Job Discussion Forums

papillon · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 91

I'm wondering what jobs and careers people have moved onto after their time spent teaching in Indonesia?

I know some people who have moved onwards and upwards very quickly in Indonesia once they've removed themselves from the teaching circuit - but I'm curious to know how many people have used their time at EF etc.etc to hotstep into different careers...?

Paps

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

this doesn't exactly go along with your "after esl" request but i have opened ( for about 2.5 years now) a very successful dog breeding kennel. i do still teach ( geography and history, mostly) but still make a great deal of cash breeding and training rottweilers and shepards for the police and military as well as some other small breeds for the rich in and around jakarta/surabaya/etc.... its amazing how much some people will pay for a purebred here. my profit margins are huge but it was expensive to set up, as i ( my wife,actually.... you know the rules) had to buy the land needed and construction costs....but now that all is paid off, i make alot more overall with this venture then i did/ still do teaching......really long hours doing this though, but i love the canines so its not so bad

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

Are we to assume that the OP is thinking about hot-stepping it out of ESL, then?

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

actually, as of last week, i have been doing nothing but teaching english due to the upcoming UN ....... but personally don't think i would ever "hot-step" into anything...

..as most schools do, i get my housing ( which me likes alot) taken care of, visa and KITAS headaches are not mine to deal with, as well as all the other garbage that has to be dealt with when being a bule here and for me to leave teaching now could mean giving up all the freebies, still, i enjoy the teaching part alot and to up and leave it would cause major problems ( ok, not major), but problems and headaches.. to be honest, i am pretty happy with things just way they are in my life.......holy crap, i just started feeling a lot better about myself........my mom was right, i am a great guy!!!

papillon · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 91

Interesting update there, I guess there's rewards to be had in Java for getting down and dirty with the canines - good market gap spot Beefer and best of luck to you in the future.

Should you ever have a shortage of frothing mutts then let me know and I'll mail a couple of Bali hobos to you, my expense.

Anyone else made a move in Indonesia away from the ol' classroom grind??

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

Salah paham, Beefer. I was enquiring whether Paps was thinking of hot-stepping it.

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

papillon · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 91

Chester · Joined: 15 May 2004 Posts: 383 Location: Australia

this is a really good topic. because so many peole dont really think about what happens next... if you are young enough, you can write ESL off as a paid holiday. or if you like it and want to make it a career, you can go home and do a diploma in education, plus a tesol cert if you dont aleady have it, then persue a real career in esl.

if you are more mature, then you have also to consider the ramifications to your CV when you want to have a real job when you go home. doing stuff like teaching english in a 3rd world country really doesnt "cut-it" i am afraid.

the longer you stay the worse it gets as far as your eligilibility for real employment goes.

some people i have known, in numerous countries, have become lost because they hoped to score something outside of teaching, but its a pipe dream.

there is also the prospect of taking your teaching skills back to your homeland and doing it there. and the pay is craph. also the other people doing the same thing are crusty sour women who think urinal cake is a sexy cologne, or expat women with attitude ie hate men or women with the ability to get a better job with better pay.

i have personal experiences and reasons for doing the teaching english in asia thing. largely it was from losing job / business and girlfriend and feeling sorry for myself and wanting to find a diferent path, and maybe teaching would be the answer and living in other countries would help me forget / hide from regrets i had in my life.

another spin on maybe teaching esl in the west. my wife has her business, that actually is not doing anything at the moment, so she has been going to english class to build her cultural skills, as we are in australia - hey all australians need cultural lessons! - and she decided to apply for a job, which she got. her english teacher in australia repremanded her for missing a class to go for the interview. how stupid is that?. irony is the job pays far more than the teachers salary, also less hours.

my job in australia is in sales and its been tough to adapt to office shyte and meeting KPI's. but i like civilisation. dont like being a nobody who is treated like somebody, just because i am a white guy in a third world country.

if you want to, you can get a better job. you have to have the guts.

if esl is for you, great.

sidjameson · Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Posts: 629 Location: osaka

Me suspects that for many the reason that they are doing TEFL to begin with, and even more so in Indonesia, is that they never had a life BEFORE tefl.

britishempire · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 21

what job nowadays is there to do that is great?

