Job Discussion Forums

[DashGlobal]

Im looking for some input or feedback on my plan.

I have a B.A degree from the states. I plan on going to Bogota and getting my CELTA in May. Ive read where the best time to start looking for a job is june/july/aug. So ill finish my CELTA around beg of June, this should leave me 2-3 months to land a decent job. I would prefer to work in Medellin, or Cali. at a University. If I cant get a University job im not sure which would be the next best option between a high school or a language school. I dont really need to save any money. Looking to live in a lower to middle end apt or house, eat on the cheap and go out for a few drinks on fri and sat night.

What is the best way to get a University job? Go there in person and ask to speak to the ESL department head and summit your resume ect?

My least preferable option would be working split shift stuff.

How much would I need to make a month to accomplish my above intentions?

[jmc616123]

I'm a 15+ year veteran of ESL teaching all over the world (Master's in TESOL, fluent in Spanish). Lived and taught in Bogota 2002 - 2004 (1st year as Fulbright Teacher Exchange teacher, then owned my own English language "consulting" business for 2 more years) and recently returned (to Bogota) to look for a Uni teaching job (I have a 7 year old daughter that lives with her mother there and wanted to spend more than holidays per year with her).

Reader's Digest version? Them - "You are definitely qualified to teach at our Uni, and we would love to have you teach here full time. Do you have a work visa?" Me - "Well, I need a contract offer (plus other miscellaneous red tape stuff, nothing uncommon) from you in order to apply for a work visa." Them - "Jeez, we'd love to have you work here ASAP. Do let us know when you get a work visa."

Ummmm - w t f ? Did you not understand what I just said? Conclusion = Unless you have a "back door" to a work / resident visa Uni teaching is almost impossible. If you're fully credentialed in your state, country, etc., bilingual schools are the way to go.

Yes, bratty, spoiled, rich kids whose parents will consider you the demon if their child does not perform to standard (pretty much the same in all the better paying "�nternationally certified" bilingual schools all over Latin America - like it or not you are the de facto baby sitter, parent in residence, guidance counselor, etc. for their child - 7 or 17 years old, doesn't matter) but these jobs usually include housing (it's extremely hard, make that impossible, to get an apto. in Colombia without a co-signer who owns finca raiz outright (read: withOUT a mortgage), r/t airfare, decent wages (better than Uni's), etc.

Epilogue - I'm teaching at a shite bilingual school in Quito, seriously the worst school I've ever taught in (including 10 years teaching in the ghettos of NYC) for $1k per month (decent money down here) just to be close to Colombia.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

[spanglish]

Wow jmc. You DEFINITELY know what you're talking about. However, it's not quite that difficult to get into a university if you do already have a work visa. Changing your visa and renewing it are relatively painless processes. I know that Sabana, Externado and Andes all hire foreigners. Externado is probably the best pay.

[G22]

You most likely will not be able to get a university job with just a BA and a CELTA. You might be able to get a job at a colegio and make about $1,000 US or more a month, which is more than enough to get by on in Colombia.

[spanglish]

Not true.

Lots of teachers with only B.A. and CELTA are working at universities. $1000 USD is not more than enough to get by on in Colombia; it's the bare minimum (in Bogota at least, $800-$900 would be the bare minimum in a small city). Also, $1000/month (1.8 million pesos) at a high school is too low for a native speaking teacher with a B.A. and CELTA. $1200/month (2 million pesos) is the rock bottom you should be making at a high school.

[CountBassD]

[spanglish]

You spend 1.4 million for a typical month in which you stay in Bogota. Will you ever take a trip to a different city in Colombia? You gotta include that in your calculations. Do you have any kind of emergency fund in case things go bad or do you just live paycheck to paycheck? What happens if you lose your job or private classes dry up? Do you ever plan on going back home? You'd better be saving up for the plane ticket.

[bmccready]

I'm in the same boat as DashGlobal. I have a B.A. from the states and I'm planning to get CELTA certified in Bogota in a few months. This whole work visa thing has me worried though. How hard is it to get a work visa in Bogota? JMC makes it seem impossible, but according to Spanglish it seems like a piece of cake. Also, is it realistic for someone to make $1500-$2000 US/Mo. after getting the CELTA? I definitely want to be putting into savings while I'm working.

