Job Discussion Forums

[kingmalka]

To elaborate a little more, would there be any opportunities for a 19-year-old native English speaker with iT experience and a passion to teach to find work in Amsterdam? I'm looking for a summer to summer "life experience" in a new country and culture; in essence, just something I'd really like to do before returning to school for another 4+ years.

Any personal experiencies and/or advice would be much appreciated!

- David

P.S. I have about $6,000 USD to invest in this adventure ... perhaps a little something to help get situated while looking for work? Could I get by on this?

[spiral78]

No school's gonna hire a 19-year-old American, regardless of qualifications, or lack thereof. You might be able to wait tables or do some other under-the-table work enough to barely support yourself. It's going to be entirely illegal work, for the Netherlands.

Look, man, here's the way it is in Netherlands.

I am a U.S. citizen with an MA in TESL/TEFL and ten years of experience. I was living legally in the Netherlands thanks to my spouse's job with an international corporation, but I had no right to work - Netherlands is very strict about hiring EU citizens only.

The local university wanted to hire me, and the DOS was willing to go to Den Hague to petition for an exception to the EU-only hiring laws on my behalf. The day before the court hearing was to come up, the DOS received a call saying not to bother, no exceptions would be made.

I finally got a work permit through my spouse's international company's swinging a deal for us - but this took many months and without the corporate connection, there was no way I would have been allowed to work.

Quite frankly, if I couldn't get legal status in the Netherlands (on my own qualifications and experience), there's no way an underqualified 19-year-old will.
And in the Netherlands, no school is going to hire anyone under the table. It's very strict.

[spiral78]

OVERALL ADVICE: David, regarding all your multiple inquiries into work in EU countries: unless you go through a university or marry an EU citizen, you've got no opportunities to work legally in any of the countries you've mentioned.

If you are going to consider working illegally, you need to focus on the very few places where the authorities generally turn a blind eye to this, and you'll be one of many illegal U.S. workers. The most likely location for this is Spain, where there's a large black market of American/Aussie/Canadian teachers already.

You are at a disadvantage from several standpoints: your age and obvious lack of a degree makes you less credible to the businesspeople who make up the large majority of language learners in the EU.

I don't know whether you're imagining that you'd be teaching classrooms full of children or young people, but in case you are, I'll tell you that the language schools that hire newbie teachers in Europe have contracts with corporations and businesses, and teachers here spend most of their time traveling from office to office, teaching businesspeople at their workplaces. There's little work in official classrooms.

The good news is, as Moore mentioned on the Spain forum, if you show up with a decent TEFL certification (you should consider getting this in Madrid or Barcelona, probably) and a professional appearance, you probably can find work enough to support yourself. Your $6,000 will probably get you through a cert course , into some kind of housing, and up to your first paycheck (language schools usually pay monthly, at the end of the month worked, so you're looking at 2-3 months before your first paycheck).

I am not recommending that you or anyone work illegally; my personal feeling is that this is quite wrong. But I'm aware that lots of people do it, and in your case, one illegal year isn't likely to do much harm, though it is a definite risk.

[GF]

Would a 19 year old without a degree and formal teaching qualification be allowed to teach in a US school? Heck freaking no! So what makes you think that the students over here deserve anything less?

[spiral78]

I suspect that someone's been telling kingmalka stories about the "good old days" of TEFL-ing, when any backpacker with English as a native language was welcome in Europe and treated as a professional.

There are still tons of North Americans who obviously don't realize that both the laws and the marketplace have changed.

[GF]

I am an American myself but I have no patience for this sort of thing. Just this academic year I went back to university to increase my qualifications and I will be starting another course this fall.

[GF]

If kingmalka really wants 'a summer to summer life experience,' he/she should apply for a position in a developing African or Asian country instead of looking to fund a year-long binge of whatever he/she is looking for in Amsterdam.

[naturegirl321]

I agree. Unless you have a degree, it'll be hard to get a job. The exception may be if you're older and have teaching or work experience. YOu could find a job, just don't expect to be paid well.

[kingmalka]

Thanks all. Looks like I'll be teaching in China.

EDIT: That is, unless I find normal, under-the-table work while traveling Europe BEFORE going to China.

[Henry_Cowell]

kingmalka,

I love playing video games. How do I get a job as a game developer at Electronic Arts here in the SF Bay Area?

[scot47]

Maybe you could sell your body.

[grahamb]

They certainly sell body parts in China. I understand they only rent whole bodies in Amsterdam.

[dreaming_saturn]

As mentioned, there's no work teaching for a 19 year old in NL, there isn't enough work for those of us with a lot of experience most of the time.

I think I may have sent you a PM about this, but why not try working as an aupair? You could live legally with a family. This is just what I did at age 19 in Paris - had my own small apartment and worked 4-8 every day and some spending money.

Find family that just wants some after school/ babysitting or wants their children to pick up some English. The pay will be low, but you'll be living there legally and have plenty of spare time, especially if the kids are in school all day.

I would not recommend China to a 19 year old with no experience, expect slave hours and wages.

[dagi]

You could look into working in a call-centre for IT and software support doing customer service.
There are lots of Call-Centres in Amsterdam who hire native English speakers to do CS for the UK. Those companies have one call-centre in the Netherlands that serves entire Europe and they are always in need for native speakers.
So if you refrain from teaching English and look into customer service you could be able to find a job.
The real problem is, that you are from the US and it will be very, very difficult to get a resident and a work permit. A company will rather hire someone from the UK than going through the visa proces for an American.

[scot47]

Why would a call centre hire someone from the USA when they get a UKANIAN ?