Job Discussion Forums

dlarcheuk · Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 58 Location: USA

Hi Friends- I�m excited to find this forum, and the good support you seem to offer each other. I had a GREAT year as a Senior Fulbright Scholar to Ukraine and Distinguished Professor at a Pedagogical University in 2003-2004; and I can�t wait to get back into another international professorial assignment in the NIS or Russia. Has anyone heard of any universities anywhere in the NIS or RF hiring at anywhere near western wages (for Fall, 2007)? I also have a gifted wife who is a university ESL teacher. We both have survival Russian and we�re trying to learn more. Thanks much!

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

I was a professor at a Pedagogical University. They were quite nice. Somewhere I still have my Russian Social Security card.

As to getting paid a western salary -Hmmm, why not take a trip over there and look around a bit? I think you would soon see that is a very unrealistic hope. You can get what a Russian University professor would earn. I would be very surprised if that were more than 10,000 rubles per month.

dlarcheuk · Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 58 Location: USA

Thanks for responding.

Yes, I think you're right. What I really meant was salaries that approximate what westerners are making in business in Kyiv - perhaps 2k a month, which is a wonderful wage, as long as you live economically.

I actually have three standing invitations for professorships with universities in Kirovohrad and Zaporizhia, but at the local wage which has now reached about $100 a month. I LOVED that experience, but had Fulbright support then. I'm hoping, I guess, to see if anyone knows of a place in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, maybe even Kharkiv, where someone like me might be welcome and where I might earn half-western wages.

But thanks-

DWL

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

[Sigh] Nice work if you can get it... Smile

I am currently working 12 hour night shifts to scrape up enough scratch to go back. It's difficult because you HAVE to have a car here, but it can be done. Maybe you will have to plan on working back and forth.

I'm hoping that when my social security comes online, it will let me cut down on my US time. Currently 3-6 months work will set me up for about a year over there.

That's about how long I can take life without corn dogs anyway.

dlarcheuk · Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 58 Location: USA

If you don't mind me asking, are you starting your Social Security at 62 (as soon as possible), or later? (I'm 59 next month and still three years away.) What do you do for health insurance during the years you spend over there, MDK (and even the months when you come back here)?

And where do you get your corn dogs- the Iowa State Fair?

I'm an old Iowa ex-pat...Go Hawks!