Job Discussion Forums

[teacherdude]

A friend of mine approached this school recently for some job info and he wasn't very impressed.

The school is located on the side st. next to the Marmara Hotel...on the left side. Same St. where Wall St. used to be.

He went in a week ago and asked for some job info. The person at the desk, told him the Mngr wasn't around and to come back in the week.


He came back a few days later, and was told by the same person that they weren't hiring now but would do so in the Winter. My friend told him no prob. that he was looking for a job in the Winter, and just wanted some job info. The man repeated that they weren't looking for teachers now.

When he was asked why he couldn't just give some info, regarding work conditions. The man asked him for his tel. numb....took it and said "if we want a teacher, we'll call you." My friend was so pissed, he told him not to call.

He's convinced that the school is (i) too stupid to communicate with teachers properly, for future hirings or(ii) becz he's not white, the man may have made a judgement call that he might not be the kind of teacher that they wanted.

I explained to him that as the guy was not the mngr. maybe he just didn't know how to communicate with teachers, and may not have had the smarts to communicate with a propspective teacher for the winter.

Do you guys have any feedback on this school?

Td

[31]

Quite common for TEFL mills to not want black teachers. Ideally they want blonde blue eyed twenty-thirty something native speakers. Not so at ET who takes anyone native speaker or not-coz of the crap pay and conditions.

[whynotme]

if your friend is still looking for a job and qualified, you can pm me. We dont care what colour skin he has.

[tekirdag]

It may not be a skin colour thing.

At the school I just finished working for they had NO CLUE how to deal with a foreigner. I am guessing native speaker teachers who were there in the past fled in night and I was the first to finish a contract.

They didn't explain ANYTHING to me EVER and it was very difficult to get information from them. It wasn't because my Turkish is rusty-I get by- I could see that many Turkish teachers were also left in the dark.
The department head often seemed genuinely confused when I asked questions to help me get organised. It took me a while to figure out that they had never expected me to do anything so, why would I ever need info?

I expressed my displeasure to some co-workers- that I felt I wasn't teaching to my full potential etc...the answer I got back was: but ALL schools are like this. Another reason for not giving information- All schools are the same. ?

For eight months now the school has paid the salaries late. No one gets angry, they just keep quiet. Even though some of them haven't been paid FOR MONTHS. There is an unspoken rule of "take what you are given and feel lucky you even have a job". Another reason not give out info- Take what you are given and be quiet.

Many(not all!) of the Turkish folks I know don't plan well. The other teachers thought I was very hardworking because I actually planned my lessons. No one else did. Even graduation preparations were left til the last few days then every one ran around in a panic.

Perhaps those folks in that school your friend went to in Istanbul really saw no reason to give info when they wouldn't be hiring for months.

Anyway, clearly, a school that can't meet the foreign staff half way wouldn't be a great place to work. And an insightful owner would eliminate cultural problems by hiring a foreign DOS to act as a liaison between turkish and foreign staff.

[dmb]

[whynotme]

and if local DOSes and foreign DOSes play football, who wins? could it be called an international match? Do they have to follow FIFA rules or Ministery of Education's rules? Can Calsimsek play in local DOSes team?

DMB, i want all the answers please.

[31]

And an insightful owner

there aren't many of them