Job Discussion Forums

[simon_porter00]

I appreciate that I'll come across as a 'billy big bollocks'/or other idiot as posting this, but it isn't my intention.

I made a few new year's resolutions this year:
1) do 100 push ups in one go (completed as of last week)
2) not visit this forum for a year to see if anything has changed

Due to trying to find a teacher in Poznan for a student a month or two back, I had to come back on here and then used my train travels as an excuse to pop in and have a look around and then sadly, became hooked again.

Is there any point to this forum any more? (The Polish one specifically). From my limited research, hardly anyone new has appeared and most those that have (quite rightly) have been shouted down and not come back leaving the same old faces, having the same old arguments; and very often those faces aren't even in Poland anymore.

I shut down my website regarding helping new teachers find jobs/giving them info at the beginning of the year as I'm not in the school teaching game any more and simply don't have the contacts / resources to help nor the time as we've had a second child. But one thing that I did notice is that more and more people were getting in contact with me regarding positions/needing help. People are still interested in coming to Poland to teach/live - this much was made very clear to me.

This 'interest' is not shown on this board. On this board, you can only see stagnation. What I mean by this is a total lack of movement/development. People obviously come here (because google leads them this way) but if they view they clearly don't post. This makes this board redundant.

The messages from this board (90%+ of the anyway) can be summed up:
anything less then a zloty per hour is pointless
if you work for a school you're a mug, or will be mugged
Subjectively, life is expensive or cheap (and we will argue for pages about this)
there is no career development
there's no point working anywhere else outside of the main cities or even Warsaw.

Whilst these vaguely are true (as experience tells us), they are also a gross oversimplification. There are 100's of schools in Poland which can't make the first point but given their location means that due to the cost of living you're actually better off than in Warsaw. But the message that people see is one of overwhelming negativity.

Negativity = a closed audience = stagnation = nothing new/contributory = redundancy.

Now, in some respects, this is not our fault - if someone really wanted to add something they would. But, if you go to a party where everyone else seems to know each other it's difficult to butt in particularly if they're infighting.

I personally believe the Polish market is a good one of you're a good teacher. You can live here well, have a family, have a car (or two), and have a holiday. You can be well-off, if not rich if you're ambitious and have drive - the market is in many areas extremely under exploited and there is room for a lot more teachers in the whole of the country. I am in my mid 30s now and am not scared about the next 30 years. My mortgages will be paid off by the time my eldest goes to university (18 years). If my employers were to boot me out, it won't be long before I'm earning the same amount of cash again - it really is easy come easy go.

This board doesn't reflect my views very well and whilst I'm not saying it's streets paved with gold, there are streets, they are paved and if you work hard there is enough gold (sorry for abusing an Irish maxim about going to New York).

So, is there any point to this forum? In my opinion - no. Is there a point to such forums? yes - a quick search on the internet will find Polish forums (whilst not to everyone's taste) are booming - I don't go on those either btw. And my website was getting more and more hits from nearly 3/4 of the globe - so I know there is interest out there.

I'll come back to the forum - I'm vain you see - but I don't think it'll be any different in another 6 months/year.

[sparks]

Agreed. I don't think there is one new (let's say arrived in the last 2 years) teacher on here. It's either ones who have come and left or moved on to something other than teaching, or ones who have been here for a while and, as far as I can tell, aren't that bad off. I suppose that from those represented, Poland is actually a nice place to be. Either you eventually move on to better places with better jobs, The Gulf, Japan, back home (thus making Poland an ideal place to start, as no other first job guarantees promotion) or you stay and move up and become a voice of positivity and hope on these boards.

So.... Come to Poland everyone! Either you will improve you life here and stop complaining or eventually you will go somewhere else and start earning loads of cash.

[dragonpiwo]

Or flit between the desert and Poland.

Been back a month now and am loving it. That said, even though I've only been out once, I've spent a lot somehow.

[simon_porter00]

I get the feeling it would be well worth getting a documentary crew to follow you round to find out where the cash goes

[dragonpiwo]

Rent, bills, child support, care for a sick parent, new passport and a mountain bike for the missus. (9000Zl).

The rest has been in Zabka and Biedronka and cigarettes. We've been out once to a party and once to the Indian at Malta (which was dreadful). Most days I go biking.

Off to the opera in Krakow this weekend, a wedding gift. I really can't wait (not).

It would be a pretty dull docusoap.

[Master Shake]

It's great to have you back, Simon, but I don't follow your story:

You realize this forum is pointless, so you make a resolution to avoid it.

Through chance, you end up visiting this forum again (call it a Dave's relapse).

You start a thread about how there is no point to this forum.



As for the lack of new posters, new posters do exist. Most of them start a thread or ask a question, post a few replies, and then disappear forever.

If you've ever observed the views count for threads, there are quite a lot of people lurking who don't post. Perhaps they are afraid of the backlash from the usual suspects were they to post. Or, maybe most the lurkers are using this site for information and prefer to remain anonymous.

[wojbrian]

Why should new people post?

It becomes a big pissing contest of who is right and then it goes off topic of what they originally asked.