Job Discussion Forums

derick2 · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Hi,

I am going to Russia in August and I really want to try and arrange a few things before I go there. I plan to spend most of my trip in western Siberia, in Tyumen, Khanty Mansiysk and Uray. Does anyone have any previous experience working there? Are there any schools that I should avoid?

Has anyone worked in a primary or secondary school in Russia? Is it difficult to get work in the schools?

All the best!
Derick

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

I have a very close friend who worked for a couple of years recently in Tyumen. She did not like it very much. I think if it is a hard place for a woman who has grown up in Siberia, then you would find it a difficult place to start out finding how you like living in Russia.

I also had a friend in Tomsk who worked for the british council. She would fly up to Khanty-minsk and cover lessons for another teacher. She seemed to like the place, but it is north of Tomsk which is north of Novisibirsk. I think - as Rachel told me - the people were quite nice, but the place was a bit trying.

I don't know anything about Uray.

I lived 3 winters in Tomsk. I would be very surprised to see a foreign teacher hired at one of the local primary or secondary schools, but I suppose it is possible. The bureaucratic adventure would be formidable, unless the school had some heavy pull.

Why don't you go to www.yandex.ru and post a queston? You would probably need to do so in Russian, but that is where you would find out more probably.

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

You will not get hired in a public school unless you have an official work permit (not to be confused with a visa) and probably not even then. The bureaucracy the school would have to deal with is too much. Unless you become a permanent resident, a process that takes several years...

Oh, and monthly pay ranges from 3,000 to 12,000. No, not dollars. Cost of living does not differ much from the US.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Point of information - 3,000 rubles would be a little less than $90.

My second winter I was not "officialy" hired by the school in Siberia, but the pay was as stated above, I had a $300 veterans compensation check coming in every month, and I was living with somebody.

If you absolutely have to live in one of those places, it MIGHT be possible depending upon several factors, the most important probably being how badly you want to do it. ( And the second being how badly somebody in town wants you to do it. Wink

canucktechie · Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Posts: 343 Location: Moscow

Aussie Chick · Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 104 Location: Australia

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Yeah, you guys are all correct. It was 30 to the dollar when I first went to Russia and has been sinking slowly ever since. It is just easier for me to guesstimate a price at 1000 rubles = 30 bucks still.

Belorussian rubles are worth much less, but nobody in his right mind would go to Belorussia.