Job Discussion Forums

[teacherajarn]

Anyone have a similar problem? I was offered a job at Language Link in Hanoi. They offered me full time work at a decent pay rate. When I arrived in Hanoi, after spending a lot of money on airfare, hotels and meals, the story changed. Full time work became possibly part time and the pay was far less than they mentioned. This type of deception is to be considered when applying to any school from another country.

[mark_in_saigon]

If you have read this site much, you will see it noted that schools generally want to hire people in front of them. There are good reasons for that, and there are good reasons for the expats not to make a trip over here just based on a commitment from a school. There are plenty of jobs here, but it is pot luck. You can come over based on someone's promise, but you have to know that the promise is more like a hope, a flirtation, maybe it will work out, maybe it won't. Your commitment to a school is of a similar nature, especially when you see the reality of what you have gotten yourself into. All of these concepts have been gone over many many times on this site. Posting to this site like you are surprised could cause one to question if you have actually been reading the postings on the site.


This type of deception is to be considered when applying to any school from another country.

Huh?

Could also be that they did not find your language skills to be at the level they had originally thought. Or maybe they did not find your appearance to be impressive enough. Could be anything, really, or nothing at all. If you had not considered this possibility before coming over, you were not planning with the level of detail you should have been using.

[LettersAthruZ]

[bobpen]

Not a surprise at all coming from Vietnam. Have never worked with the particular company mentioned so I have no comment on them, but as a whole many in Vietnam act as though they can make and bend whatever decision they want on the spot as it suits them.

[bobpen]

[mark_in_saigon]

It is best to operate from a position of strength in these matters. If your skills are advanced and your financial position is strong, as soon as you hear this bs, look them in the eye, pick up your portfolio, smile, thank them for their time and walk out. Half the time they will stop you and backtrack to a reasonable position. If they do not, then you just avoided getting into a mess you would have had to clean up later. This assumes your negotiating position was reasonable to begin with, if they already had made agreements with you, then that should be the case.

Still, my main observation is that anyone coming over with the level of belief displayed by the OP is setting himself/herself up for major disappointment. Yes, people with adequate qualifications (whatever that is) can find some work. Life here will likely never work out the way you originally planned, or hoped. It can be better, or worse, but it would be surprising to go according to plan. This is especially true of your dealings with employers.

[sigmoid]

[H5N1]

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[mark_in_saigon]

[Andy123]

teacherarjan, thank you for posting your experience. Maybe it will help someone avoid a similar situation.

Over the years I have met several "big wig" business people who all have horror stories. Teachers are small fries when it comes to these people and they get screwed too.

Contracts are almost unenforceable. Buyer beware.

[DNK]

heh, forgive me if the $5K figure was just meant to scare off more newcomers, but that seems ridiculously high, even if you arrive two weeks before Tet.

You can scratch out a living in HCM for like $500/mo at the minimum (not a fun, filling, remotely enjoyable month, but it works). Who is going to take 10 months to land a job? At most, it should take a month between when you start looking and when you have enough income to cover most of your expenses (if you put yourself into it).

I'd say all you really need is 3mo expenses plus airfare out to be comfortable coming over, and that's under half of the $5K figure...

That said, definitely don't come over with $200 in your pocket or something like that.

[mark_in_saigon]

However, with a worst case scenario, it is best to have access to a larger amount. Worst case could be sudden onset of major medical issue, or getting hurt on the street. It can happen, it happened to me. Best to be prepared for any kind of craziness here, as there is a lot of craziness to face. Consider some of the posters who come over without a clue, find a big disappointment in the work, or the way of life, or whatever, then really the next step is to get a ticket out. You could even find yourself forced to leave due to visa issues or something. Coming over without resources is more of a backpacker mentality. It may work out, it may not, if you are used to living that way, it is probably fine.

[deadlift]

Yep, I wholeheartedly agree with you Mark (about having a spine and walking out on the bulls**t artists). One of the most satisfying things I've done here is tell my boss at a crappy language school, after I'd taught a Saturday morning kiddies class, "I like the weekday evening teen/adult classes, I'm not going to teach any more children's classes". I expected them to tell me that I would get no classes at all.

I had enough savings that I could afford to be choosy, and I had a good enough CV that I knew something better would come along soon enough.

They weren't happy but they didn't take me off the weekday classes. It was actually the other foreign teachers that were the most bitchy about it.

I'm not sure that I agree with Sarge's $5000 recommendation, but I do think that you're in for some headaches if you can't afford to walk away from language school nonsense.

[LettersAthruZ]