Job Discussion Forums

[bennybunny]

Just gained a CELTA and reckon I might as well teach somewhere absolutely outrageous. Been a few jobs going in Siberia and I'm quite interested for some reason. Anyone able to give me any advice?

[rogatol]

Well...
Siberia is quite large...
If its a big city - nothing special I believe, just an ordinary Russian provincial city...
That might turn interesting if you go to a kind of far of village though, if they ever want to learn english... Fetch your warm staff with you - deep continental climat makes it -40C in winter and then +40 in summer

[Brooks]

hi. I worked in Irkutsk for about nine months, back in the late 90s.
Do you have any specific questions?

[bennybunny]

Not really too many specific questions, just after a general opinion to be honest. The job I'm looking at is in Surgut. Would just like to know what you thought of working out there - realise there might be massive differences between the two but they're both locations that most people don't know much about so just interested in whether you had a good time in general, more details on climate, the people, etc. Never visited any area of Russia before so any general information on what I might expect would be useful too. Cheers

[zaneth]

I've still got a hankering to get out that way sometime. I was looking at Abakan at one point, had some friends in that area. But the local university was very by-the-book (at least for someone sight unseen) and I wasn't able to do all the required paperwork (translation and certification of foreign degree through the ministry of education - bleck).

Found some stuff on Chita that seemed promising. Seemed like some people at least were getting to teach in little villages and hang out with native people, have a yurt, stuff like that.

I still have a lot of romantic notions about dirt roads, living in yurts, riding horses and hanging out with natives.

Good luck.

[waxwing]

I thought it might be the Surgut one. I started applying for that one, I think, and I'd have two comments about it:
1. What is the number of hours per week they want you to work? Is it, as I vaguely remember, over 24 contact hours? I generally think that 24 should be an upper limit.
2. It's very far north (slightly further than St Pete's iirc) and very far indeed from anywhere else. It would be an interesting place, basically a small oil town with a certain amount of money (compared to other Siberian towns) but it's going to be very dark and very cold over the next few months.
3. Money ? $800? I don't remember, but I guess that might be OK.

I wouldn't compare Surgut with Irkutsk. Irkutsk is one of the major points on the Trans Siberian and is on the coast of the miraculous Baikal, a major selling point. Surgut is basically nowheresville

The obvious point is, have you applied the golden rule? Have you asked them for an email address of a current (preferably) or former (barely acceptably) native speaker employee, and have you got any feedback from them?

If you've never visited Russia, I'd have to wonder how prepared you feel to embark on this adventure.