Job Discussion Forums

[jdm]

Hi There,

My girlfriend and I are at the beginning stages of narrowing things down on where to teach, and what companies to look into. We would like to leave the states around Oct this year, so hopefully we have given ourselves enough time to get our ducks in a row. Even though there is endless info in these forums I am currently suffering from information overload, so I was hoping for some assistance.

For a quick background, I taught for Nova in Japan for a year, however my girlfriend does not have any experience teaching English. We both have a BA, and are both native English speakers from the US.

Ideally I am looking to narrow things down right now regarding teaching in Taiwan or Korea.
Can we get jobs here without any certification?
What are the major companies to research?
When is the best time to start applying?

I guess my main question would be what are some good companies that will set you up with a place to live, job, etc, while stateside? I really enjoyed how easy it was when I got hired with NOVA. I interviewed in my own state, and once hired they set up all the rest.

Second, I know this is the Taiwan section, but if there are not companies in Taiwan that you would recommend that fill my main question, could you possibly recommend companies in Korea like this?

I am really only interested in setting up a job beforehand, and ideally the company will set up a place to live as well. I have no problem teaching kids, and ideally would not want to work a full 40 hrs a week, and the pay is good too haha. I hope this is all not too much to ask.

Thanks for your time.
Jeremy

[Hightop]

I suggest that you do not only limit yourself to Korea and Taiwan. China, Vietnam, Thailand all offer a pretty good lifestyle/work package. IMHO having worked in Korea before, skip it. It offers a pay cheque and thats about it. In my whole time there I only met one couple who went there together and liked it. Others either, slugged it out for the year, broke up or just left. In terms of good Korean employers who hire from overseas, public school SMOE, EPIK, GEPIK all fill public school positions, hire from abroad and offer a stable 9-5 (with 22 40min classes a week). Cram Schools like CDI, YBM, Topia and a million others also hire from overseas but and hit and miss when it comes to being good employers. Some branches are god some are not. These days in Taiwan you can try the big chain schools Hess, Joy, Kojen, Shane etc etc but there seem to be so many people here looking for jobs here I am not sure if they even need to hire from overseas.

[jdm]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into some of those chain schools and see what's what. And your right about not limiting myself with just Taiwan, however, I am under the impression that without certification you cannot make much money teaching outside of certain countries in Asia. As you can see, i've got some research to do.