I was hired to work in the public schools without any teaching experience. You would be surprised how badly they need licensed teachers in the public schools. The jobs aren’t terribly hard either. Start getting a TEFL or TESOL endorsement on your license or simply get an online certification. They will pay for your flight to Taiwan and pay for your flight back to SA after the contract ends. If you renew the contract you can repeat the process and come back for free. Hess would not be my first option, you are worth more my friend.
I will be applying to a variety of positions on tealit as well. I’ve just completed a TEFl. Can you recommend any schools? Thanks for the encouragement.
I must admit that I also felt enlightened.
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Shane, American Eagle, Washington, Joy, ANYWHERE but Hess…
If you join facebook groups for teachers in Taiwan you will find many jobs looking for certified teachers all over Taiwan. Tealit has kind of dried up as far as jobs go.
I’ve had kids go after one another with nails, math compasses, and scissors, but few will really take it further than scratches. Violent behavior among young students is rarer than in some countries. Part of it is the culture, but a big part is that they just have less free time than other students.
If you have teaching credentials, you are probably much better off teaching at a public school, experience or not, especially if you have a TEFL. The public schools aren’t trying to market an image the way the private language schools are, so looks aren’t so important. Also, there is a short supply of qualified teachers they can hire, so they take what they can get. From what I’ve heard, it’s a lot of work, but it’s steady work. Hess doesn’t always give you a stable schedule from what I’ve heard. Public schools often don’t have the best curriculum or support, but I’ve got one friend who switched from being a university lecturer to a public school teacher just because it’s steady work. Also, lots of paid holidays. Many public schools hire through recruiters who get paid on commission. If it were me, I’d get in touch with some of them. But the OP should verify what they say as they are in it for the money. You can also check listings to see if any schools are hiring directly.
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Care to share horror stories of working at HESS
I wouldn’t call it a horror story, because it worked out really well for me in the end.
I applied to Hess from home, came for training, and got shafted on my teaching location.
They stuck with me with Changhua, at 2 different branches which were a ~30 minute scooter ride apart. I would’ve had a 1+ hour commute every day from the first day of employment, even though they tell you quite clearly in training that it will take 10 weeks to get your ARC (a requirement before you can even apply to take the scooter license exam).
In any case, since I hadn’t signed anything and had more than enough money in the bank to support myself while looking for another position (something which I would recommend to anyone considering a move to TW), I told the good people of Hess they could blow me, and started applying elsewhere. Secured a job 2 weeks later and I’m really happy with where I landed.
But yeah, I think they rely on bait-and-switch to staff the company.
Don’t like what you got? Too bad, take it or fly home.
Want out of your contract once you realize how much better teachers at other schools have it? Sure, you just have to pay a $20,000 NT fee to reimburse Hess for the “training” they provide you.
I’ve actually heard (though I can’t confirm this) that they won’t hire APRC holders because they can’t exert control over someone who holds permanent residence the way they could with someone who’s fresh off the boat and dependent on their employer to stay in the country.
I know some people on this forum have worked for Hess and actually enjoyed the experience (though I would surmise those people are actually part of middle management and want to improve the company’s rock-bottom reputation), but I would caution a new teacher against signing ANYTHING if they felt the slightest bit of unease with the impending situation. A year is a long time…
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Gross. Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this were really the case.
I think they’ve basically resigned themselves to the high turnover level and just make it part of their business model now. There’s a distinct lack of quality control with Hess since it’s such a sprawling company, so it’s totally luck of the draw whether you have a good or bad experience with them. You could get a shitty location, an unreasonable distance between branches, an awful schedule, unbearable management at your branch, or some combination of those things. A few people I know like where they’ve ended up and manage to settle into a tolerable or even enjoyable groove. More often they get the hell out at the first opportunity.
I just feel sorry for the kids and their families spending all that money just for them get shuffled from new teacher to new teacher. Not a good learning environment.
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I’m going through the recruitment process right now and I’ve already booked my tickets. I had a bad/ uneasy feeling during the Skype interview and I am not going to follow through with the contract. A few things that made me feel this way -
- The 20,000NTD training fee if you break your contract (resign early).
