Job Discussion Forums

[Ajlake]

I am planning on being in Shanghai for 3 to 4 months in the spring 2010. Does anyone know of any short term employment opportunities?

I have a Bachelors Degree and am working on a Masters. I will have a TEFL certificate and am a native English speaker, however, I have no second language or prior teaching experience.

Any suggestions?

All insights are greatly appreciated~

[struelle]

There certainly is. At the risk of telling a snippet of my life story, I'll just say I had plenty of opportunities and experience to pull off a short-term stint in Shanghai, and if I could do it, then so can you.

There's lots of work out there in Shanghai, well at least there was in 2004 when I managed to get by very well for about 2 months while transitioning towards a different part of my career.

Unfortunately, I have serious regrets about the last 5 years, and even at the time, I was not keen on the idea of pulling out of Shanghai and doing this so-called "career advancement" plan of mine. The plan was basically when I decided to do a PGCE and now teach math / physics at the high school level.

During that short transition time at the end of 2004, I had enough work to easily move into a place in Xu Jia Hui, save up for a plane ticket home, and live more than comfortably. I also saved enough to cushion the initial blow back home in 2005 and start towards the PGCE.

I was rather impressed with doing all that because back in August '04, the rug was pulled out from under my feet when they suddenly announced my Mom had passed away back home. At that time, I was teaching summer school in Shanghai and enjoying one of my best years in China. I basically left in a lurch to get on a plane back home, attend the funeral, and then figure out how to move on with life.

After a short stay back home, I realized I simply couldn't do it, and staying at home after so many years in Shanghai would mean both severe re-entry culture shock and depression. So I basically got back on a plane to Asia and hit the road traveling for 2 months and try to deal with this loss. While traveling, I relucantly gave into the idea of leaving the EFL scene and "advancing" my career. But first I needed cash in a hurry, so I returned to Shanghai, tied up some loose ends from back in August, and eventually transitioned out.

During that time I quickly found a part-time job at Web through contacts, and then got a whole bunch of private lessons. I had somewhat of an advantage with a social network already in Shanghai and former experience, but this was by no means a requirement. It helped, but I literally walked off the train into Shanghai, and effectively started from scratch.

My original rationale for quitting ESL and moving on was I could eventually use those upgrades to return to Shanghai and find work in other fields, such as math / physics. But I tried an attempt at that last year and failed big time by getting stuck out in the boonies and discovering how hard it was to find this type of work even remotely close to the city center.

Language centers have the unique advantage of being close to downtown. They are small enough to afford the high rents there, unlike the big international schools which pay huge salaries, but they have to be in rural locals to afford the land costs.

The job I have right now is so demanding and it hasn't been much of an improvement from the last several high-school jobs. There is something to be said about urban living, and I may very well end up pulling the plug on this suburban crap and go back to city center living, even if it's less pay.

Steve

[Fred Smith]

Side work is abundant. I turn down work just because I don't feel like doing it.

If you really want short term work just start sending our feelers once you are there.

I have a sweet deal with my main side work provider - they pay me in cash at the end of every class. I net an extra 5k - 6k a month doing side work for them.

The other place I work pays me on the 5th.

If you don't mind evenings or weekends then if you look hard enough you can find places to work.

Sidenote- none of the places I work at have ever seen my passport and ever asked me visa questions. I work, they pay. It's a great relationship.

Depending where you are and what you teach the pay is 150 and up. Once a sidejob offered me 80 rmb an hour. I laughed at got up and said thanks but no thanks. They called me back and agreed on 150 cash.

It's ok I have plenty of free time.

[ayahyaha]

I agree that side work seems to be abundant -- I'm looking for short-term work in Shanghai myself. But, what about a visa? It's not possible to hang out in China without a visa, is it?

I've worked under the table in other countries, w/o a work visa or residency permit...but China? I thought I would get in heaps of trouble, not be able to rent a flat, etc. without a proper visa/residency permit.