Job Discussion Forums

[maruss]

How about starting a separate heading for these countries?Does anyone have any info. or job experiences to report?I heard that inflation is very high in Latvia and that e.f.l. jobs there pay very badly,just like the 'Maconalds' firms in Moscow?Estonia apparently has the most westernised system of government and public services but as all three are in the E.U. persons from other member states don't have visa problems to face like they do in Russia etc.

[Kootvela]

Lithuania is being advised on in General Europe forum under appropriate heading.

[George1983]

Hi Maruss,

I was in Riga, Latvia for most of November 2007 on holiday and made a point of asking about TEFL work. There is a demand for native speakers and yes, visas are simpler now thanks to EU membership. BUT...Riga at least has been hit hard by joining the EU. Prices have skyrocketed while wages have not. (Think living in Moscow on Siberian village money and you have the idea.) That's obviously an exaggeration, but it would be very hard to make any savings there. The city itself and what little I saw of the surrounding countryside are beautiful though. Oh, and if you speak Russian, prepare to be annoyed that everything is written in Latvian, bearing little resemblance, even though everyone can speak Russian!!

Anyone thinking of just one year, happy living like a student or GAP year type could probably have a lot of fun. Much harder for a longer stint IMO.

just 2 cents.

[maruss]

If the number of people who are working abroad from these countries is anything to go by,it's an indicator that the cost of living there is very high in relation to wages!For example,I met Lithuanians in England who were quite prepared to pick vegetables for 250 pounds per week,saying that this is several times what they can earn at home,even in professional jobs!Most of them of course aim to save money and then return home but often end up staying long term.In Poland by contrast the government is now trying to lure people to go home again as it is facing a severe shortage of labour,and has increased wages.This seems to have had some effect as a number of Poles in Britain have started leaving.

[George1983]

I don't know if you saw the recent Michael Palin series, New Europe. It was quite enlightening on the views of some people in the East of Europe and tallied with what I heard when I was there.
I'm British and everyone here worried about workers coming here from Poland, the Baltics and the other new countries, taking the jobs, keeping wages down. Over there everyone worried that Westerners would come over buying up land and property, pushing up prices!

As it is, both are happening to some extent, and most people take little notice of the plight of the other side...
-You can't blame me for keeping wages down in Britain, they're really high anyway
-You can't blame me for pushing up house prices in Poland, they're really low anyway

and so on...

And as you say, they are both only temporary. Easterners intending to save for 6 months or a year then go home loaded, while Westerners are buying holiday homes not emmigrating, both oblivious to the fact that the more people doing this, it may as well be permanent.

just another 2 cents.

[jonniboy]

Regarding Latvia, I did hear some hearsay in the past that put the cost of living relative to wages as one of the highest in the world. Capitalism is still in its early stages here and a lot of business owners still have this outlandish idea that if you want to increase profits by 50% you only need to bump your prices up by 50%. Things like improving the products or services provided or encouraging customer loyalty don't seem to have occurred to them. Customer service is truly dismal and has only got worse as many of the best people fled abroad.

Here I would say that a teacher could earn somewhere between 1000 and 1400 euro per month, privates are very easy to come by and there is a shortage of native speakers. For a language centre, 10 euros an hour would be the starting rate but you could definitely try and negotiate that up.

As for Latvian, if you know Russian then it is a help when learning it as although Latvian isn't a Slavic language, a lot of words have been borrowed from those. It's a bit like English/Spanish similarities.

But otherwise the economic situation here is such that I would urge caution before coming. High inflation, high prices, an exodus of the most talented people and a possible collapse in the housing market. The near future doesn't look good.

[kazachka]

I was in Riga 2 weeks ago for the marathon. I loved the nice break and the fact that there was much less pollution. Prices there are pretty much comparable to Europe though. The lat is worth about the equivalent of the GBP!

[teacherus]

Well, I know of International House, Riga. How are things there now? Anyone there?

[jonniboy]

Well I'm still here but I seem to be the only regular poster and I'm off in a few weeks time and really don't know if I'll be back in the Autumn. The Summer slump set in last week. I was doing 32-34 clock hours regularly until then but last week only 28, this week 23 and for the last two weeks, it will be 18 and then 12 hours respectively as most of my groups are finishing now for the Summer. As for the rest the inflation rate has hit 17% but most people reckon that's because the price of luxury items has stayed the same so for ordinary goods it's nearer to 30%