Job Discussion Forums

[Sweetpig7]

Hello, everyone! I'm a long-time lurker, but very infrequent poster. Finally I have a situation that calls for help/advice from the experts and Turkey veterans out there:-) So here's my situation...

I've lived in Turkey for 14 months as a student and part-time teacher in a private business English school (in Besiktas), and also as a private tutor for adults. This semester, I'll be finishing my M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL in the U.S. and plan to return to Istanbul in January, hopefully with a university position lined up for spring 2010. So, my questions are as follows...

1. I have roughly 3 years experience in teaching ESL/EFL, but none directly as a university instructor, and I also have over 2 years experience in materials design. Is this enough to get a decent university position in Istanbul fresh out of grad school?

2. Which is better, public or private, and why? I've heard public pays less, but leaves more time to teach private lessons, while private pays a good bit more, but takes more of a teacher's time. Is this true?

3. IMPORTANT: I'll be arriving in January, so this means I'd like to start a position in spring. Is it possible to find positions with mid-year openings?

4. What would you recommend as a strategy for applying? Shot-gunning CVs out to every university I can find on-line? Or is there a site where Turkish universities post openings?

5. How much money can I realistically expect to earn starting in both public and private universities in Istanbul?

That's all for now. I would REALLY appreciate answers to at least some of these questions and any further advice that anyone may wish to share.

Thanks!!!

Matt

[coffeespoonman]

1. Yes. You probably won't get the top jobs, but there are plenty of jobs at decent universities that will hire you. And pay you pretty well for that MA.

2. Yes, it's true. I'd say private is certainly the way to go. Public uni salaries are barely enough to live on, and while you'll have more free time at your day job, you'll spend that extra time looking for privates to supplement your income. It's not worth it in the end, unless you're independently wealthy, value free time so much that you're willing to live INCREDIBLY thriftily (writing a book?), or already have a reliable network of private students / part-time job.

3. Not really. At least, not at a university. You could do part-time work for a few months and start applying for uni jobs around April/May. Alternatively, you could send your CV to unis now and hope for an opening in January that you could slide into, but it's not very likely to happen.

4. I'm not sure Dave's would be too happy to see lists of OTHER tefl job websites on their forums , but the major ones (including dave's) all occasionally get job listings for Turkish unis. Still, your best bet is, as you said, shot-gunning. I'd be happy to provide you with a list of Turkish unis in a PM.

5. I'm not too sure about public unis, but I had a friend who worked at one of the top public unis in Turkey a couple of years back, and she was earning 600 USD a month. However, I was offered a job at a very respectable one in 2007 for 1550 USD (but that was 22 contact hours - not exactly your average public uni contract, from what I understand).

Private unis seem to start at about 1500-2000 USD and top off at around 3500 USD (really hard to get). With an MA and 3 years experience, you could probably find something for 2000-2500 USD without too much trouble, though you might get lucky (you qualify for pretty much everything here). In addition, most private unis also provide transportation to and from work, free lunch, private insurance, 1 month paid holiday and a plane ticket home. I don't know what public unis offer, but I think it tends to be a bit less, though sometimes with more paid holiday.

For general advice, I can say that you'll be in a pretty good position to find a decent job here in Turkey (though coming in January isn't ideal). There are private unis that will promise you a great job with lots of opportunities for advancement, responsibility, etc. but offer you really low salaries. Don't take them. In your position, I'd shop around a bit come hiring season, and I wouldn't accept anything less than 3000 TL (2000 USD). In fact, I'd shoot for more.

[svenhassel]

There is a new president in Koc who is interested in making big changes, i.e improving the quality of teaching and staff which suffered under the Dos who has just "resigned" so there could be work there in the near future.

It's possible British teachers could apply too as the last Dos wouldn't employ non-Americans.

Svine