Job Discussion Forums

[pacific]

I am wondering if anyone out there (or anyone you may know) has worked as an in-house English teacher for a company in Prague. How do the working conditions & pay plus benefits compare to teaching for a language school? Obviously, an in-house teacher, I'm assuming, works at one location and likely doesn't work a split schedule. What are the differences other than that? (I am bilingual in Czech and English and have noticed many companies advertise these positions in Czech).

Have any of you looked for jobs here: http://www.jobs.cz/ ? I think you have to know some Czech to navigate the site, but a lot of the job postings are in English.

Thanks!

[spiral78]

If you can land the in-house jobs, they are generally better. But you have to negotiate effectively - they'll offer the least they can to get the most, as any business would. They are generally advertised in Czech only because the companies aren't looking for one of the multitudes of newbies in the city - they are looking for someone with more experience. Those teachers who've been in the city a while usually speak at least minimum Czech, so it's an effective screen.
If you've got the language plus some real prior teaching experience, you can likely land such a job, and they can be great for just the reasons you've already pointed out. Benefits are usually better, pay should be higher because you are considered to be a specialist in the particular genre of that business. Additionally, you don't have the travel time, pounding the pavements between offices for a private school, and you can get to know your students much better.

ON the downside, expectations can be greater, and you're usually responsible for designing curriculum/courses for every class or individual. You will likely have fewer resourses than at a school, and you don't have the input/support of other teachers. Those people I know who have been successful in this have some years of experience, can do fantastic demonstration lessons, and are good at tailoring specifically to meet the needs of their students.