Job Discussion Forums

tedkarma · Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:56 am Post subject:

I would agree that few people have left $100k jobs for EFL - but you might be very surprised at the number of people who have been in well-paid professional positions who are now EFL teachers.

I am a TEFL Cert Trainer and the number of lawyers, IT professionals, corporate trainers, etc. in my classroom is surprising even to me. Most of them have found their work to be soul-less and seek to find something more rewarding.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

If someone back home offered me a job teaching English for $100,000+ I'd take it! Please forward me your contacts for such a job.... Wink

M109A3 · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

JZer,

That's a very valid point you make. However, I believe you are missing mine. Cam articulated the point precisely. If there is no money to pay the bills what options are left? I LOVE Indiana profoundly. However, I left because there are no jobs there. I like Houston very much. Yet I'm leaving Houston because what jobs are here don't pay enough to meet living expenses. Employers here can low-ball people because jobs are scarce. Nobody wins except the rich. I have yet to meet someone whom used to earn $100K and left that job for a lower paying job willingly. That's even more of an anomaly than ever because jobs paying THAT well hardly exist anymore. Someone with that history was either fired or laid-off due to downsizing. That's the reality.

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

I left a 50K ESL public school job to return to my wife's homeland. It's hard, but we OWN our own apartment, I am my own master and, well, it's overall better than sunny California, darnit!

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

tedkarma · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:19 am Post subject:

M109A3 · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

Ted,

You are correct on all accounts. However, you made a possibly imperceived, and VERY important, side note - those people left AFTER they insulated themselves from economic realities. The vast majority of us do not have that luxury. Granted, a $100K job doesn't go as far as it used to. However, it goes considerably further than a $35K job by far. Plus, those $35K jobs are becoming scarce too. We went through my wife's $50K 401k plan in two years just to stay afloat. Once she was laid-off from her $45K/year job, as the company folded in '01, she couldn't buy a job except at the Wal-Mart as a temporary overnight restocker. That job died out after the holidays. Once again, she couldn't find a job anywhere. All we would find out from the interviews was "You're over-qualified" or "You'll leave when a more suitable job comes along". To which her response was "All the suitable jobs have gone overseas. I NEED this job". Her retirement evaporated in '03. The "recovery" here has been anything but. Unemployment is at 5 to 6% officially. However, if all the people not able to collect benefits and still unemployed are included (which they are not counted when their benefits end) you can multiply that by factor of four and be much more accurate. There are so many more street bums and street corner windshield washers now than ever before. I count an average of at least three washers near most any intersection I stop at in or near Houston. Granted, life at the top may bite. However, it sure beats the reality at the bottom. Compound the outsourcing problem with a decaying economic structure, overburdened and limited social services, a middle class shrinking exponentially and the future here is bleak at best.

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

M109A3 · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

Jzer,

The sectors that have more jobs pay $8/hour and she's overqualified to flip burgers. Need I say more?

cam · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 124 Location: Maine, USA

M109A3 · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 99

Cam,

Who can afford retirement here?!?!? My parents had to return to work just to afford their retirement. Things are way out of control. The rich, whom are insulated from this madness, don't care. The politicians, likewise, don't care either. Why do you think several of my cousins and three of my classmates (1984) live in China? None of them have any dreams of coming back here to retire. They are intentionally expatriating themselves to a better life. It's these people that have recruited my family to do the same. The American brain-drain is happening. The fact my wife has three bachelor degrees and I have a masters eliminates us as over-qualified for 99% of the jobs here. The 1% left over don't pay enough to pay the bills AND save for retirement, let alone my son's education. I have no desire to work until I drop dead. However, that's what the expectation is here. Just grind 'em into the ground. So until there's a MASSIVE paradigm shift to an affordable, stable, worker-oriented society here (yeah, right, dream on) we have zero intention of returning here unless for a brief vacation or two. The Democrats and Republicans sold out to big business back in the '80s. So, unless there's a major economic crisis threatening the super rich, things won't change anytime soon.