Job Discussion Forums

[MdTerpsAreMoney]

So, I've been teaching in Moscow for the last six months and, while I like it at lot, I'm anxious to see the rest of the country when my contract is up in June. With that in mind, I've been thinking about a move eastwards to the Urals or somewhere in Siberia. My problem, however, is that I've had a hard time finding schools in those regions that aren't Language Link or English First affiliates or that look too-good-to-be-true. It's very possible that I've been going about this search the wrong way so I'm asking you guys for some advice as to how to find schools or even some reccommendations of places to look into. I've been looking at Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and some of the other big cities, but would probably go most anywhere provided the job was good. Any help/advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

[coledavis]

As I've said on similar threads, most schools in Siberia don't advertise. The thing to do is to go to www.visarus.co.uk and look at their directory of schools. Choose the geographical area that you're interested and see if the directory gives you a web site. Go to the web site for contact details as they will be more up to date than on Visarus. Then check it out - if you put the site name on Google, you can get an English translation if needed - and if you like the look of them, send an email/phone/both.

[anubistaima]

Be very, very careful with schools outside Moscow. I worked in Siberia for three years and I was told it was "so much cheaper than Moscow" that it made sense to get a lower salary. Well, it's not cheaper, and a good percentage of schools do not offer accommodation as part of their basic package, which puts you in a rather difficult position. Do your homework and don't agree to anything unless you get answers to all your questions.

[coledavis]

Licensed educational institutions, the ones which can get proper teachers' visas (yes there are such things), have to offer free accommodation to non-Russian teachers by law. Surely the rule here isn't so much 'be careful about Siberia' so much as 'be careful in selecting your employer'.

If they are offering non-contractual situations, using 'adapted' visas (e.g. working under business or student visas), then they are unlikely to be reliable people. If you collude with illegal practices, then - as with dead relative inheritance email scams - you are liable to caught out and deservedly so.

With the free accommodation, you should be ok financially, although the days of eating out every night, if they ever existed, are surely over.