Job Discussion Forums

[maruss]

I am still waiting for them to send me the money for the three weeks I taught here in Cyprus when they had their study groups from Europe!We finished two weeks ago today and although their co-ordinator, who was originally from Malta, promised all six of us that we would get paid 'within a week or so' by bank transfer from Holland etc(She left the island last Friday)we are still holding on........They have no representative office or associates here so there is nothing more we can do!
So I think I would give them a miss if I was looking for work in Moscow too, especially after what you just wrote!

Cheers for now!

Martin.

[M.]

I say Moscow is a wonderful place. Granted there are problems. But, it depends on where u have been and what you want out of it. Knowing the language helps as in all coutries. That rating about it being the most expensive is absurd. Housing is way overpriced..I just returned from 2 years in Japan..and Find the housing way over priced compared to my first stint in Moscow. I have lived here 6 years total. Like all countries. You have to adapt to the situation. I find the corruption as bad as several countriest i have lived n..Just in different manner. EF is ok. But there are heaps of companies that can give you better money teaching Business English. Russia is poor, but it is not Chad either.

[M.]

Actually, I dont blame Maruss for leaving his salary is too low. I have a decent salary here teaching. About the same as Japan. If I had a low salary, I would go to Asia..or somewhere with more opportunity. There is money here but it takes time to make connections.

[expatella_girl]

[M.]

Yes, I am teaching.

Yes I made lots of tyyyypos. It was late and I had a few pints.Plus, I was typing very fast. There is good money in Moscow. Just have to find the rite places to work. I lived here for a while so the connedtions help. You teach rich Shishkas/ Rubliovkis..and they will pay good money. As in Japan, The ones with the connections get the sweet teaching deals.

[maruss]

Mainly because of those gas and petro-dollars, a few lucky people in Moscow are mega-rich and I agree that if you like these rather obnoxious characters who only know the price of things rather than the value and have the patience to teach them-and their awfully spoilt kids-you could make serious money there!Personally I found the way they flount their undeserved wealth to be sickening and offensive, especially in a country where SO many decent and honest people still live in third world conditions of poverty and depravation!Perhaps what got to me even more was that totalitarianism is slowly but surely creeping back there and corruption is becoming more and more rampant, especially among government bureaucrats etc.This is the centenary year of the composer Shostakovitch and I remember listening to his music while I was there and thinking just how much his inner thoughts which were revealed in ' Testimony' a study of his music published after he died, are still so appropriate to what Russia is like, even today!For those who are not 'into' this kind of music,I recommend his 5th Symphony which is so universally appealing and challenge anyone to listen to the third movement without being deeply moved!

[M.]

the 5th, I agree is brilliant. I disagree that Russia is in Thirdworld conditions. But, I am not in the mood to argue. ALot of the infrastructure is very out of date and needs a lot of work....but I still find Russia, better than some countries in Africa and Asia that I have lived and traveled in.

[maruss]

As I have written before, many people who go to Russia for the first time presume that because Moscow is officially in Europe it will be like some kind of Slavic version of Holland or Germany etc. but of course it is not!
If anything, perhaps it has hints of Asia about it more than Europe or definitely something Eastern and not Western.......
Robert Harris remarked on this in his novel 'Archangel' which conveys a great deal of reality about the atmosphere there, even though the events are of course fictitious!By the way,the B.B.C. film version of it last year was pretty awful so read the book instead,although they did actually film the first part in Moscow and the author has travelled extensively there to gain first-hand experience etc!

[M.]

[maruss]

If you look at recruitment sites for jobs in Moscow, there seem to be the usual firms recruiting and with the usual salaries and conditions etc.Although there are a few exceptions which do offer more realistic wages, most of them are paying the same as they have been for several years, despite the fact that the cost of living there has increased considerably, especially since last year.I know the whole subject has been debated at length on many postings to this site during recent years by both myself and others so I will just make the following observation:
Anyone who accepts one of these positions as a means to get into Russia and then realises,as so many do that there is far more money to be earned by working on an hourly basis, will be trapped, unless they have enough funds available to be able to afford to rent accomodation of their own . With most contract jobs, resigning will inevitably mean vacating the accomodation provided by the firm as well(and as we all know,it probably won't be of good quality either!!)From my own experience earlier this year after a landlord refused to give me the appartment he had initially agreed to, finding affordable accomodation in Moscow nowadays is much more difficult than finding teaching work and anyone heading there without prior knowledge of this essential fact would do well to take note!Luckily,I had close Russian friends who helped me out otherwise I have would faced the choice of either giving up all my savings to an agency or leaving the country and flying home again.

[joe-joe]

It's an interesting point made by Maruss about salaries never seeming to go up year on year. I was watching Russian news the other week, and in real terms the average Russian's income has gone up 26% every year over the last 5 years. I don't see any of 'the usual suspect' schools hiking their salaries accordingly. But then does this really surprise any of you?

[maruss]

As long as there people who want to try the Russian adventure and use these jobs as a way to get into the country, these firms can continue to find cheap foreign labour.But as so many other countries around the world also use immigrants as cheap labour, why should Russia be an exception......

[prlester]

[mdk]

If you are trying to make money in Moscow.... that�s hard.


That doesn�t mean you can�t be very happy there if you have a second income and are willing to live at least partially like a Muscovite. I have such a second income and I was quite comfortable there. Moscow is a big cosmopolitan city with great museums, theater, interesting things to see and do. Where else can you get all of that with a second income of around $1,500 or so. Paris? London? New York? Hah! Hah! Go and try it!

P.S. Stay out of the bars. Find some company and have fun at home. It�s easy to do in Moscow.

[Tiger Beer]

I've never been to Moscow, (only Vladivostok).

Which 'hints of Asia' do people see in Moscow?