two new kids with no past experience will be job hunting and interviewing soon.
what would be reasonable expectations in regards to
1.hours
2.wages
3.unpaid prep time
4.holidays (paid or unpaid?)
should we be expecting any extras like
1.reimbursement for the flight over
2.subsidized housing
if interviewing at a chain school like hess, is their any room for negotiations or are their contracts standard.
thank you
[quote=“bradandjack”]two new kids with no past experience will be job hunting and interviewing soon.
what would be reasonable expectations in regards to
1.hours
2.wages
3.unpaid prep time
4.holidays (paid or unpaid?)
should we be expecting any extras like
1.reimbursement for the flight over
2.subsidized housing
if interviewing at a chain school like hess, is their any room for negotiations or are their contracts standard.
thank you[/quote]
The chains will expect 20-30 contact hours. the wages 500-650 depending on time served and experience. Paid prep time is very rare in Taiwan. Chains have programs which ‘don’t require much prep’ so they can get away with hiring new teachers. You’ll be expected to other stuff like graduation shows and school open days for no extra pay.
I came here with a (Shane; honest guys, although watch the school managers, nice-ish schools, totally fair to your contract, recommended for a first job in Taiwan. I stayed with them after my first year’s contract was up) chain. 10 days unpaid for the first year, then paid for the second. Public holidays as well, unpaid. I was reimbursed for my flight but I got the job in my home country. Few schools will reimburse you if they hire locally.
Subsidized housing; you only usually get this outside the country. Don’t touch it with a bargepole. If you get fired or quit, you’ll be homeless as well as jobless. You’ll need a private ‘refuge’ when you get here, not your boss’s brother’s house… Didn’t happen to me but I’ve heard loads of bad stories about this.
Some jobs will pay part of your salary as a housing allowance so that they can tell the Taiwanese staff they are being paid the same as the overseas staff. It’s not a bonus.
Contracts for chains are generally standard. You can negotiate a little, but I’m not sure what with if you have no experience and aren’t in Taiwan.
[quote=“bradandjack”]two new kids with no past experience will be job hunting and interviewing soon.
what would be reasonable expectations in regards to
1.hours [/quote]
Large chain schools would ask for 20-25 usually, although some like Hess may not give you 20 hours even though it is in the contract. You might be at around 18 or so for a while during the contract period.
The minimum is 14 hours to get an ARC.
Expect the $NT500-600 range. For your first year, $650 would be very nice, but unlikely. After a year and knowing that you can teach well, you could go for greener pastures with a higher salary.
It won’t be in the contract, but it WILL be expected. A few schools have virutally no prep time. One chain school you can live off of that won’t ask much of you outside your school hours is Gloria English School in Taoyuan County. They have a strict rule about not letting you work somewhere else at the same time, but otherwise they would be a fair first school with little work beyond teaching in their program.
At schools like Hess you will need 30 mins to 1 hour extra work for a 2 hour block grading papers, etc. For some people, preparation time can take that long as well.
Mostly unpaid, though on some you get a “bonus” which will amount to less than half of what you would usually make for the day. This will vary from school to school.
Usually, no. Some I’ve taught at offered half your airfare, if you complete your contract.
Usually, no. Some offer a shared dorm. Most only offer accomodation during the first month.
Pretty much standard. Smaller schools can be negotiated with. Large chains, no.
Here I come as the Hess defender again.
[quote]1.hours
Large chain schools would ask for 20-25 usually, although some like Hess may not give you 20 hours even though it is in the contract. You might be at around 18 or so for a while during the contract period.[/quote]
Hess will pay you for your contractual minimum hours whether they have enough classes for you or not. Or at least, they did when I was there.
[quote]3.unpaid prep time
[…]
At schools like Hess you will need 30 mins to 1 hour extra work for a 2 hour block grading papers, etc. For some people, preparation time can take that long as well.[/quote]
Yep, true enough, though I’ve always found it difficult to understand why this makes Hess the bad guys - at other schools, the Chinese teachers have to do all the marking on top of everything else they do, like telephone tests and makeup classes and the rest.
Incidentally, Hess pay you for two hours per hundred-minute class - the other twenty minutes is paid prep time. And it certainly doesn’t take twenty minutes to prepare a Hess lesson, once you get into the swing of things.
At Hess you can also get paid for miscellaneous admin work, if you do the paperwork – most people just don’t bother. I think you get two-thirds of your teaching pay for it, which seems reasonable.
Seriously, Hess have their problems, but most other places are worse 
[quote=“Brendon”]Here I come as the Hess defender again.
[quote]1.hours
Large chain schools would ask for 20-25 usually, although some like Hess may not give you 20 hours even though it is in the contract. You might be at around 18 or so for a while during the contract period.[/quote]
Hess will pay you for your contractual minimum hours whether they have enough classes for you or not. Or at least, they did when I was there.[/quote]
Not my experience, despite arguing about it. But that may differ depending on your manager.
[quote][quote]3.unpaid prep time
[…]
At schools like Hess you will need 30 mins to 1 hour extra work for a 2 hour block grading papers, etc. For some people, preparation time can take that long as well at first.[/quote]
Yep, true enough, though I’ve always found it difficult to understand why this makes Hess the bad guys - at other schools, the Chinese teachers have to do all the marking on top of everything else they do, like telephone tests and makeup classes and the rest.[/quote]
That depends: Are they full-time, or part-time? Full-time they have to fill the hours anyway. Part-time, the Chinese teachers should be complaining.
Hess is no worse than most about this. Few chain schools pay for this.
Well, that is one way of looking at it. But getting paid for “teaching hours” (normally 50 minutes/teaching hour) is typical of many schools. Don’t forget that 10minutes of that time is sandwiched between two 50 minute blocks…
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Hess is bad for what it does. I actually think their illegal kingergaten is a good program. But reality is that a new teacher WILL be asked to do quite a bit of work without compensation. And comparing that to the even worse plight of local teachers doesn’t lessen that.
Best that they come into the situation aware of that factor rather than getting bitter about it later on.
I thought it was half. Anyway, that mostly applies to HNST’s. I was told I was not eligible for it when spending an hour to fill out kid’s evaluation forms, etc.
But you are right, for some types of work you can get some money outside of teaching hours.