Job Discussion Forums

Robski · Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 50 Location: Middle Europe

I'm pretty much on the edge of moving to this grand Duchy. Is there anyone out there having a good and challenging time of it? I'm particularly interested in flat/room hunting. Can anyone out there in Luxville suggest the best way to go about it?

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

A well-stuffed wallet would help. Expensive.

Robski · Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 50 Location: Middle Europe

Do you actually know anything, Scotty? Have you ever been? Are you not still slogging it out in the Magic Kingdom?

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I lived/worked in Luxembourg back in 2000/2001. Obviously, things may have changed, but housing IS/WAS relatively quite expensive. We found an underground apartment in a village on the main train line 20 minutes outside of the city that was relatively affordable. You probably need an agent of some sort. A good school should be able to help you find accomodation, or at least a reputable agent.

Food/drink/train travel was relatively INexpensive, at that time on a par with what we were used to paying in the Czech Rep. Once housing costs were covered, we could live quite well otherwise.

At that time, there were only two private language schools in the city, mostly catering to the banking industry. Students had studied English in school long ago, but had little need to use it, so were quite far behind the standard demanded by the industry regulators. There was pretty heavy stress on passing exams, with wages and benefits tied to success.

The workload was intensive, with that notorious mid-day gap padding out your 8 am start and your 9pm finish. The school where I was promised only 2 evenings per week, but I was consistently expected to work 3 or 4. I was also required to drive the company car to clients in France. I think the key would be to try to work towards the fewest possible evenings and the closest possible clients.

There is a kicker, in that there are only the two schools and if you don't like the situation at one, you are essentially done, if you want to stay in the area. There is an international school as well (MUCH better working ocnditions, of course!) but openings are rare and require serious qualifications.