than in Hanoi or HCMC. In time though, you can get it back up to 25 dollars an hour.

kona · Joined: 17 Sep 2011 Posts: 188 Location: USA

Don't know if you could swing it but getting on with RMIT seems to be the best gig out there. Investing in a CELTA would also bump up your CV a bit (I don't think RMIT would care at all about an online TEFL cert, but you never know).

Just an idea, positions are open: http://www.rmit.edu.vn/94_2380_ENG_HTML.htm