Job Discussion Forums

[daily chai]

Hey all, I haven't seen any adverts for Malaysia in a long time. A search showed no prior adverts for the last three months on the job board. Are there jobs in Malaysia? How are people getting them?

The Foreign Skilled Workers visa from the Immigration department
http://www.imi.gov.my/eng/perkhidmatan/im_PasIkhtisas.asp shows that you have to be outside Malaysia to process your initial work visa. Visas are given for 12 months only, but presumably can be extended. This isn't as easy as other countries in Asia where I've worked. How long does it take for visas to be processed?

Now the last bit here bothers me. I searched a handful of English departments in Malaysia and there were almost no recognizable non-Malay/expat names in the list of teachers (faculty or staff). One university had a single visiting Fullbright scholar for 2 years. That's the only non-Malay name I found. I know Malaysia is a former British colony, so it isn't surprising that there are so many qualified locals. Certainly they should get the jobs in their country first. But I'm just surprised to see a total lack of non-Malay personnel. There are benefits to the students and faculty by having outside voices.

The job market looks very quiet from the Internet. Is this from stringent visa regulations, low pay that doesn't attract foreigners (I doubt it), or something else? What is going on here?

[spook]

i'm very curious about Malaysia too. i only found one school, Erican, and I'm aware of all the English speaking, but I'm dead curious and want to experience it.

I've surfed alot and found alot of interesting stuff, but far as English teaching goes, not a whole lot.

[spook]

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[AsiaTraveller]

daily chai,

You might want to know that there is a very critical difference between the adjectives Malay and Malaysian.

You mention finding Malay names when you checked the rosters of English instructors. Were these Malay names, Chinese names, Indian names, or none of those?

Names of Malaysian people (that is, Malaysian names) can be Malay, Chinese, Portuguese, Indian, or of many other derivations.

And even if you found some English-sounding names, the chances are somewhat good that the instructor would nevertheless be Asian.

The level of English expertise and education in Malaysia is quite high. Many teachers have received training abroad in so-called "English-speaking" countries...

By the way, the salary of RM2500 could be quite low, depending on the living standard to which you are accustomed.

[daily chai]

Sppok, thanks for the link. Happy job hunting

AT, thanks for the clarification on Malay and Malaysian, which I had used interchangeably. The names correspond to Malaysian names, inclusive of all three ethnic groups but primarily representing Malays. Just as you suggested, one name did look non-Malaysian but the individual had a photo which clearly showed her to be Malay in origin. I also noticed the level of education was quite high. So many were educated abroad in English-speaking countries.

As of today on www.xe.com/ucc
2,500.00 MYR
Malaysia Ringgits = 656.878 USD
United States Dollars


which is indeed low for the salary I have come to expect by teaching at university in Asia. That's really the university salary? I read in another thread that some Gulf teaching vets moved to Malaysia and love it. I'm surprised they moved with such a major salary difference. I thought Malaysia offered better salaries, as it's one of the SEA tiger countries AFAIK.

Thanks for the heads-up. Much appreciated!

[AsiaTraveller]

RM2500 was the monthly salary for the position that spook included in his post. That's typical for language schools.

I don't know about universities, but a tertiary salary is certainly higher than RM2500. There simply aren't many of those jobs available.

[Bunny]

There are quite a few jobs available in Malaysia. ELS are always on the lookout. CFBT regularly recruit for some of the provincial towns. International House are always short of teachers and are currently advertising on the IH world website.
Do beware though that two of the above organisations are not recommended at all. ELS pays particularly poor. International House has you working very long fixed hours six days a week with only 18 days paid holiday a year and with a salary only a little above ELS. Plus many of their teachers are often working illegally (not a good situation to be in when the Malaysian authorities are realy cracking down on illegal workers (like now)).
If you can find a decent company in Malaysia ( CFBT is a good organisation which doesn't exploit its teachers mercilessly), then it is a great place to live and work.

[Hod]

Dunno why IH gets so much stick. Whoever mentions ELS in the same thread as IH obviously hasn't been teaching all that long. ELS pays way way less than IH. No, that won't do it, let's have figures:

IH: RM3500 +accommodation or RM450 a month accommodation allowance

ELS: RM2800 going up to a whopping RM3300 after you get a visa. Presumably the visa makes you teach all that bit better and this justifies the pay rise. Either that or the pay stinks in the first place.

I'm even considering a return to IH KL, seriously. So, if you're reading DOS, what you waiting for!

Oh and cfbt have stopped recruiting so that's that.

next.

[Polina]

How many hours' teaching is that RM 3500?

And could you tell me how much a reasonably nice and spacious one-bedroom apartment in a reasonably nice area would cost per month?

[Bunny]

That's 3500 RM for between 20 and 24 hours teaching. However, you must be in the office from 8.30 - 5.00 Monday to Friday AND (!) 8.30 - 1300 Saturday. And Cyberjaya is in the middle of nowhere. It takes ages to get to KL from Cyberjaya and anyway, after such a long week, most teachers are just too tired to make the trip.
Shame about CFBT not recruiting any more. You should still check up on them anyway.
A decent smallish two bedroom flat in KL costs about 1200 - 1500 RM. Ih put you in their flkats with one or two other teachers. And one person gets a very very tiny room.
The other crazy thing about IH is that their accommodation is some way from the college and they provide buses to take you there. But guess what ? They even charge you for that luxury!

[daily chai]

Thanks Bunny for being so helpful! I read somewhere about Cyberjaya recruiting, and I'm not surprised they need help with the hours they want you to work. Sheesh.

[Hod]

I'm not turning this into an I love IH thread; I don't. But those hours are normal for teaching or any other job. Look at the crap on tefl.com and you'll see, if anything, most teachers worldwide do far more hours. And how many evenings do the poor long-suffering IH teachers work? None (unless they moonlighted like I used to). Plenty of time to get that fast train to KL Sentral and hit the bars lah.

Now, where do I send my resume?

[Bunny]

Who said CFBT are not recruiting?
They are looking for 11 teachers to start in April. Conditions are much better than the other language centres mentioned on recent posts. What are you all waiting for?!

[Hod]