Job Discussion Forums

maryknight · Joined: 12 Oct 2005 Posts: 83

i've got a tefl certificate, i've taught screenplay writing at a local community college (unrelated, but teaching experience), i have a bacelors degree in psych and a master's in social work and i want a nice climate
(highlands) and enough money to support myself, reasonable hours, ect.
i can afford to come and check things out for a couple of weeks, then i would need to come home and get my house rented out.
how did you get your first job?
oh, by the way, i don't know spanish!
any advice?
is coming to mexico a good way to find a good first job?

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

It's really going to depend on the time of year as to who will be hiring for which positions. It takes time to get established with a full teaching schedule. When I first arrived in Mexico I was teaching part-time in 3 different locations, 6 days a week. It took months to get established. Tec de Monterrey paid the best at 90 pesos an hour but it was only a few hours a week in the Idiomas department. And it was very disorganized, and miles out of the city center.

One University that ironically had one of the few programs licensed to issue a certificate for teaching English was paying only 33 pesos an hour to ALL teachers. Most of the teachers were crabby and hence were trying to discourage the students from wasting their tuition money. They eventually stopped hiring native English teachers because they got into trouble with Immigration. Go figure. A private language school was paying 50 pesos an hour and I worked there for several years too because I liked the hours. They closed down due to poor management and again Immigration issues. This was nearly 6 years ago now.

I eventually ended up in an upscale private school with high tuitions, expensive uniforms, etc and where we had all the full-time benefits but with 35 children per class, the workload was hardly worth the $6000.00 pesos a month we were paid. The paperwork was huge and students were spoiled and unruly. The offers for private lessons rolled in, so this is what I have ended up doing and am relieved for it.

All this took time, since I am in an area where it is difficult to get established. In my experience and in my area, the good jobs are long spoken for by those here permanently, and don't shake loose very easily. A lot of it is who you know too, hence the getting established part. The price you pay for living at the beach. Inland could be a different story. Hope this helps a little.

MELEE · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:34 pm Post subject:

I actually got my job by responding to an ad here on Dave's. That was 8 years ago. I was lucky, I know. But just so you know it is possible.
I agree with Sam that most good jobs are snatched up by old timers, but that's not always the case in "less desireable" locations.

Where I work we have to advertize on the internet because no one just wonders in and drops off a resume around here!

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Likewise. Right, MELEE..? Smile

delacosta · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 325 Location: zipolte beach

One day while walking from Puerto Angle to Zipolite, while here on vacation in December of 1999, I noticed a sign that said Universidad del Mar at the end of a winding road. I thought to myself, why on earth would there be a university in this little town in the middle of nowhere? A few days later I was taking a snorkeling tour and asked the guide about it. He mentioned that they taught English. I popped in the next day just to see what it was all about and ended up chatting for a long time with the Department head, who had gotten her Delta from the same school I had gotten mine from six months earlier. Suitably impressing her with my charm and good looks she offered me a job on the spot. The fact that they had just had a teacher leave had nothing to do with it, I swear.

I said I'd think about it and went back to the rain and drizzle of a January in Vancouver. I think it took me about two weeks and I called her and asked her when I could start.

That was almost 6 years ago.
And I still haven't figured out why on earth there's a university here. But who'd complaining?

So my suggestion to you is to aimlessly wander around Mexico, have credentials and be charming, and wait for a job to fall in your lap.

kitkat1 · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 37

Mary, if you've got the time and funds to go first to check things out, that's not a bad idea. I did the same thing and it worked out great. But you can also easily contact schools now, from home, to see what they say about timing and their need for teachers - depending on where you want to go, that might be the easiest thing and it would certainly save you some time and money. My other recommendation is to study a little spanish now - it makes your life a whole lot easier when you are in Mexico.