Job Discussion Forums

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

I just answered another question about how to find a teaching job outside of Moscow. I am going to make this post so I won't seem rude in not answering. I am about to start trekking the "North Country Trail" (4400 miles) in the US and I may be out of touch for a bit (MDK is going for a boonie stomp! - The word sweeps through teachers rooms throughout Moscow with shouts of Hooray!)

There is no substitute for getting a tourist visa and going off to wherever you might like to teach and having a chat with the local English department. That's basically how I got all my jobs in Tomsk - where there are six universities.

If you are too broke to do that, well it bodes ill for your success anyway. Stay home and save up some bucks. Russia is not a spur of the moment sort of place to go off to.

Also, I suggest you ride the train. I like the "spalnaya vagon" service which costs about as much as a flight, but they don't disable the smoke detectors in the can. At 30,000 feet that could be bad for your complexion.

Time from Moscow to Tomsk 56 hours - bring some munchies and a good book.

udachniye

ytuque · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 55

What kind of salary can you make versus expenses? I tried to make a go of it in the Ukraine teaching at various private unis, but the salaries I was offered wouldn't even cover rent. I am looking to break even and pay for luxuries, major purchases, and vacations out of savings. Is this possible in Russia? I am not particularly interested in working at a language school.

Currently, I am teaching in S. Korea, but I can't say that I enjoy it. However, I am saving a bit of money.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

If you don't have a second income things are going to be a bit of a stretch.

I could have lived on my salary in Tomsk, but I was living with a Russian woman. I say lived... that would be living like a Russian. You may not be ready for that. As it was I had my VA coming in every month and that $300 extra (in 2002) sure did help.

ytuque · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 55

What does a uni in Tomsk pay, and what can you rent a decent 2 room flat for? Any other cities off the beaten path that you would recommend looking into? I knew a woman who was originally from Krasnoyarsk who looked into finding me a uni position 2 years ago. She said that I could make $350 but rent was $500.

Out of curiousity, how did you end up in Tomsk? What's the latest with work visas? I got the run around in the Ukraine for 5 months.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Well you have to understand that Moscow and Siberia have the sort of relationship that, say, Montana has with New York.

Moscow tells people in Siberia what they should be doing and the Siberians figure out how they can live with that.

Back in 2002, the university was putting the EFL teachers up in the international student hostel. I was in a different situation having hooked up with a Russian lady and I was living with her. The salary of $350 sounds about right for a University professor. If you want to teach in Russia you have to find some way to deal with that.

Sometime after 2003 there was a ukase of some sort that made the university I was originally working with stop hiring foreign expats. However, British Council teachers were still being accomodated. I was living with my lady friend and the other US expats had similar set ups. The university (or somebody) was paying us under the table I think. I no longer went to the university casheir and stood in line for my pay, but it appeared in an envelope handed to me by somebody.

Then that dried up the next year and another university got me my visa registered and put me up in their student hostel.

Do you begin to see a pattern here? There is simply no substitute for going and talking to the local university department. If you don't expect to make more than a Russian teacher would - sometimes things can be done and you can find yourself having an interesting and pleasant time. It's like fishing. If you are in the right place at the right time with the proper number of heads you can maybe find a job. - well, some way to pass some time in Russia may be a better way to look at it. Capish?

Finally, I should point out that the elephant in the room is the local OVIR office where you get your visa registered. Unless somebody is going to go to bat with you with them then you can only legally stay in town for 72 hours (last time I looked). You can get around that by staying in a hotel but that is only a brief solution. You have to find some way to exist with the local establishment. If Moscow is really breathing down there necks - it's a bad time to fish.

ytuque · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 55

From your post and my time in the Ukraine, I am starting to understand the situation. I am still planning on visiting Russia as a tourist, but it just seems too difficult to get a job outside of a language mill. Thank you for the info!

RQRose · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 6

But don't the Language Mills pay higher wages?

Yes Universities are nice places to work, but if the Language Mill offers $400+ versus $350...???

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

The language mills probably pay a bit more, but that isn't teaching in my experience.

The language mills want you to make rich Russians happy while you pretend to teach them English. If they piick up some language along the way, well and good.

I don't need that for an extra couple of hundred bucks. I could live outside Moscow on my Social Security check and I don't need to suck eggs in a McSchool.

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

After four terms I've seen pretty much all of it, I'll take the university setting. Them as likes teaching privately are welcome to it.

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

Do note that there is Siberia and there is Siberia. The cost of living in Tyumen is as high as in London.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Tyumen!....well, it's probably better than Magadan...my advice is to stay on the train and try Yekaterienburg or Novosibirsk.

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

I've read and heard a lot about it and met several people from there,one of who is a long-standing friend, and they all tell me conflicting things about the place,ranging from dire to sublime!!But it can't be worse than Norilsk or Vorkuta,can it???

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Tyumen is an oil boom town in the middle of a humongous swamp. My lady friend got stuck working there for a year. She was underwhelmed.

Still if you get a good position with good friends even Norilsk might be nice. Who knows?b

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

The environment there is very heavily polluted and apparently only 4% of men are in good health,just like Dherzhinsk in Nizhny Novgorod region!Since 2001 it has also been closed to foreigners once again,ostensibly because the nickel and palladium works there are regarded as economically and strategically sensitive??Mind you ,who the hell would want to got there anyway?