Job Discussion Forums

[Afrijen]

Hi There,

My boyfriend and I are looking for Jobs in Mexico.
(We're currently in Indonesia, teaching in a city called Medan.)

I've been sending my CV to just about every school I can find on the internet, I've replied to every job advertised within the first 5 pages of google.... (after that they start dating back to 2003, a bit pointless). I've registered with a company called global-ers to find us jobs...

I've done all that I can think of doing from this side of the world.
And still no jobs.

So, I reckon there are a few possible reasons WHY this could be, and I'd love it if someone could clarify suggest why they think we're still jobless.

The possible reasons:

1. We have 3yr college diplomas in unrelated fields, a few years business experience, no tefl but 1 year teaching experience at good schools in Medan - does this make us un-employable in Mexico? (We've been told that we can still find jobs, just not necessarily the best jobs, which is ok)

2. Its April and we're only looking for jobs starting in or after August..and it's just too soon to be worried about August.

3. There's somewhere we're not looking and should be.

4. We need to be in Mexico to find jobs. (unfortunately we can't do this - we're flying back home to South Africa in August and plan on going to Mexico from there...if we don't have jobs lined up before we go the we probably wont be able to afford to live there until we find them, and we don't want to take the risk of getting there and not getting worthwhile jobs at all - thus wasting the little money we have on a ticket to Mexico)


Sorry.. that landed up being a little long winded! Please forgive me.

Any clues as to what the reason is??

Thanks!
Jen

[Jetgirly]

Ummmm... all of the above.

[TheLongWayHome]

[MO39]

In general, language schools in Mexico do not hire from abroad. I found this was true for myself last year, even with 3 college degrees and many years of teaching experience under my belt. The best I found was an interest in interviewing me once I arrived in Mexico City, and that interview did result in a job offer.

In your case, the fact that neither of you has even one completed college degree or a TEFL certificate and you have only one year of teaching experience will make it that much harder. I advise you to figure out a way to save up a tidy nest egg before venturing across the Atlantic to try your luck here. Even if you found jobs quickly, you'd still need to wait a month before receiving your first paycheck and would have a bunch of start-up expenses to deal with.

[Phil_K]

In my nearly 7 years in Mexico, I have noticed recently a trend of it being more and more difficult to find jobs. I guess for those wanting to work in schools and universities the demand will be always be there more or less, but the corporate market is definitley experiencing a downturn.

[Mrs L]

Have you not managed to save any money in Medan? I was there for a year too and took home a good chunk of cash, enough to travel a bit more in SE Asia before eventually ending up in Mexico. I did get the Mexico job from abroad, it wasn't a great job but after good old EF Medan it felt fantastic - I stayed in it 2 years.

I think your lack of tefl certificate may be a problem but it's not insurmountable, I worked alongside people with just experience from Korea or Japan but no tefl at my school in Mexico. You're probably too early for August jobs, keep an eye out after you get home.

Good luck with it all and tell the Tavern in Hotel Danau Toba I said hi!!

[MELEE]

[MO39]

[geaaronson]

You should be able to get the best idea of present job opportunities worldwide by looking at DAVES employment opportunities. Most ESL jobs available today are in the Asian Rim countries. There are several reasons for this including that area`s phenomenal economic growth vis a vis the rest of the world. The other reason, is of course that it is furthest from GB, Canada, and the US, so more people from those countries will be reluctant to travel so afar.
In fact, whereas I have seen hundreds of ads for teaching in the Far East, in the same website Latin American jobs are in the single digits. Simply put, there are more gringoes ready for teaching jobs just vagabonding around all of Latin America, ending up in small cities, and grabbing a job on the fly.
If I were you, I would stay in the Rim areas, or barring that, get TEFL accreditation and start looking for a position in the early summer. April is way too early for a school to make a decision.
Yes, here in Mexico the market may be tightening up slightly over the past year. When I came here last April I was offered several positions right away. I have continued to put out the resume and within the past month have not been offered anything.
To add to matters, the Mexican government just revised its tax code and corporations will not be able to take tax deductions for corporate training anymore. Whether that has already affected the Business English market remains to be seen, and whether it will in the future is probable.

Add to that the governments own revision of GNP growth for the country from 3.3 percent to 2.8 percent as repercussioned from the States own economic troubles, I don`t see any improvement in the ESL market in the next year.

[dixie]

What type of school is this individual after? Is is for sure a language school?

Only asking because if not, then April isn�t necessarly too early too be looking.

If it is, I didn�t really think they hired sight unseen.

[MO39]

Thanks for the economic heads up, geaaronson. Come to think of it, none of my students are taking classes because their companies are paying for it. I feel lucky to have students who are willing to pay on their own to improve their English - maybe this accounts for their strong motivation and keen interest in whatever linguistic "wisdom" I serve up to them!

[geaaronson]

One recruiter has confided in me that the private class market has ballooned in the past few months as her phone has been ringing off the hook, so take advantage of it.

[MO39]

[geaaronson]

yup

[Afrijen]

Wow!

What a fantastic response.
Thank you so much everyone.

Sounds like its pretty much a combination of everything I thought about plus a few more that I didn't even consider!

Being South African can sometimes be a bit of an issue - we're definitely one of the 'fringe' native english countries.. kind of the 'lesser spotted natives'

MELEE - I'll look into investigating our visa's so that we can ease the worry of our future employers! Thanks for the advice.

Our college diplomas are not BA's, but they're equivalent to BA's on the British (I think it's called NQF) system - maybe we could push that a little.

We haven't saved much money in Medan - a combination of wanting to travel as much as possible and our low pay. But over the next few months we're saving a bit - enough for our tickets to Mexico and enough to support ourselves for a month I think.

(Mrs L, I'll definitely send love to the Tavern for you... what a dive but such good times!)

We're looking pretty much anywhere we can for jobs - language schools seem to be the 'easiest' in terms of qualifications, but we've applied to a few bilingual schools in the hope that they'll be blown away by our charm!

We'd really prefer not to stay in Asia - we have our hearts set on Mexico and will try all in our power to get there (I'm pretty stubborn). But obviously if it gets to a point where its June and we're still jobless we'll have to stay round these parts....

You guys have been fantastic - I really didn't expect so many responses in such a short time!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!