How long did it take to get your first teaching job

[Jialin]

So is it smart to take two part time jobs if that's all you can find? Then one of the two helps you with filing for ARC, etc?


Also, any big changes in how the market is in 2012?

[ironlady]

Depends on your legal status. It is never, IMO, smart to work illegally in a cram school setting. A little tutoring on the side will likely go unnoticed (from a practical perspective) but body in school = trouble if someone cares to look into matters and you don't have a work permit for that location. And few schools will bother to go to bat for you. One foreigner, another one -- easy to replace if one gets deported.

As I have always said -- risk tolerance needs to be based on your personal circumstances. Back when I had no strong ties to Taiwan, I didn't care (but things were not the same back then, either.) Later in my stay, when I had strong reasons to stay, I was investigated after an anonymous call "tipped" someone I had an "illegal office" in my apartment. It mattered to me that I managed to clear that up, but the success in that case was largely because I didn't have an illegal office in my apartment. If I'd been caught in a buxiban working, I would probably have been deported.

[tomthorne]

It's all a case of risk management. You'll probably be OK, just don't complain on here if things don't work out.

[Jialin]

So if full time is 14-20 hours, then is part time 7-10 hours? ...What you're saying is if you take two part time jobs -- both schools need to offer a work permit, arc, etc...

[Abacus]

So if full time is 14-20 hours, then is part time 7-10 hours? ...What you're saying is if you take two part time jobs -- both schools need to offer a work permit, arc, etc...

part time/full time can be whatever the school wants to call it. You need one school to offer you a 14 hr/wk job to get a work permit, arc, etc...

You can get a second job (4+ hours) at a different school on a second work permit.

[adikarmika]

How long did it take to get your very first job teaching in Taiwan.

33 years.

[schmaniel]

Dajia hao,

So I'm wondering if anyone can help me get an updated picture for the situation now (2012). I saw a few posts earlier on saying that some people had their jobs lined up before they arrived...presumably those were buxiban jobs teaching little kids?

I also saw someone saying that jobs teaching adults are few and far between and a "dying market"...and based on what I heard from a certain HR person at a certain buxiban with classes for adults, the number of applicants for their adult teaching positions is usually anywhere from 30-50 people (i.e. my chances would not be too good, no matter how strong of an applicant I am).

I'm in California right now and thinking about just picking up and heading over in a couple weeks. I've talked to a couple schools (re: teaching adults) and they have said that they need me to come in for an interview/demo, but obviously that's not much of an assurance that I have a chance at getting hired or that the situation would even be acceptable if they did want to hire me.

Lived in Taiwan for the 2008-2009 school year (study abroad program) and am near-fluent in Chinese (B.A. therein), not sure if that does anything to make me more employable in the context of ESL (I kinda doubt it would do much, except possibly make me a little more endearing to the Taiwanese staff).

I taught English (kindergarten to high school) in Shanghai for just one academic semester after I graduated, and I taught English in a summer camp program in Kaohsiung, Danshui, Jiayi, and Tainan (over the course of one summer), but I realize that's not really going to give me any edge in the job marketplace. Just saying I somewhat know what I'm getting into, in terms of being an ESL teacher in a Chinese/Taiwanese environment.

So yeah, any updates/advice about the current situation would be really, really appreciated. Is it possible that I can head over and just go interview at a bunch of places (preferably in Taipei, Taoyuan might also be okay. My friends are all in Taipei so I'd be pretty sad if I had to be anywhere else...), and land a job within a few weeks? And to reiterate, I'm not super keen on teaching little kids again, but I'd do it if nothing else was possible.

Thanks in advance pengyoumen.

Update: After going through some more threads, it seems that my question is basically just a re-hash of the age-old "going to Taiwan" question, which has apparently been asked 10 bajillion times and to which there is no real answer. But nonetheless, I'd still welcome any feedback...