Hey everyone,
I am looking to move to Taipei in April and am wondering if anyone has any advice on if I should secure a job before coming or if it will be easy to find a teaching job once I’m there.
I’ve heard a lot of schools only do face to face interviews and don’t hire from abroad.
Does anyone have any advice on this?
Thank you very much.
H
Sounds like you already know the answer. It’s not impossible to get a job while overseas, but it is much harder. Most places want to be sure you’re actually in the country, so you’re not going to accept the job and then flake out on coming to Taiwan. Also, it’s just easier to interview and size someone up face-to-face than over Skype/FaceTime.
You can certainly start the application process while you’re in your home country. But don’t expect many offers until you’re actually in Taiwan.
Thank you for your reply. In your estimate, how quickly would I be able to find a job upon arrival?
I know it can vary but could I expect to find something within a few weeks?
Thank you.
Depends what you’re looking for. Depends how lucky you are. Depends how many places you apply at. Depends on a lot of factors.
If you take the job hunt seriously and you’re just trying to get a buxiban job, it shouldn’t take too long though. Maybe a month. If you want something a bit more advanced like international school or public/private school it might take a while longer.
The big chain schools hire most of their new teachers from overseas. However the overseas recruitment process is too long to get here by April. If you were already in Taiwan it would be much quicker, and you could apply to a million smaller schools that don’t hire internationally.
You could definitely get offers within a few weeks if you apply in Taiwan and you are flexible about where you work.
Thanks for the responses. It sounds like it is best to just head there and pound the pavement.
Is there a particularly good time to come or is hiring pretty much year round at the cram schools?
Hi Hagen,
I’m a recruiter for a school in Taiwan. We don’t hire internationally. The reason for this is that we are looking for secure candidates that are certain of what they want to be doing, being in Taiwan helps instill a sense of security for us. Also, we find online hiring is much more impersonal, and you fail to get to know the person as well as you do IRL. Hiring time starts to get serious around May and goes through to late August. It’s a good idea to come here get yourself set up and then start to look for a school. You didn’t mention your experience, but if you’re a first time teacher be prepared to take some not so great work in your first year or two. After you’ve built up some experience there are some really good teaching contracts available, like the school I recruit for, that offer fixed salary, paid leave and bonuses.
Hi lixintw,
I am a native English speaker living in Taiwan. I worked at a big buxiban for over a year, took some time off, and am now looking for schools with better teaching contracts (fixed salary, paid leave, bonuses). I was wondering if you could give me some advice as to where I can look/apply. I have found some options, but want to look at a few more before making a decision.
Thanks!
Hi bzr,
A combination of fixed salary, paid leave, and bonuses can be a little more difficult to come by, but its certainly not impossible to find. If you have a teaching degree from your home country, it’s actually really easy to come by. If so, check the public schools in Taiwan and some of the more well known private school (e.g. Wego, Kang Chiao, etc.). Some of them don’t have great reputations, but management at a lot of them changes relatively quickly, so I wouldn’t write off anywhere just based on reputation.
If you don’t have a teaching degree, I would suggest avoiding the big chains (e.g. HESS, Giraffe, etc.) and looking for smaller but well established buxibans. Start by choosing an area you want to work in and asking people there if they know of any schools that are popular. Approach the school directly with a good resume and dress nicely. That has generally worked well for people I know.
Another option if you don’t have a teaching degree is to look to see if any of the well established private schools are opening new locations. Usually, when they do so, they have such a need for teachers that they will overlook qualifications if you have experience. For example, when Kang Chiao opened a new campus in Linkou, they needed to hire something like 30 foreign teachers in less than a semester. Most places simply won’t get that number of highly qualified applicants.
Those would be my suggestions. Hope it helps.
Hi Mac_Jay,
Thank you for your reply! After working for one of the big chains for a while, I totally agree with what you said. It seems that looking for the smaller and well established buxibans might be my best option for now.
Thank you so much again for your suggestions!