I’m a first timer arriving in Taiwan in Jan. I can arrive as early as Jan 1, but would really prefer the 10th. Considering the Chinese New Year break, old classes ending, new ones beginning, etc - Is it advantageous to arrive on the 1st? Better chance of lining up a job with an early arrival? Or it doesn’t matter? Thanks so much for any help you can give me because I need to purchase air tickets soon. jamie
I would suggest arriving on Jan 10, just because the CNY break might put a time crunch on applying for a work permit, resident visa and ARC. If you arrived on the 10, you’d have two weeks to search for a job before the CNY break. Then after the break you’d have nearly 40 days left to start the application for the work permit/resident visa, which should be (barely) enough time.
You would definitely find a job within two weeks, even one if you were really in a hurry. It’s really a matter of shopping around and taking the best offer.
If you’re interested, you could probably take my old job in Tanzih, just outside of Taichung City. It’s not the best paying around (575 per hour) but it has a nice block schedule (4-8.45pm) and is suitable for someone new to teaching. I’ll be leaving around Dec 17.
Thanks so much Bar…,
I’d definitely be interested in your job, you’re right, the scheduling is nice. I’m a morning fiction writer so it would work for me. I’ll be happy to email my resume to you & your school (2 yrs experience & extremely reliable.) Would I have to arrive mid-late Dec for this job? I now owe you several beers. Sincerely, jamierjohnson@hotmail.com
I’ll send you a PM with the details. By all means you should keep looking around for other jobs as you might find something much better. I work for Joy, and the Joy’s in Taichung City generally pay NT$600 and up. The difference is many of them require you to put in more unpaid “office hours” - the 50 minutes a day at my branch is pretty reasonable, especially when you’re first starting out. They’re also not very strict about it, as I often arrive 10 minutes late (they did threaten to deduct money from my pay at one point but never followed through).
I just know that I’ve spent the last few weeks searching for a better job in the Taichung area and haven’t had any luck. As I said, I could find slightly higher pay in other jobs, but they generally required a lot more time spent at the school. Instead, I’ll be leaving Taiwan altogether.