[windowlicker]

[bmccready]

"Not to be a jerk, but for example if you're having problems finding a job at home, finding a well paying job in Colombia right off the bat is probably a little unlikely"

LoL, what are you trying to say?

Thanks for the feedback Windowlicker. It's interesting to me that the pay seems to be so much higher in Colombia than the rest of L.A., at least from what I've been able to dig up on the internet. Don't know if that's because there are less teachers there, higher demand, or what. Are people afraid of the FARC?

Looking forward to getting there and finding out.

-Bmccready

[G22]

[spanglish]

I know at least one person who started at a university fresh off the CELTA and I was offered a uni position right after the course as well. But I wasn't referring to people without experience. There's lots of people with just a B.A. and CELTA at universities, but they've got a year or few years of experience.

[spanglish]

And universities aren't necessarily all that great. I turned down my offer (shouldn't have in hindsight), because they were going to offer me 6-9 hours/week to start.

[windowlicker]

G22, you haven't met anyone who works at a colegio in Bogota who makes more than 1.5 million!?!? do you know any foreigners who work in colegios or are these all colombians? I don't think I've ever met a foreigner with CELTA or other cert working in a bogota colegio who makes anything less than 2.5 million, and nearly all of them make 3 million or more.

If you're making it on 1 million in Bogota, you must be living somewhere insanely cheap. For anyone working legally in Bogota, here would be a typical budget:

Let's assume you make 1 million pesos/month

Fixed costs
Rent: 300,000 (if you're lucky, this is going to be near the bottom of what you'll pay...more likely it'll be 500,000 for a typical foreigner)
Health: 40,000 if you're on a full contract. 80,000 on a prestacion de servicios contract (at a salary like 1 million, you can assume the school is out to screw you and you're on a prestacion de servicios contract)
Pension: 40,000 if you're on a full contract, nothing on a prestacion de servios
RETEFTE & RET ICA (I was never clear on what these were, but i assume its some sort of tax...international house always took them out, anyways): 110,000 on a prestacion de servicios, nothing on a full contract
Fixed cost total: 380,000 full contract, and 450,000 for a prestacion de servios contract (again, assuming the bare minimum you're likely to pay for housing)

Variable costs
Transport: anywhere from 60,000 per month (you use public transport twice a day, 5 days a week to get to and from work) to who the hell knows how much if you're working for an institute traveling all over the city...and this is just WORK transportation costs, to say nothing of fun.
Food: With nothing extremely elaborate, I'd say you'll spend an average of 300,000 per month (10,000 per day)
Variable cost total: 360,000

Okay...so now, depending on what type of contract you're on you could either be spending 740,000 on a full contract or 810,000 on a prestacion de servicios contract, assuming you have found the cheapest housing you're likely to find (which will be in a bad neighborhood, so you may also want to factor getting robbed into your budget), taking transportation only to and from work and never for anything else, and are not eating anything fancy. That is to say, this is what you will be spending to EXIST in Bogota: to eat, sleep, and breathe. Step up into a decent neighborhood or take more than one round trip on the transmilenio per day or a ride on the transmi on a weekend and watch how fast the rest of that money gets spent up. When all's said and done, have fun with the rest of your $20,000 in "spending money." You might be able to buy two beers in the zona t with that (if you can find someone to take you there and home for free).

costs clearly go down a bit if you're not on any contract (working illegally) and don't have to pay pension, health insurance, or tax. if that's the case, pray nothing happens to your health (no insurance), and i hope you like bogota (because you won't being seeing much else of the country)

[spanglish]

You also may want to occassionaly buy a few things like deodarant, toothpaste, shampoo maybe a new pair of shoes, perhaps contacts/contact solution (all of these things are double or triple what you'd pay in the US). If you get robbed (nearly every foreigner I know who has lived in Colombia has been robbed at least once), you'll probably have to replace your cell phone (which is another cost in the first place) and who knows what else.

And if you ever want to leave Colombia, you'll need to have saved up something to set yourself up someplace else.