Job Discussion Forums

[eslandflteacher]

Greetings,

Anyone know of how the ESL market is like in Gdansk, if it exists at all? Thanks for any insight.

K

[dtomchek]

Hello:

the tri-city area of Gdansk, Gydnia, and Sopot do not seem to have a large market there. Bell school in Gdansk sometimes advertises for positions. If you keep an eye out on the international job board, jobs do pop up once in a while. Gdansk is my favorite city in Poland (at least in the summer) and well worth a year of your time if the right job comes along. Hope it helps...

Dave

[Alex Shulgin]

By far the biggest school in the tri-city is called English Unlimited. Personally I would never accept a job with them. Especially with the DoS that they have....

Although with that said I do know some people who enjoyed their time teaching at EU. The fact that they were all in their first or second year as teachers might have had something to do with that though. Other people who worked for EU absolutely hated it.



The Bell school in Gdansk is another story altogether. If I wanted a job in Gdansk Bell is the first school that I'd call. I knew a few people who worked there and they only had good things to say about the place, the management and the owners. The school used to have a strange contract system where you were paid a set amount every month even if you worked more hours than your contract demanded and then at the end of the year you were paid for all the overtime you'd worked. Whether they still have that I don't know.

[culfy]

The school used to have a strange contract system where you were paid a set amount every month even if you worked more hours than your contract demanded and then at the end of the year you were paid for all the overtime you'd worked. Whether they still have that I don't know.

Well, I'm starting at ELS-Bell in Bydgoszcz, and this is the system they have in place, however this seems to apply to unexpected over hours rather than regular overtime which is paid at overtime rates. On the plus side, the basic hours are guaranteed, even if you are unable to work them due to no fault of your own.

[elblagski]

Ludka Katorska owns Els bell Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Warsaw, Gdynia and maybe another one although i forget. She is the kind of person who is only interested in cash, the good hard stuff. I worked for bell gdansk in 99-2000. Not a happy experience. They do not pay tax for their techers (see my posting about paying tax) and I was basically fired because I asked about it too much. Other teachers did too, but it's funny how they shut up about it when offered a DoS or ADoS job.
Lots of paperwork and crap money. Oh by the way the conned me out of my overtime payment. I had the forsight to write down all my hours and went through them with the Dos. According to my calculation which involved simple addition which even a monkey could do it turned out that I was about 1000zl short. Needless to say i didn't get it. I also was conned by their accomodation guy DAREK who swindled me out of some cash to do with my flat.
By all means work for this school but expect the worst and don't forget to keep your mouth shut. This is the way Ludka prefers it.

Be careful

Elblagski

[Kevin Fletcher]

Interesting

[chromium]

I had the exact opposite experience with Darek and Ludka. I would take a job with them if you get the chance in Gdansk,Sopot, or Gdynia.

[Master Shake]

I worked at Bell Gdansk for 2 semesters. I just left this year.

I had a good experience at Bell Gdansk. The money wasn't terrific, especially with rising rent costs in the Gdansk city center, but it was enough to make ends meet. They paid on time every time.

The only bad thing about the job was the occasional split shifts I had to work (i.e. waking up at 6am to teach an in-company class at 7:30 after working until 9pm the previous night)...ey, Scottie?

Darek and Ludka were cool, as is the DoS Elliot.