Gold Star TEFL Recruitment - Wall Street Institute Saudi Arabia

Oh the lovely sand dunes! Oh the boredom!

Living and working in Saudi Arabia is not for the feint of heart. One must throw expectations to the wind and prepare for a soul-trying time teaching the students English.

'But these students are motivated,' you claim after reading the job advertisement here.

Motivated or not, Saudi students are a handful. The reason being is their lack of study skills. Throughout their high school experience, they've been accustomed to a traditional classroom format. There is not much discussion in class, and there is only one answer for each question on exams. No essays where justification/ explanation is involved to highlight a student's deep understanding of the content. Students cram before tests so they can hold the information long enough to regurgitate it onto the multiple choice answer sheet. Review material is created by teachers who don't value the learning process, which means the answers to the exam are printed on the review material. So what happens when it's time for the final exam? Students regurgitate (the good ones) or the students purchase the answers from their overworked, underpaid and underappreciated teachers. This is the typical high school experience of a Saudi student.

In the classroom orientation - progressive, as opposed to the traditional one - described by Wall Street Institute's job posting, where experience and sharing is prioritized, can be quite frustrating for Saudi students because such an environment runs contradictory to their previous educational experience. Their expectations may not be met; they may not feel like they are learning. When they get frustrated, they don't come to class. Or, if they do go to class, they disrupt the other learners and make teaching damn near difficult to cover the target language appropriately. They need to learn the basics of study skills like note-taking, how to create and use study material, how to actively listen in class, and how to interact with a text efficiently and how to be respectful to the teacher, the other students and the learning process. As well, many students look upon teachers as servants who must provide them with the answers to pass. Quite a tall order for any teacher. Re-orientating students is quite a challenge and even more so for inexperienced teachers.

Why do I bring up this issue of Saudis and motivation and their learning experiences? Because the job advertised does not require teachers to have any - ANY! - teaching experience.

If you are a noob teacher, please don't jump head-on into a 2 year contract in such a difficult educational scenario as Saudi Arabia.

Do yourself a favor and apply elsewhere to get your experience. Japan, Korea, China or Taiwan are good places to start. Those countries offer government sponsored work for native English speakers.  Do a Google search for 'Gepik' (Korea) 'NET' or 'JET' programs in Japan, China and Taiwan.

You need to find out if you've got what it takes to be an effective teacher, which means you need to learn the basics of planning engaging lessons, how to pace your lessons, how to deliver them, and how to manage a classroom of students. Yes the job advert says you don't need to plan lessons, but having a solid foundation of how to do so will help you deliver the lessons more effectively. I'm an experienced teacher (a nice euphemism for being so old!) and still I need to prepare my lessons on teaching the past simple verb tense. Why? Because all classes are different, and all students don't have the same needs/ interests. Lesson preparation ensures you make yourself aware of how the lesson will go. You have a chance to predict and anticipate possible problems and curtail the information to coincide with students' interests/ learning styles.

You might find you don't like teaching in general. In an environment such as those previously mentioned countries, you can cut your teeth, so to speak, much better than in Saudi Arabia. I'm not saying all people are the same, I'm just saying you run the risk of being knee-deep in a possible worst-case scenario. Classroom management - even if it's a class of two or three students - is always an issue in the teaching context of Saudi Arabia. If you go to Saudi with zero experience, you'll face a steep learning curve.

Most people choose to teach in Saudi for the money. If you're Muslim, then it's for the experience of living in the birth place of Islam. Attending the mosques is always a spiritual experience, even for me who is not a Muslim. Yet, I could not be bothered to teach for Wall Street Institute in Saudi Arabia for such low pay.

My advice if you've got zero experience: learn the art of teaching before going to Saudi. Even for teachers that have many years of experience, Saudi learners can be quite difficult to manage.

If you've got at least two years of teaching experience, apply to Saudi universities because they offer a much better employment package than the one offered by Wall Street.

There's no mention of contact hours. Are you teaching 30 hours per week? If your contact hours drop because not many students are enrolled, does that mean your salary drops as well?

2000 Riyals is not enough to rent a furnished hotel-apartment. The going rates in Riyadh were around 2,500 -3,500 per month. Maybe you will be working out in the boonies where rates are lower. But ask yourself, can you handle the boredom?

Also: the visa fees are paid by the teacher! Extraordinary. No teacher should pay for the visa, which is required for them to work in that country. I can't believe Wall Street would be so petty.

Remember: before applying to any job, ask yourself a few important questions.

What are my expectations for the culture and/ or work?

What is my personality like? Will I be bored without having many social activities? Or do I like to spend my time doing solitary activities?

What if I don't like the culture and/ or work? Do I have a contingency plan? (like finding another job in the country, or fleeing in the middle of the night? Fleeing in Saudi is nearly impossible, especially if your employer keeps your passport. As well, if you flee, you are blacklisted in Saudi at least for one calendar year).

Do your homework, research, and ask lots of questions if you are interviewed. In short, leave no stone unturned.

