Job Discussion Forums

[themuths]

Hello hello,

So unlike the average person on here asking about a NET/ESL job in Hong Kong, I'm actually already living here. I'm here on a dependent visa, so my wife's hard at work teaching while I'm searching for a job. I'm working hard and applying for everything I can, using Dave's, AsiaXPat, JobsDB, Classified Post, Recruit.net, and Craigslist so far. As a newbie to HK, I'm not sure where else I should be looking, and obviously don't have any friends (yet) or know anyone to ask. If anybody out there knows of any other online resources, or knows of a school in need of a teacher - please let me know on this thread or via PM!
I'm an American NET with both experience (1.5 years in Korea - yes, Korea, please save your flames about how that's not "real teaching" - true teachers can have worked in any country, fyi) and a 120-hour TEFL cert that I completed with distinction. I've also lived and traveled throughout Asia for four of the past five years, so I'm very familiar with this part of the world.
I've worked primarily with true kindergarten (5-6 years-old) and elementary students, but I've also done volunteer work with adults and taught high school students as part of my TEFL program. I'm less concerned about the specific age than about having a good job with decent pay, work conditions, and curriculum. I know, maybe I'm dreaming, but perhaps someone out there could be of actual assistance.

Thanks for reading, (and please don't suggest the search function
Peace
Anderson

[sistercream]

Another online option is geoexpat.

You don't mention whether you have a B.Ed., PGDE or equivalent in addition to the TEFL qual's. If you do, then you should be able to get a job in a "real" school, but probably not until the new school year in September.
Without regular teaching papers it's unlikely that most schools would look twice at your resume.

Unless you can get a personal recommendation for a good one, you can pretty much forget about language centres if you want the decent pay, conditions and curriculum

But as a dependent you have the HUGE advantage that you can legally do private tutoring Stick up notices on the classifieds boards in your local supermarkets (and emphasise that you're a qualified English teacher).

[themuths]

Sistercream -

Thank you!
I was fearing that I ought to haved misspelled Hong Kong to get any readers

I briefly checked out GeoExpat, didn't seem to have too much, but I'll peruse their website more thoroughly for jobs and apartment info (gotta get out of the serviced closet we're currently in).
I do not have teachers papers, but to be honest an institute is probably more my style right now. My BA is in liberal arts, Classics & Philosophy.
I think it's going to take a bit of time to adjust to this British-run academic world we've landed in, Korea was much more Americanized as far as education is concerned.
So if decent pay, conditions AND curriculum is being overly optimistic - maybe I can settle for 2 out of the 3? We're here to save money, since we're in a bit of self-induced travel debt, so that's important, but I'd rather not be worked into the ground, either. This is a weird world with Saturday morning work being standard.
I realize it'll be pretty much impossible to get a personal recommendation, since I don't know anyone here and no one knows me either....... it's rather frustrating how everyone on the net will name names when complaining about a bad school, but no ones wants to divulge the good, or even reasonable, ones.
Thanks for the tip on private tutoring as well, that's a huge difference from Korea where advertising tutoring is outright illegal - I will definitely start working on that.
If anyone else has any more advice, please don't be shy!

[Joshua2006]

With my limited experience and also with a friend who is in a similar position to you, I think that you may find it hard to get anything 'decent' without your teaching credentials. My friend has been looking for some months and two things that he has come up against is 1) lack of visa (his girlfriend has one but he doesn't) and 2) no teaching qualifications.

However, I could well be wrong......you may walk into something awesome. Good luck.

[Perilla]

[themuths]

Perilla - it is an interesting "boat" to be in, isn't it?
Good news is I've already gotten a couple of offers, so have to see what they all add up to (if anything) by the end of the week.
Checked out SPACE, thanks for the specific advice, definitely appreciated, though I don't think I'm qualified for anything that they are advertising currently.
You don't have any advice on free-lancing with the SCMP by chance do you?

Joshua - Sounds like we could start an unemployed/underemployed teachers' club pretty easily

[Perilla]