Job Discussion Forums

[BusinessEnglish]

I am thinking of going down to Mexcio for a few months for a change of pace. I speak pretty good Spanish and while I don't have any certification and have not taught English in the past I do have a background in business and in presentations (7 yrs business experience + BA Rhetoric and BS in Business from Berkeley).

I am looking to teach business presentation skills: both English and the use of PowerPoint (standard software for presenting). I am wondering the following:

Can I find work?
Would I work alone or is there an agency/school that?
Does anybody know of a school/aency doing this I could contact?
How much money could I make?
What cities? (Any options other then DF?)

Thanks for the advice!!

[MixtecaMike]

I don't think you have many options other than picking up some part-time work doing business English classes, in Mexico City this shouldn't be much of a problem, especially if you just want some extra income for a couple of months.

For the longer term you might be able to get together enough people to run some specific Business Presentations classes, but when my boss attempted this a couple of years ago we only managed to actually sign up enough to barely cover costs. There may be lots of theoretically interested people, but for businesses time can be a big obstacle, as well as money.

Look for jobs in the Mexico City papers or just go around the English schools asking, I get the idea from your post you are only looking short-term, so you should find somebody willing to hire you without papers.

Outside of Mexico City I wouldn't fancy your chances so much. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[richtx1]

Since I'm working mostly as an administrator now, I'm glad to see the OP understands that "Business English" is something other than just the same ol, same ol grammar and verb tense review with some "business vocabulary". After all what we talk about in business isn't much different than what we talk about in other spheres of our lives.

That said, Mexico City has the most need for qualified native speaking business education teachers, though the market is a bit saturated right now... and the economic downturn has meant many companies and government agencies have cut their training budgets.

As to teaching "Power Point". I don't think a foreigner could sell that. There seems to be a computer school on every corner here in la Capital, and the Mexican kids get more computer saavy every day.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[richtx1]

It's not only the schools, Ben... look at the "Business English" textbooks. They're indistinguishable from any other English textbook except that the exercises and readings have some reference to accounting or marketing.