Yanbu, Saudi Arabia from ESL Employment

This job review analyses the posting from ESL Employment. 

Let’s keep this short and sweet. This posting is best served to mid-level teachers with 2-3 years experience and a CELTA/ TEFL/ TESOL.

You might think the 6 month contract is an advantage. This way, you can get in, work, save some money, and get out of there in time before you lose your sanity.

No. A 6 month contract is not a good thing. 

You’ll be working – technically – illegally on a business visa. It is not the same as working on a resident visa. Why would Virtual Vision Solutions do that? Because it saves them money from paying and processing your resident visa and Iqama (Alien Resident Card.) And because it allows them to take further advantage of you, the employee.

 Because you’re working illegally, you have no recourse if they bring you to a labor camp and force you to stay there with 10 Bengalis and no kitchen or shower, claiming that is the furnished housing they claimed in the job advert. 

As well, they could force you to work extra hours and perform duties outside of the scope of teaching. Getting an exit/ re-entry visa won’t be possible – you’re stuck inside Saudi for the entire 6 months. As well, at the end of the 6 months, you will NOT get a severance pay, again because of working on a business visa.

Flights? Not mentioned. Employers are supposed to pay for your flights in KSA. If they expect you to pay, and claim to reimburse you, you’ll never get reimbursed.

What institute/ university/ company are you going to work for? ELC, but what does that stand for? Minor background about the company posted with the job would be helpful.

Not to mention you’ll be working in Yanbu, which makes Riyadh seem like Paris. The air quality is terrible up there, more conservative, and even less to do. But of course, you can always drink goat’s milk, eat figs and pray a thousand times per day.

The 13 – 14,000 SAR / month on offer here is the same as other job posts. Look for another job in Saudi with equal pay, furnished housing, transportation provided (or allowance) and a 12 month contract with severance...if you are so desperate for money you're eating your shoe.

But most definitely, not ICEAT at the Preparatory Year Programme at King Saud University.

Good luck to you. 

Horizon Recruitment ESL Jobs in China

Read this post here from the ESL Employment website.

Read more about Horizon Recruitment here.

There are a lot of jobs to choose from, but if you are just starting out (i.e. you just graduated with a BA) I would suggest applying for one of the jobs in a university. Specifically this one here:

The salary is quite high in relation to the other university gigs in China. 16 hours is stated as the maximum, but in the interview make sure to get that stated in the contract. Also, make sure the contract the recruitment company sends you matches the one the university will want you to sign once you are present in the country. If they don’t match, don’t sign, and call your recruitment contact in China.

3 to 4 hours of teaching per day is a great way to get your legs wet, so to speak. You’ll have enough time to plan your lessons fully before each day begins. You’ll have enough time to research what to do in the class, that is, if you are greener than grass.

In the interview ask:

1) How many office hours will I have to keep? What is the total number of hours I have to be on campus?

2) Will I be required to perform other duties? (Ones related to teaching English, such as running clubs, ESL tutoring for Chinese teachers, writing supplementary materials and/ or textbooks)

3) Is pay salaried, or if I teach less than 16 hours will my pay go down?

4) What is the tax rate for my salary, and am I, or the university, expected to pay it?

5) What amenities are included in the housing?

6) Am I responsible for paying utilities?

7) Will I have to share housing with another teacher?

8) Will I have to pay for internet access, or does the university provide that for me in the furnished housing? (No matter if internet access is provided or not, if you want to have free-wheeling, unblocked internet access to the fun websites as you would in the USA, make sure you buy a VPN and set it up BEFORE you enter China. Go here to read about VPNs.)

9) Location of the housing?

10) Are plane tickets bought for me? Or are they reimbursed? When will I be reimbursed? When will I receive the money to buy my return ticket back home?

11) What about severance if I complete my contract?

12) What is the recruiter contact number in China? Name of contact? Email address? Location? (Before you leave on the plane, check the contact information by sending an email and calling on Skype, which involves a minimal cost. If the contact info. doesn’t work, tell the recruiter. If problems start, walk away from the job. You don’t want to be stranded in China without help.)

This is just a taste of the questions you should ask. Think of others that relate to your personality (Cultural issues, free Chinese classes, monthly train/ bus passes etc.) to ensure you have a comfortable stay.

Once you arrive though, things could change at a whim. But you’re taking a calculated risk here. Get all the answers you need before, and then deal with the problems once you arrive. If the work/ cultural situation is not to your liking, you’ll still have some piece of mind knowing that you were as prepared as you could’ve been. Curveballs will come from places you weren’t expecting...no matter how prepared you are.

The most important part during this phase of job recruitment is to research and ask questions to start off on the right foot.

Newbies, give this a go: apply for this job. Good location, high pay, minimal hours at a university. It’ll look great on a CV, and give you the experience you so desperately need. Be firm with the recruiter if they try to change your mind by suggesting a different city.

If you don’t like the answers to the questions you ask, always, always, always walk away. Don’t agree to something if you see red flags waving all over the place.