Join the military

office 9-5 job

or TEFL?

choices choices lol.

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

gugelhupf · Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 575 Location: Jabotabek

drgonzo · Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 82

I agree with Chester on this one....
ESL is a good way to see a country, but it is hardly a career choice (in Indonesia, anyway).
I first went to Indonesia as an Environmental Consultant, straight out of my undergrad, but after that contract was finished I failed to find any more consulting contracts. I wanted to stay in Indonesia, but I needed to work, so I moved into ESL training. Big mistake - ok... not a mistake trying teaching, a mistake doing it for so long. Despite now having a MSC I cannot find work in my field. In fact, upon my return to Canada I must have sent out 80 applications for work, with very little response. Some of the CV's I had my Indonesian experience, some I did not... I needed to see which CV got the most response. At the end of the day no one gave a shit that I taught in Indonesia - to them that was a waste of time and skills. The biggest problem in finding work was having no recent references to draw from, and potential employers are not going to bother with references from Indonesia... they have to be relevant work related references.

My problems with staying long term in Indonesia teaching ESL were many. First there is limited growth potential... so you teach for 5 years and become a DOS... so what? you still make shit money. No matter how long you stay in Indo the fact remains you will always just be a guest there, subject to any whim of the government. You can't own property (ok... you can through your wife, but if that goes sour so does your property). And the longer you stay there the harder it is to go back to where-ever you call home.

So what am I doing after ESL? I managed to find a pretty good gig. I managed to get a job with Canada Post, but no, I am not a letter carrier. I simply drive what we call a 5-ton truck (with a 10 meter box) bringing mail from the sorting plant to the smaller stations... I work about 30 hours a week with a starting salary of about $50000 a year... plus a great pension plan, dental and drug plan, three weeks of holidays plus time off for nearly any excuse manageable, etc.... Pretty easy, stress free work, and I am my own boss while on the road... It's not at all mentally challenging, and I do get bored every so often, but I enjoy it more than being a white puppet entertaining kids. I just wish the brown girls were a little more easy in these parts of the world. Razz

papillon · Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 91

I tried a return to western 'civilisation' last year for a period of six months but became extremely boxed in with the UK culture of all work and pub play at the weekends. I found that none of my friends in the city (all with great ad jobs) couldn't relate to any of the experiences and learning curves I had endured in SE Asia.

In short I was left in a real catch 22 - proceed with life back home, unhappy and unfulfilled and sign off my Indo experiences or get back out here and forge a new career direction.

I took a teaching contract in Bali to find a foothold and left after six months - I can no longer tolerate the education system here and saw many foreign 'teachers' in their forties and older who were simply waiting to expire.

I do not want to end up in a directionless ship, dictated to by the ever changing whims of the Indonesian government towards foreign workers.

I moved on, and fast, in a creative and wholly fulfilling direction. It took (and still takes) guts but it can be done. A lot of the teachers I left behind at the school I started with felt threatened by my move upwards and I've lost a lot of 'friends' who turned out to be nothing more than faces in a distressed crowd. However, I've met a lot of new friends, people outside of the teaching crowd who are upwardly mobile, successful and happy individuals - the kind of people one can learn from.

In short - careers can be forged here in Indonesia, SE Asia is still a great shortcut to success if you choose your field of work carefully. Sure, work for a year at a EF, learn the language, identify the career you want, see if you can position yourself with a company (or set your own thing up - a la Beefer and his hounds) working part time hours and pay your dues.

You've nothing to lose and you owe your sponsor nothing if it's not the direction YOU want to be headed.

and best of luck to anyone prepared to take a stand for themselves, this is a hard place to do it but it will pay off if you are committed to succeeding.

Paps