Job Discussion Forums

[tide]

I would like to start a teaching job in September but have had an extraordinary job offering in the US until November. Will I be able to get a job with a November start date? What about December? January? etc. etc.

Thank You,

Tide (a newbie)

[kev7161]

If you want to work in a language mill, most seem to hire all the time. If you check out the job boards, you'll probably find some schools looking for teachers to replace the ones that did a midnight runner (or whatever) two months into their contracts. However, your best bet will be finding a job being advertised about a month before the Spring Festival and starting iimediately after that holiday.

[tide]

when is the spring festival? what are the dates you're talking about?

thanks for the tip,
Tide

[kev7161]

The dates vary from year to year, but probably about mid-January to mid-February next year. You might start searching for job adverts in late December with a planned arrival time, should you get hired, just before the end of the Spring Festival.

[sttwo]

The problem when you start working in China and begin when it isn't August or September is that when your contract runs out you are going to be relegated to the private language institutes again whether you like it or not because you're out of sync withe the academic year.

There are times when someone escaped or died at a school of some sort so that they need someone during the second semester. I think that waiting as late as the Lunar New Year might be a mistake or you're in for some surprises.

if you aren't already in China, I think it's a gamble coming here without having had the health check first. Something could be picked up such as asymptomatic hepatitis that you weren't aware you had and this would disqualify you. Then, you'd have to face figuring out how you were going to return home and what you were going to do there. Most importantly who would pay for that. likely whoever gambled would reimburse your fare to get here, but I doubt most would be charitable enough to pay your way home.

It puts you in a rush. You stand to arrive when a semester has already begun and they still have an unfilled position. This makes for little organization, seat of the pants teaching, and failure to properly prioritize skills that you want to improve.

I expereinced this while in Korea and never broke into the university scene during my entire tenure. I was stuck working nights or weekends all of the time and never ever got used to it. It just came with the territory.

The language institute scene provides so very little vacation. There might be more income, but there is no time to go to see anything that is very far from whatever place you are working.

Even though university studnets aren't my favorite age cohort in Eastern Asia, I'm not going back to the private institute system ever again.