Job Discussion Forums

Von Dut · Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 108 Location: Limbo

I have been given a couple of job offers for the upcoming school year. My question to all of you is what helps determine your choice. Money or weather.

For example,

School A - Heilongjiang Province. Lots of extra work to be had. Can easily make over 10,000rmb per month. Bitterly cold and dry.

School B - Jiangxi Province. Can possibly pick up private students. A little over 5000rmb per month. Nicer weather.

Which would you go for? Is money important to you? Is weather?

(FYI. I have no bills or debts to pay)

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

I'd go for weather but if the apartment was really nice and commute to school reasonable you could stand a long winter inside.

xjgirl · Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Posts: 242

well, heilongjiang is the obvious choice

one. the people are better

two. the weather isn't all that great in jiangxi in the first place
WINTER WILL BE FREEZING IN JIANGXI
you'll spend a fortune on space heaters and airconditioners

At least in Heilongjiang, you'll have great central heating from October 15th to May 1st. Then in the summer, u probably won't even need a fan, perfect summer up there.

Songbird · Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:03 am Post subject:

Although I'm in the south, AND I've lived in Jiangxi, I would choose the north. I didn't find Jiangxi hugely cold (did have a heater though), but better pay up north, and food is awesome in the Dongbei region, I reckon the best in China. I would choose that anyday!

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

Id plump for weather. It would take more than 20k a month (for 12 classes or less) for me to even consider a bitterly cold place. If it was teaching kids, it would have to be even more money....30k plus!

sistercream · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 497 Location: Pearl River Delta

Of those two options, I'll take nice, tropical heat & humidity over a fat paycheque any year.
But even more important to me is, who will I be teaching and who will my colleagues be?

Salvatore · Joined: 22 May 2011 Posts: 119

I don't want to hijack the thread, but, I have a similar question which is probably best discussed here. Apologies Von Dut.

Assuming the same salary & weather, which would you choose -

a) a job you are experienced at, but in a slightly "bad" location

or

b) a job you have no experience at, but in an appealing location

Zero · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 1402

We only get so many prime working years. Go for the money.

Anyway, southern areas don't tend to have central heating in the winter. Northern regions do. Some teachers move north simply to be able to stay warm. Seriously.

MisterButtkins · Joined: 03 Oct 2009 Posts: 1221

I'd definitely take the Heilongjiang job. You can use your 10k/month to go on vacation somewhere nice. And as stated, it's very nice in Heilongjiang in the summer and fall.

Von Dut · Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 108 Location: Limbo

I should also point out that the Heilongjiang job is a training school. 1 day off a week. Evenings and weekends. Teaching all ages. Working during most holidays.

Jiangxi is a middle school. Monday to Friday. No evenings or weekends. Less classes a week. Regular holidays.

*It's taking forever to get a post through. I keep getting "Invalid Session. Please resubmit the form." Any one else having that problem? Been going on for weeks now.

Fable105 · Joined: 31 May 2011 Posts: 16

I would take the job with evenings and weekends. Weekends enable you to have a social life or to just chill out. I would hate to teach at night and then teach the next morning.

dharma86 · Joined: 05 May 2009 Posts: 187 Location: Southside baby!

No point in having money if you can't bare going outside and spending it !

sainthood · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:57 am Post subject:

ONLY BECAUSE of your follow-up post would I say Jiangxi! Otherwise, I would have said Heilongjiang...

HLJ is a beautiful place, and you'd aclimatise fairly quickly anyway. (of course, it does depend on which you prefer...). That, combined with the nice pay would be enough for me (and a training school! Hopefully, better, more interested students).

But, for 6 days.. hmmmmmm.....

Depending on where in JX, you may not be able to get the extra privates you're looking for, although there does tend to be easy money if you want to do kids in your free time for about 100-150/hr (almost the same number of kids in the classroom :p)

So, if you have no need to save much of your cash (in overseas terms), then yeah, maybe JX...

(I'm about to get out of here, so perhaps I'm biased!)

Of course, no-one seems to have mentioned - which city??? If it's a real dead-end backwards kind of city, that could be a real deal-breaker!