Job Discussion Forums

[Persistant_persistance]

Hi, firstly i'll say that i've been a lurker on these forums for over a year, and finally required some assistance so had to get registered.

A little background:

I'm from London, England, and spent the past year teaching oral English in middle school in Guilin, China. I really enjoy the teaching as a whole, but not the company i worked for (but that's the subject of a different post entirely). After finishing in Guilin i took a short holiday to Hong Kong and then to Thailand for 3 weeks. I spent 2 weeks in Bangkok and a week in Koh Chang. I didn't want to travel around too much, and i was using this time more as a chance to see how i felt being in Bangkok as it's somewhere that i was considering going to to teach next. Long story short, i really liked it and want to teach there.

Now, i've read lots of the threads posted on here that talk about the best times to arrive where there is the largest availability of jobs. That time being to arrive in October and March/April (??) but i'm in a little bit of a predicament and this brings me to the purpose of this post. It took me a lot longer than i was expecting to find any work back in England which meant that i wasn't able to financially ready by the beginning of October as i had originally planned. I have family that are very kindly pulling together to buy my flight to Bangkok so all i need to worry about is money to live on for the first 2 months. I'm working currently, and realistically could have £800 with a flying out date of 25th October, or £1200-£1350 and flying out 8th November.

So my question essentially is how big a difference is the availability between October and November? Is it worth waiting a couple more weeks and being more financially secure or flying out when there's more job options available?

I have been to Bangkok before and stayed in a hotel a few streets away from Khao San road and had a nice private room & bathroom with LCD TV for 450 baht a night. So over 2 months even staying there would only be roughly £500? I have no problem with staying in hostels for a while so i would spend a lot less here. And i think i could probably live on 150-200 baht a day with food eating street food right? I have no trouble living a frugal life for a while, as there was a time over the Winter break in China where i went travelling and ended up eating a lot of steamed rice and fried noodles for a while due to unexpected expenses occurred.

I'd just like some advice as when i was there i wasn't doing as much 'research' as i could have done, so advice would be greatly appreciated .

Some background on myself:

Age:25
Qualifications: Ba, 100 hour tefl
Experience : 1 year teaching oral english in China (made sure to get a written reference from the English director of the school before i left)
I can have a criminal check and transcripts too if needed, just need to sort them out before i go obviously.

Thanks for your advice

[EFL Educator]

My advice is come to Thailand with savings...at least enough money to get you by for the first couple months.. There is plenty of teaching work to be found here....but remember the pay isn't great. Expect a lot of teaching work available most of the year,,,December is a very slow month due to the holidays but there is still work around especially at institutes in Bangkok. Since you are quite young Kaosan Road would be the place to stay. You can stay at Peachy Guest house for Baht 200/Night if you are frugal. Otherwise there are cheap Thai style flats to be found but they are quite stark. Good luck!