Job Discussion Forums

[Looter]

Hi all,
I'm a Polish/Aussie currently in Bialystok, Poland looking for ESL work. Truth-to-tell I think I'm here at the wrong end of the year! I've been here since December, but have had to wait until late January for my documents to get processed so that I can work here (Polish passport). Even though I am still waiting on my passport to actually come to me, I now have enough/appropriate documentation so that I can commence looking for work. I can speak enough Polish (generally) to survive, but my reading/writing is quite weak still.

I've got a TEFL qualification, with majors in Business, TEOIC & English for Adults, but the problem I think I might have is that although I've done 4 years of my BA, I've deferred it, (i.e. it's not finished yet!). I've worked heaps in all sort of business back home (I'm a bit of a jack-of-all-trades), from banks to postal, to radio, television and producing for the internet and for the last few years, it's been heaps of office-work, so I know business english rather well! I haven't taught 'formal' classes yet, but I have done a bit of one-on-one tutoring.

In the last few weeks, I've been sending out my cover letter/CV to a few schools around (even Millenium [but that was before I read this forum]), but haven't been getting lots of response. I know that business sometimes works like this, (it did sometimes in Oz - 100s of applications for no repsonse), but is that normal here? Maybe I'm sending this stuff out to the wrong schools or areas, or do you really have to have finished your degree before schools here will hire you? It looks like I'm only going to have the private tutoring option available to me if it continues like this, because although cost of living here is relatively cheap, I can't live on my savings forever! The only school I've had an interview with so far was Berlitz in Warsaw, but the money they were offering was not enough to live on there. (2000zt/mth for 30hrs/wk without accomodation or anything else, or about 18zt/hr [& I discovered it costs about 800-1200zt/mth just for accomodation there])

So basically what I want to know is this: Are there schools here that will hire you without a completed degree? (it's 3/4 done just deferred) If so, can you recommend some good ones/good areas to teach? Or better yet, are you in a school that currently requires a native-speaker teacher who has a Polish passport? (so as to make the paperwork easier) Also, what should one really expect to get paid for ESL work? I was told that if I register myself as a company, I can get more money (by Berlitz - to 35zt/hr instead of 18zt), but what is involved in this & what do I need to do? Is it worth the extra hassle of hiring an accountant at the end of the year? My cousin (native Polish) who teaches here in Bialystok gets 35zt/hr and she isn't registered as a company, so was I just being fed a 'line'?

I'm prepared to move around Poland for work, because even though I still have some relatives here, I don't entirely see the point of spending my entire time in the one town just because of family. Plus I was here 20 years ago and would like the opportunity to get to explore the country again and revisit the places I saw in my childhood that I only have vague memories of now, (as I was last here at age 7).

I know I have a lot of questions, but I would really appreciate your help in this as I am still a relative 'newbie' to this teaching-in-Poland thing, and would like to be able to give it a decent try without having to head to England with my shiny new EU passport & look for work as one of the hundreds of other faceless Aussies there in less-interesting jobs.
Any replies/advice will be truly much-appreciated!

Loots (ok so the ca$h in the UK converts well, but it IS expensive to live)