Job Discussion Forums

drjhoss · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 5

Greetings message board people,

I've been contacted about a possible job with Go English. Does anyone have any experience with them? They seem to be offering a pretty good deal; I just don't want it too be too good to be true. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

A possible comrade,
Josh

MELEE · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:05 pm Post subject:

I've not heard of them--that I recall anyways.

Could you give us a little more information? What city is it in? What are they offerring in terms of pay and hours?

Last year we decided a good wage was anywhere from 6,000 to 20,000 pesos! Laughing

As you can see we have different opinions. I think 6,000 for a job that does not provide housing would be the bare minium living wage. And really if housing and utilities were paid in most cities you still couldn't go below 4,500. The cost of living varies quiet a bit and many places you will need to earn 8,000 or more a month.

Other things to keep in mind:

Income tax is high in Mexico.
There is socialized medicine(IMSS) but you have to be registered and pay into it.
Christmas bonuses are the law for full time employees (some schools sign you on as a free-lancer to get around paying you this).
Your working visa will cost about 2000 pesos a year, most schools don't pay for it (but I've seen more and more offering to!)
In some parts of Mexico, furnished apartments are rare so you may have high start up costs.

drjhoss · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks for the quick response!

They would provide room and board. They said that they have a house for guys and a house for girls, so I'm kind of curious what those living conditions are like. They only hire Americans so I'm thinking most of my coworkers would be younger people due to the housing situation.

Next, they pay $150 food allowance and an $800 stipend. Plus, he said they offer bonuses. How and for what, I'm not sure. So that adds up to about 10,387 pesos a month. I haven't seen much better, but that may be because I last taught in Guatemala and the market is not good there.

They have a location in hermosillo; they have another location but it is in the countryside and I can not remember the name. I will be calling the school tomorrow to talk to other teachers to find out more hopefully. If you want to check out their website, it's http://www.goenglish.com.mx/. Though I'm not sure how a website would help when the name is not familiar:)

Thanks for your help with 'narrowing' down the acceptable salaries. Haha, just kidding.

Thanks again,
Josh

MELEE · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:51 pm Post subject:

Well the pay sounds pretty good if you don't have to pay housing (just because they have a place set up it doesn't necessarily mean you don't pay rent, in Asia sometime you pay your rent to the school for an apartmen they own--or they pass along the rent, maybe at a lower rate then they are charging you?) or any utilities that sounds good.
How many hours are they expecting you to teach?
I'd also want to know how many people I'd be sharing that house with?

Good Luck,

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

One thing to consider as well, on a personal level, is how much you enjoy living with other people. I have done it before, and for the most part it worked out really well. I also know other people who have done it, and it wasn�t so great. It depends on your personality and those that you live with (which is a gamble, as you never know until you meet them and spend time in close quarters for extended periods together!).

The wage doesn�t sound too bad at all, if you don�t have to pay rent. Ask if you have to pay utilities though, as I have had to do that both times in Mexico when I was provided housing. Usually though, utilities aren�t too expensive (esp. if you�re spliting the cost with roomies).

gypsygirl1475 · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 78

I go a job offer a month or so ago and decided not to tke the job. But my situation is differnet than most. See, I don't have any experience or a degree yet; and something just told me to wait till I do an internship. Go English seems to be great for newbies with no experience or an online cert that does not have a practice component. They don't seem to mind not degree or experience and I don't even think that they cared about the certificate but they do training.

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:39 pm Post subject:

This appears to be the same outfit as educaz. Look at the e-mail address. Take a closer look at them. I don't really think that any school here in Mexico that hires sight unseen is going to be everything that they say they are. I had a bad experience doing the same thing, so I recommend caution in any long distance job offers.

gypsygirl1475 · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 78

It is the same place, if you use http://www.educaz.com it will come up Go English on the webite.

drjhoss · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 5

Ohh, so is educaz bad news? Ok, thanks for the warning. Here are two other schools that have offered me jobs or are in the process of offering me jobs.

Arizona School of English in Los Mochis, Mexico.
They are offering me 10, 000 pesos guaranteed per month (100 pesos per hour). No room and board. I'm iffy on this one, but the British lady I talked to seemed very nice and competent.

Colegio Americano in San Carlos, Mexico.

Colegio Americano is a private school and I have not received word on pay yet. However, San Carlos seems like a really nice area, and I like the idea of working from 7:30-4, not 7am-8pm like my last job in Guatemala.

Thanks again to everyone for all your advice. This board has proven to be quite useful.

Hopefully I'll be with you guys soon in Mexico!

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:48 am Post subject:

gypsygirl1475 · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 78

My experience was similar. Originally I sent an email to inquire there qualification requirements for employment. They were eager to respond that they were concerned with my eagerness to teach and requested a resume. So I submitted informing them that I was still taking my online course and that I was doing my internship when I get to Mexico. It seemed that nothing mattered but my interest in teaching at they're school. They sent me an email requesting to call me for a pre-interview. The pre-interview basically was to answer any questions I had. They even gave me phone numbers to the school that I would be teaching at to talk to other teachers and the director. After everything they said they had many applicants and would not have vacancies till April that they would let me know by email for another more formal phone interview.
Finally I did recieve and email about a week later requesting an interview from the big boss. I politely declined because it was all too easy and akward, just didn't feel right.

drjhoss · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 5

Well, I decided to take a position with the Arizona School of English in Los Mochis. Thank you for everyone's advice and helpful advice. I look forward to joining everyone a week from now! Thanks again.

nan0201 · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 4

Hey guys! So I decided to just go for it (well, I had my friends in Hermosillo check it out first) and now I am here at the school. Besides being really hot here in Hermosillo, everything seems fine to me. The students are great, the other teachers are nice, and I like the management. I start teaching my own classes this Monday, this week I'm just observing and getting a feel for the school. I would encourage anyone to apply. The only thing really that the other teachers complain about is the uniform, which is business white top and black bottom. But I really don't mind it, so maybe that's just me. The school is nice (and air conditioned!) So, there you go. Smile

cc227 · Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 8

nanO21

how many hours are you working? they told me they require 40 hrs.

nan0201 · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 4

I'm working about 40 hours a week, yeah. Classes go from 7am to 11am. And then 4pm to 9pm. You won't have all classes all day, but depending on how many other teachers there are, and how high the class demand is, you may have to work a majority of them.