Job Discussion Forums

[molly farquharson]

mark, I am not being defensive. Just the facts, ma'am, er, sir.

My concern is people who arrive in any foreign country planning to work and bringing hardly any money with them. it puts them in a very tenuous situation and often leads to big problems. Often people outside of Turkey think this is a third world country and therefore very cheap, and that too leads to problems, as we all know prices are still going up in spite of the much lower inflation. new teachers need to be realistic about what to expect. I think the sticky of web sites on this thread is really useful and we send out as detailed information as we can to prospective teachers. However, we still have people coming with hardly anything in their wallets, and that is very foolish.

[coffeespoonman]

I work at ET, and it is definitely possible to put back 2000 YTL in the first three months. Actually it is very easy, but it will take the full 3 months because your first check will be very small. It takes a few weeks to work up to a full-time schedule.

However, if you live in ET's housing, you may have to shell out a lot on transportation to work. Their housing is in Taksim, and if you work on the Anatolian side, you will spend between 4-6 YTL per day getting to work and back, depending on how you cross the Bosphorous. This quickly adds up, and can easily end up costing you 200 YTL before you even get your first, comparatively small check.

My advice, if you are coming to work at ET, is bring at least 1000 USD. That way you will be able to eat, commute, buy a cheap mobile, and have something of a tiny social life. After the first few months, you won't need to worry about money anymore.

[turkishlover25]

Yes, well... to get back on this topic...

Is $1000 still a decent amount to bring? Of course anything above would be GREAT, but not possible right now. Provided lodging is more than okay, and luckily I do know how to eat like a Turk - too bad the Ramen Noodles aren't as cheap in Turkey - so I'm not too worried about that sort of things. I just want to be able to live and not worry so much about money.

[molly farquharson]

I think it's still enough if you are careful until your first paycheck, depending on how much of the month you have worked. You can get lunch or dinner for 5-10TL and there are kitchens in the lojman.