Job Discussion Forums

[dudeabides]

I am currently living and teaching in China with another Canadian ...my girlfriend. We enjoy teaching and are exploring the idea of teaching in Mexico.

If someone from Mexico asked me about China, I'd say, "Oh my god, there are jobs everywhere. Choose a city your comfortable with and go there. Finding a decent teaching job won't be difficult." Ideally, that's what I'd like to hear, but I really have no idea.

My girlfriend has a 3 degree from a Canadian university, and I have a 2 college diploma from a Canadian college. We're both ESL certified, and have over a year teaching experience. We're young and hard working. We'd like to come to Mexico for about 4 months.

Any thoughts?

[dduck]

You'll have no problems finding a job. It'll probably be harder work trying to find somewhere who want to live

Iain

[Ben Round de Bloc]

To put a bit of a qualifier to what dduck wrote, I'd say a lot depends on where in Mexico you'd like to work.

In Yucatan where I am, you'd find it extremely difficult to find a school willing to employ you for only 4 months. Most would want you to agree to at least 6 months and would prefer a year. You'd also find it very difficult to make ends meet on what you'd earn here, partly because of low wages and partly because it's next to impossible to get more than a few teaching hours at any one school when you first start out here. You'd have to put together enough part-time hours at 2 or 3 different schools in order to come up with enough working hours to make it worth your while.

Your EFL certification and teaching experience would definitely give you an edge in hiring, but even at that, if you were here in this city right now, you'd find it extremely difficult to find much. Almost all decent positions have been filled for the terms starting at various times during the first half September. Not a lot of jobs open up between now and the next terms starting in January-February. What will be available then is anyone's guess.

To give you an idea, in today's/Sunday's local newspaper, there was only one ad for an EFL teaching position. The Sunday edition is usually the big day of the week for ads, by the way. The ad was only a little two-liner stating "Native English-speaking teacher wanted" and a phone number.

[MELEE]

I'm sort of between Ben and dduck. There are jobs, but not loads, you won't have a problem finding one--but it might not be a very nice one. But I love Mexico and think you should definately give it a try. Bigger cities have more jobs. If you are interested in being in a smaller place, it is particulary important to TALK TO EVERYONE. Things in Mexico happen by word of mouth and I know of various situations where better opportunities "spring up" because of a women someone talked to in a restuarant turns out to have a sister-in-law who is the secretary of a school that needs a teacher. I don't know what time frame you are looking at, but I'd say now it may be best to wait until late January to come to Mexico as most fall terms have already started and then comes the November and December holiday season followed by the "poor weeks of January" until people have money again.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

I second what MELEE said. Even in not-so-small cities, word of mouth is the best way to find jobs as well as places to rent.

You've got to talk to people and get the word out, and don't be shy about checking back with people you've already talked to. The guy who owns the little store on the corner a block from a language school knows who has rooms or apartments for rent in the neighborhood. The lady who runs the place where you take your laundry to be done -- her best friend's brother is a custodian at a language school where they just happen to need another English teacher starting yesterday.

As MELEE said, this stretch of time from September through January is a "cold" time to be job hunting. Yet, if you can afford to hang around in one place without solid employment for a while, putting the word out, you could get lucky and fall into something decent simply by being in the right place at the right time.

If for some reason, your heart is set on living and working in a particular city, you may have to do as many of us have done. Go there and be willing to take a teaching job (or jobs) not necessarily the best suited for you until something more to your liking opens up.

[MELEE]