Is it a waste of time to look for teaching jobs in Taiwan if you're not living there?

[Feiren]

Hey MM, if you don't have enough money to come to Taipei to look for a job for a week, I think you may run into financial problems pretty quickly even if you do have a job lined up in advance. You won't get paid for a month, so you'd better have living expenses ready for at least a month. Three months would be better. You can scrape by on around NT$20,000 a month if you have to, but it's pretty tough in Taipei.

[tommy525]

Yup the days of landing in Taiwan with a hundski in your pocket is over.

[Multiracial Man]

Hey MM, if you don't have enough money to come to Taipei to look for a job for a week, I think you may run into financial problems pretty quickly even if you do have a job lined up in advance. You won't get paid for a month, so you'd better have living expenses ready for at least a month. Three months would be better. You can scrape by on around NT$20,000 a month if you have to, but it's pretty tough in Taipei.

My folks have agreed to help me out for when I have to move, but if I add the cost of a ticket and hotel to Taipei before I end up flying back to the US, it easily doubles the amount I would need from them (and there is no way they will agree to this). I don't think its impossible to get hired from abroad, but yeah its difficult. I did contact a few recruiting agencies, Footprints comes to mind, they were pretty impressed with my resume but they said there are no openings in Taiwan as of yet. I'm still trying everything I can find near Taipei on Tealit.com though, I'm hoping that someone will take a chance on me, namely the ones that want first time teachers.

[Multiracial Man]

As I read all of the comments here, I'm open to reevaluating living in Da'an or Xinyin, I just want to live in a place that has fun things to do and that I won't be isolated as the only foreigner around. I had this experience in Hong Kong and didn't much care for it, and while I know some Mandarin, I would like to be able to mingle with other foreigners too and not commute all day to go to a good bar or club.

[GuyInTaiwan]

Yeah, I guess. The thing is how long would it take you to get to a bar or club, and how frequently would you do it? You'd probably only do it on weekends anyway. So, it might be twice per week. On the other hand, you're talking about commuting for work five (or even six) times per week.

These days, there are foreigners crawling all over the north of Taiwan. You pretty much can't avoid them. Finding people to hang out with won't be a problem, even (especially) if you're in a hole like Taoyuan. Taizhong used to be a good alternative to Taipei, but from my casual reading of it here, it seems like the current mayor has declared a War on Fun.

[headhonchoII]

Some foreigners in Taoyuan group together to get taxis in and out to Taipei on weekend nights. Or you could do the party till dawn thing and get the train back to Taoyuan in the early morning.

Trying to get a job from overseas in Taipei is almost impossible. You should save some money , live on a tight budget first and look at jobs when you are here.
Alternatively try and get a job outside Taipei while still overseas, even then not guaranteed.
You can find tonnes of the same advice on this website.
If I was you I would look for a job in Taoyuan , zhongli, new Taipei county, cos it seems like you don't have the balls for real taiwan .

[PigBloodCake]

As I read all of the comments here, I'm open to reevaluating living in Da'an or Xinyin, I just want to live in a place that has fun things to do and that I won't be isolated as the only foreigner around. I had this experience in Hong Kong and didn't much care for it, and while I know some Mandarin, I would like to be able to mingle with other foreigners too and not commute all day to go to a good bar or club.

But why Taiwan? If you didn't care much for HK, I'm pretty sure Taiwan ain't all that better either (hell, HK's financial district is pretty comparable with Xinyi).

Must be the kitties, right

[Multiracial Man]

As I read all of the comments here, I'm open to reevaluating living in Da'an or Xinyin, I just want to live in a place that has fun things to do and that I won't be isolated as the only foreigner around. I had this experience in Hong Kong and didn't much care for it, and while I know some Mandarin, I would like to be able to mingle with other foreigners too and not commute all day to go to a good bar or club.

But why Taiwan? If you didn't care much for HK, I'm pretty sure Taiwan ain't all that better either (hell, HK's financial district is pretty comparable with Xinyi).

Must be the kitties, right

I LOVED HK except that I was out in the boonies, Tuen Mun in New Territories (close to the mainland). All things considered, the boonies of HK is no more than 1-2 hrs away from the city though lol. I really want to improve my Mandarin so that's why I want to go to Taiwan. The conversion from renmibi to USD wipes out any savings I would have so Taiwan is the best choice.

[PigBloodCake]

The conversion from renmibi to USD wipes out any savings I would have so Taiwan is the best choice.

You know, any financial adviser who sees this quote would chew you to death on this. Money conversion (except for the processing fee) is the same regardless of the amount of exchanges you made (RMB->USD->NT exchange is no different from RMB->NT exchange except for that 1 extra processing fee).

Anyway, back to your situation: I'd suggest that you live *in* Taipei rather than trying for New Taipei City. Trust me, the MRT ain't all that convenient after more than 10 stops (and don't forget the interchange stations).

[superking]

There certainly seems to be a mixed message on this site. SHOULD YOU ARRIVE AND POUND THE PAVEMENT OR SHOULD YOU GET A JOB FROM OVERSEAS YOUR FIRST TIME OUT?

The thing that is not being brought up here, OP, is that if you arrive with no job, any work you do before your work permit arrives will be illegal. That means demo lessons, cover classes, and the inevitable, "you start work now, we apply for permit, everything fine no problem." Reality check; WRONG. You will be working illegally, you COULD be fined and chucked out. Then when you trump back up on here saying what has happened to you there will be a nice shit sandwich waiting, decorated atop with icing the words, "you should have done a thorough search NOOB." Your only legal route if you arrive with no job is to apply for one, don't do a demo, get hired, then sit on your ass for 6 (?) weeks till the paper work is processed. And nobody is going to have that happen to them, except in some VERY rare cases. They will just hire the idiot who DOESN'T know the law, and who will take the fall if any shit does happen to go down. I'm not trying to sacremonger you, just letting you know how it is. School owners either don't know the laws, or don't care about them. In either case, it's YOU on the line if things go to pot.

Really look into the pro's and con's of starting out with a chain school. The main plus will you will be working legally, and you will get some training. Then 6 months down the line you can look for that sweet gig you wanted, safe with your apartment, sense of direction, sense of situation and general better ability to make choices.

There really should be some consistent message about this stuff on this site, because it really depends on who you get bothering to answer your posts as to the type of advice you get, and it is a little boring watching the same old silliness going on. Some will say, 'no noob,' don't take the risk. Others will say, 'screw it bro, take a chance,' but really there should be one message. It's not ok to say, 'buyer beware,' in these situations because this is a legal matter, and people are not being given the full facts of the case, just some autobiographical testimony.