Jobs of the Week June 16, 2013

Dear all,

I have been working on some consultancy work, and have not had much time to browse the job listings. But from the ones I have seen, here's the good, bad and not worth it selections from China and Korea. Not like anyone's reading this anyways. Any who, marvel.

GOOD

1) University Teaching Jobs - China Vacancies info@chinavacancies.com

Thank you for not providing quirky (read: annoying, offensive) rhetorical questions or a descriptive paragraph that falls short of the mark. Thank you for listing only need-to-know information for me, the prospective employee. Shit pay, shit hours, but whatever...I like companies that give you the info without you having to punch them in the face to get their attention.

Job details

2) DFL Recruitment Agency – Korea – dfl.worldteacher@gmail.com

Many jobs to choose from. Postings are straightforward with detailed information. I like DFL Recruitment Agency, but get rid of the Gmail address and set-up a domain name that can host email. It makes you look unprofessional.

Job details

3) Daegu Haany University – Korea – english@dhu.ac.kr

I am saddened to read the yearly salary is only about 29,000,000 won, and the job requires you to have a Masters. Low hours and paid vacation make this a go. But you should attempt to negotiate a higher salary. Korea! You and China and Japan make me angry with low paying university gigs that require higher ed qualifications. How dare you!

Job details

BAD

4) East-West Education LLC – China – HR@BeijingTeach.com

Teaching kids 25 hours per week? At your own peril. Especially since most kiddie jobs are higher paying than this one. I like the website http://www.beijingteach.com/ because it’s informative. Also, the pictures that display an unpolluted Chinese sky near the Bird’s Nest. And all the teachers are white! Ethnicities not preferred? But that’s racist China for you.

I hate kids. If you’re a pedo or a Mormon or Evangelical Christian, then go for it...perv.

Job details

NOT WORTH IT

5) Readingtown – China – judyh@sageshanghai.com

Zero job details. It describes the school and the curriculum, albeit vaguely. Even on the website, it only shows the recruitment process. What the hell is the salary range? If you can’t put together an informative job posting, in what other ways are you disorganized?

Pass, sucka.

Job details

BKC International House (IH) Moscow

I’m not one for cold weather, but hey, it’s Moscow. It’s Mother Russia. It’s shit money, but a helluva cultural experience nonetheless. Visiting on vacation is one thing; living there is quite another.

You can read the entirety of this job post here, at Dave’s ESL Café. You can also read another post here that through my research brought about my own understanding of why I hate Dave and his nipple-twisting-annoyance-of-a-café.

Anyways, not all International Houses – despite being part of the same franchise – are not created equal. Director of Studies (DOS) have different personalities; some are curmudgeonly, others are as happy as Richard Simmons. 

Bedazzler will do that to people

What I cannot say is that this BKC-IH is not great and not bad; I can only lay claim to what I know. And that only comes by analyzing the job posting.

The things that scare me, yet I can live with: the salary, the shared accommodation, the contact hours and the contract length.

I researched the cost-of-living index for Moscow on the website Numbeo. I was floored with how expensive the city is. When I researched the BKC-IH website, I found this nice, little tidbit that charmed the panties right off of me.

This pleases me outright as a manager of an educational institution. This organization is addressing the critiques head-on and offering another interpretation to the perception of the expensive European city. It all depends on life style. Frugality allows one to save; luxury…well, you get the picture.

I need your address Jonny to send you my panties.

The shared accommodation? Well, it is Russia – land of extremes where you get beautiful people and those who suffered a tremendous beat down via the Ugly Stick. You could get lucky and get a roommate that looks like this.

Learn me English cowboy!

Or this guy.

This could be your roommate and your DOS. 

Either way, you’ve got to share your living space with her/ him. I’m not a fan of sharing anything…not even with my husband or child. Are you like me? Then flee from this job possibility…look elsewhere.

The contact hours and the contract length are not generous by any means. 30 hours for $1150 and only for 9 months? No paid summer vacation? Trick, please… Ditto for the 24 hours and 6 months...

However…

I would gravitate to this job either as a fresh noob teacher, or someone who wants to experience the Russian culture. If you need to pay off student loans, look to Japan/ Korea. 

For 6 months, maybe saving a few hundred dollars each month, or simply drinking my money at the club, then yeah, I would go for it. If you're just starting out, be poor. It will teach you the value of hard work. You will appreciate the money you slaved for. At the end of the contract, you can always find another job to stock-up on the cash flow. Who knows you might actually enjoy working at an International House school. You could get transferred to another country that’s not as godforsakenly cold as Russia in the winter time. 

Maybe I’m partial because Russia has always transfixed me with its perceptive writers, natural beauty, frigid weather, communism and its bad-ass Kalashnikovs. After all this guy comes from Russia...

And he beat up this giant Korean...

Respect...