Job Discussion Forums

Luna Chica · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 177 Location: Trujillo, Peru

How long did it take you guys to land satisfactory work after you arrived in your respective countries? By satisfactory I mean somewhere where you are settled and have been for a while. Seems like there are millions of language schools in Lima, is there a high demand for ESL teachers?

How reliable are the schools at paying you correctly and on time?

Cheers

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

In Mexico City, it took me about 6 months to get settled in. The first place I worked was a nightmare, but it was easy to switch over to where I'm at now. I'm coming up on 5 years at the same school, though my position doesn't involve much English teaching anymore.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Luna Chica · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 177 Location: Trujillo, Peru

Yeah I hear it is more usual to knock on doors and line something up. I a thinking that it may be better that way too. You get to check that the school is somewhere you want to actually teach before you end up there. The other side of the coin is that it is a little less scary going there if you already have something lined up. Since I have a two year-old to support, this is appealing.

wanderingwonderwoman · Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 19 Location: chile

in ecuador, there is a very good school in cuenca (CEDEI) that will hire from overseas. i knew i would be working before i bought my plane ticket. the pay is low, but the school is a ton of fun, great resources, prof. development, the whole thing. i think its a bit of an anomaly down here, though.

in chile, it took me about a month of underemployment (about a class day) before i landed where i am now. what im doing now involves absolultely no teaching (which is a shame) but other than that its a sweetsweet job.

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

In Chile, I went against the advice of most of the Chile forum members and accepted a job over the internet. Many of them said there were loads of jobs in Chile, it was better to get there first and then look, etc., but I liked the thought of having something stable to go to. Oooops! I only lasted four months there. Too bad--it really is a beautiful country.

Now I am in Peru, and once again I had something lined up beforehand, but the circumstances were totally different. So far, so good!

The moral of the story: Listen to Dave�s posters! They know what they`re talking about!

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Adrienne · Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Trujillo, Peru

Any tips on how much of a nest egg to bring if you're going without a job lined up? Is it easiest to just knock on doors, put something in the local paper, volunteer for a while...? Thanks for any help!

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

Bring enough to cover you for at least two months--rent, food, transportation, sight-seeing and souvenirs (I tend to spend a lot on these in the beginning, since everything is so new!), plane ticket home if you don't already have a return flight, etc. This probably translates into a couple thousand dollars (US). And try to leave something in the bank account at home as well, because you likely won't add anything to it working in LA!

If you've already got a job lined up, especially one that will help you find housing, you can get by with less, but it's better to be safe!

And you don't necessarily have to carry all of this cash around with you. Many ATM cards from back home work here.

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