- You will not know your location until you arrive.
- The amount of negative reviews by previous ESL teachers.
- The reputation of HESS (I was told by a local who works for a Buxiban in Taipei that HESS overworks and under pays their employees)
- The way the recruiters answered my questions about consistant and structured rosters. I got the vibe that I might be in for additonal hours (which you are contractually obligated to accept). This was important to me as I wanted a level of work life balance.
- Their seems to be a lot of effort of enticing you into the country/ job - taxi, accommodation, etc.
I am not going to accept the offer and I’ll apply at Buxibans instead…
Whole-heartedly agree with your decision, but would offer a word of advice.
Go to the first day of training.
They will take you on a short tour of Taipei AND more importantly, will take you to the hospital for your requisite medical check (you’ll have to wait 5-10 days for the results but at least you can get it out of the way immediately).
Plus, it will give you the opportunity to meet some other new arrivals.
They won’t ask you to sign the contract until day 3, when they give you your assignment, so you’ve got nothing to lose.
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As others have pointed out, HESS is extremely inconsistent depending on the branch. I know someone who got lucky and had a good experience, and someone else who hated it and quit early. It’s all luck of the draw. I don’t think anyone who has more than a couple years experience should be applying with them though. But if you’re a FOB, you could do worse.
Yeah but I would rather just be upfront and honest. I don’t want to go there and have them invest a lot into me with the intention of not following through. Although it’s just business, I would rather just maintain integrity and hopefully karma will pay it back. Good advice though, thank you.
By the way, how does the medical report work? Does the employer normally organise this or can I do it myself? If I do it myself, do I ask for anything specific or is it just a general medical report?
I will be a FOB ESL teacher but I would rather roll the dice and shop around for an employer rather than be allocated to a bad branch and incur a 20,000NTD fee. It would be a bad way to start the ESL experience.
Normally I don’t read to much into the negative reviews however, there are just too many of them and they are consistent with each other.
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You can be sure that you will be asked to do unpaid work as an English Teacher. They essentially bank on you wanting to succeed in your job as a teacher. Lesson plans, grading, and many more activities are expected. Add to that the difficulty of teaching as a profession and you will certainly earn the money they pay you.
The issue of the $20,000 fee is moot I believe. This part of the contract is illegal. Welcome to Taiwan! The law isn’t as cut and dry as it is in the Western World. If you want to leave before the contract ends just tell them your family has an emergency. They will allow you to leave and probably let you keep your training pay (although they will have probably taken money from you in some way that you din’t consider.)
I could teach a lesson that someone else had planned, but I wouldn’t want to. What is the issue with planning lessons?
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I hate teaching someone else’s lesson plan, especially the ones supplied by the office as they’re usually as deep as a puddle and way too structured, so there’s no adapting to the students’ needs or interests. There’s also none of the teacher’s individual voice or experience informing it, so it could literally be taught by anyone. I guess one’s opinion about whether they want to go through the effort of preparing for a lesson they’re teaching is what separates good teachers from ones who’d rather just coast by on the bare minimum.
I think the issue has more to do with going in early and having to spend time “planning the lesson” in an office, which could have been done more easily and just as effectively at home.
At my first teaching job in Taiwan, the teachers were required to be in 30 minutes early to “Formulate Their Lesson Plans!” Now, I’d already done that the night before, so that (wasted, unpaid) 30 minutes consisted of me eating tea eggs and sitting around twiddling my thumbs.
The situation quickly changed in the second year, when my contract was renewed.
It’s totally unnecessary unless you’re an utterly useless fuck who shouldn’t have been appointed in the first place. It’s really just a power-play office politics thing.
Asking someone with no training to be a teacher is pretty ridiculous. Hess is built around helping new teachers get acclimated so I do think there is a case to make for the school. I just worry that the OP doesn’t have a clear understanding of what it means to work as a White Monkey for a Buxiban in Taiwan.
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