Job Discussion Forums

mechanized · Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 30

Hello Folks,

First time poster. Would appreciate any advice you have for me.

I am college graduate with a degree from a 4 year school in the U.S. and I plan on taking TEFL international's TESOL course in Beijing around the beginnning of April, so I should finish approximately in May.I then plan on moving to Hong Kong to job hunt. Is that a bad idea or is that what most people do after they take a TEFL course? Would May be a particularly hard month to find employment?

If I do get a job offer and the employer is going to sponsor do I have to leave the country and do a Visa run, since I don't have a visa yet at the time?

Will it be a problem that I'm Chinese-American, but I'm a native speaker?

Thanks!

erike · Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 8

What will hurt you is your lack of experience. Centres here look for post certificate experience. Your best bet is to get a year of experience, at least, and then try your luck.

Also immigration here tends to look for experience in addition to your degree and cert.

Good luck.

mechanized · Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 30

a bit of a catch-22 isn't it?

In order to get a job I need experience. But I can't get experience without really getting a job.....

poof · Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 161

Yeah, but you can easily get experience somewhere else in Asia first which doesn't have such demands for standards as HK - try Korea for a decent salary. After 1 or 2 years, especially if your experience is within a quality establishment, I'd say you'd be eligible to try for HK.

Don't forget also, that it could take AT LEAST 8 weeks to process all the docs for immigration on top of the time it takes to secure a job. How are you going to fund yourself for the job hunt because accommodation isn't always cheap in HK.

mechanized · Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 30

I'm hoping that I can crash at my cousins place. So then I can save on rent. It's a bit far away in the New Territories, so commuting might be expensive. But I'm thinking that if I don't have to pay for 2 months of rent, that I can survive on a budget.

Would it be reasonable to say that if I have my rent covered for me for, that I can then survive on $10-15 USD a day, while I'm out looking for a job? And this amount would be covering commuting fee's and eating?

surrealia · Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 241 Location: Taiwan

Try this page for job links related to Hong Kong:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/hongkong.htm