Job Discussion Forums

[Suburban_Andy]

I'm planning on coming to Taiwan this year and teach, but checking this forum isn't exactly filling me with hope, particularly after reading the posts of Rooster and the like. My girlfriend is Taiwanese and lives near Taipei, so I'll need to get a job in the Taipei area too, though from the sounds of things, that's a lot easier than anywhere else in Taiwan.

Anyway, I'm going to fire out a few questions here and see if anyone can give me some answers and an idea of whether I'm going to struggle to find a job or not.

1. I'm from N Ireland. I know the accent thing was brought up, but not a major issue when I taught in Korea. I can (and did) speak in a more american accent when teaching though. Will this cause me problems when interviewing?

2. I have a years teaching experience in Korea, but no TEFL qualification or anything similar. Now, I know this will be a disadvantage, but would it be so bad that you think it would be worth getting my TEFL first?

3. Is their a better time of the year for getting work? I've been told March is a good time and I was thinking about getting out there as soon as possible to apply for jobs in that case. Is this correct?

4. If I want to get a job in a certain area, would I be better avoiding the bigger chains? I understand that they often give you no choice in your schools location, which would be pretty useless to me. I am going to contact Kojen, Joy etc and see what they say though.

Anyway folks, any answers or advice you could give me would be appreciated. An honest assessment of my chances would be appreciated too. I'm keen to get there as soon as possible to be with my girlfriend, but if I get there and find out that I can't find work it could make the situation completely untenable. Which would be horrible, but I'd rather know sooner than later.

Thanks.

[markcmc]

Whenever there's a recession in Europe/N America, Taiwan (and other tesol destinations) fill up with teachers.

Taipei is better than the south so that's in your favor. If you really like working with children that will help. Lot's of teachers don't, and it shows in interviews and demo classes. As far as the accent goes, if you don't mind using a more neutral one during interviews and teaching I don't think it will be a big problem. If you do object to this, then it will be difficult for you. That's just the way it is.

After Chinese New Year is a good time. And you don't need a tefl certificate in Taiwan, although it might help a little. However, if you want to continue teaching for a longer period, then it's a good idea. Especially if you ever decide to teach in Europe or many other places.

You can always tell the chain schools where you are willing to work and see what happens. They can only say no if they don't have work there.

Mark.

[creztor]

markcmc is right and you'll find work in Taipei but it probably won't be as easy as it used to be. The majority of advertised positions are for teaching children, so be sure to show how much you love them A TEFL certificate would be nice but at least you do have some experience teaching, many people don't and they are getting turned away from jobs because there are so many people applying (especially for the big chains).

[Rooster_2006]

I've had nine consecutive job interviews now. Most of those had teaching demos. I have been rejected on #1 - #7, and although #8 and #9 are still pending, one of those cannot offer an ARC and the other "has many teachers competing for it." I got rejected by a 450-NTD-an-hour illegal kindergarten in Kaohsiung County! The responses to my demos have been mostly positive, but there's always someone better. ALWAYS. That's a statistical likelihood when most job slots have 20 or 30 people competing for them.

I currently work at an awful school that has cut my hours down to 2.5 per week. Nope, not 25, I really did mean to put that decimal point in there. I teach one hour on Monday and 1.5 hours on Wednesday. The boss tries to cheat me out of money at every possible opportunity -- she believes that my pay is too high (keep in mind, I made 32% less than Taiwanese monthly minimum wage last month). Although I calculated last month's paycheck at an incredible 12,950 NTD, she once again worked her calculator magic and it came out to 11,614 NTD! Great! Nothing builds a guy's self esteem and bank account like being paid less than US$363 a month! This month's paycheck should weigh in far less than 11,614 NTD due to my recently decreased hours.

I will be going to China shortly to land a job paying 800 American dollars a month, an unheard of amount in Kaohsiung right now -- almost every job I've interviewed for pays less than that.

Seriously, I don't know why so many teachers try so hard to work here. Sure Taiwan is nice, but is it worth having the same monthly pay as a 17-year-old Taiwanese 7-Eleven worker who lives at home?

My nearly eight months in Kaohsiung have been very financially costly, degrading as a teacher, and quite frankly an all-around abortion. Coming here was probably the biggest mistake of my adult life. I came with dreams of learning Chinese, making 60,000 NTD a month with a 25-hour class load, and building up a year of experience at a reputable school. The reality was that I probably averaged about 20,000 NTD a month, had no money to pay for Chinese courses, and had to take money out of my US bank account just to pay the rent.

By the way, I have CELTA, a college diploma, two years of experience teaching English in Asia, and I'm a young native speaker from the Washington area. Not some freak, in case you were wondering.

I cannot recommend that ANYONE come here right now. The bad EFL market Taiwan has literally destroyed me. I have almost nothing left -- my money is depleted, my confidence in ever being able to make a living in Asia again has been destroyed.

I can only pray that things will be better in China.

I will soon give my girlfriend the bad news, hope it doesn't devastate her too much, pack up and sell my stuff, and get on yet another plane. And I sure hope I find work in China, because if I don't, I don't have enough money to buy a planet ticket back to the US.

[creztor]

Rooster_2006, sorry to hear you had a bad run. I will say that things have only gotten more difficult for me over the years and I am really questioning anything long term in Taiwan. I hope you have better luck in China.

[forest1979]

OP - Take Rooster's experience as a dose of reality. This is the unfortunate experience that new arrivals to Taiwan are experiencing. To be quite honest given the TEFL market as it is in Taiwan you will have to take whatever is offered. You wont, as people have been able to do in the past, is have a set criteria as to what job type/school type/location you would to work with. It's now a case of take whatever to get an ARC and even good, good teachers are finding it tough and are having to work in, lets be honest, poor quality schools so as to pay the bills.

Rooster's experience is maybe not the norm but it is real and others are experiencing similar problems. The notion of something earning NT$11,000 a month was inconceivable just 18 months-2 years ago. People were coming to Taiwan with the expectation of NT$60,000 as basic and then tens of 1000s of $s on top through private classes. Me, I was drawing in over NT$100,000 a month every month from the day I arrived and my friends the same. The sum I just mentioned is now a dream figure for English teachers who are not university professors. The reality for some is interview after interview, an hour of classes here and there, or illegal cash in hand work at whatever place describes itself as a school.

As Rooster said, be prepared to take many hits: financial, time, economic, confidence. The cash cow days are well in the past and I doubt that in the next five years the TEFL market will return to anything like it was 2 or so years ago. If you come be prepared for the worst and thank your lucky stars if things fall into place quickly and you obtain an ARC.

[yamahuh]

[Suburban_Andy]

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm actually quite surprised that so many people go there looking for teaching work that isn't with kids. I thought that made up the vast majority of the work and it was certainly what I expected to get. I actually quite enjoyed teaching kids in Korea, so it should work out ok.

At least now I have no expectations for pay, which is good in a way. I was hoping for similar levels to what I was getting in Korea, but that's not very realistic any more it seems. Now I know what I'm getting myself into.

Sorry to hear about your continuing problems Rooster. I hope things work out better for you in China.

[yamahuh]

It's really not all gloom and doom - there are still decent paying jobs out there and they are looking to hire people. Perhaps the competition is a bit more now that it has been historically but if you're willing to work and have some resources to fund your search or can line something up before you arrive you'll be fine. $55K is really a good 'middle ground wage' you can make or less but I personally wouldn't look at anything paying less than that for 20 - 25 hours per week.

That's about $1800 US so wages are pretty comparable to Korea especially if you're able to get a job for $60K or more.