Viewing topic: Should I stay or should I go now...?

I just received a job offer from a school called "English-In-Klin." It is a contract job, but I'm a total greenhorn, so I can live with that. It's in a small town in the Moscow province.
I can't seem to find anything one way or another, the google search on VR didn't yield anything...
If nothing else, it can not hurt to try, eh?
Cheers!!
-Mickey

The worst they can do is chain you and flog you No, wait, the worst they could do would be to make you teach using Headway

Post some more info, Mickey? Name of town, wage, conditions, etc. ?

The following is an excerpt from the e-mail I received...:

- competitive salary for Russian standards ( US$ 1000/month at CB rates)

- contract (till the end of May)

- 30-hour teaching week

- paid accommodation (not shared)

- paid holidays (2.7 days for every month)

- end of contract accumulating bonus - US$ 50 per month

- air flight compensation (US$ 66/88 per month)

- consulate fee and AIDS test paid in full on completion of the contract

- health care and inurance

- free Internet access

- good resource library in the school

- monthly seminars

- free Russian lessons throughout the year

We offer classes (10 -15 students) of upper- levels (general and business English) to a native speaker because we are sure that at these levels students also need to be familiar with the culture of the language they are learning. Our students are mostly adults and teenagers, but all of them are motivated and very positive and friendly, as all Russians.

Sounds almost too good to be true

Are you saying that this looks fishy/they're promising more than they will deliver? I don't have a wide margin of error here, so I need to be careful. They asked about a telephone interview, any questions I should be sure to ask??

Hmm, have you got the TEFL guide? I think it covers most of the likely scenarios. It's not necessarily a sign of a bad deal, just unusual for small schools in Russia and possibly quite a generous contract for a beginner. Doesn't mean it's impossible, though

At least get a copy of the 'contract' for a start (not just their description of the main points) and check the full conditions.

Find out your actual 'on call' hours, i.e. earliest lesson start, latest lesson finish.

Find out about off-site hours, if there are any, check how far you have to go, whether travel is paid and at what rate. Check their story on overtime (the TEFL guide should really help get a good grasp of what's important, plug-plug ). Ask how far the accommodation will be from the school, ask about the state of repair (free accommodation isn't much fun if rats wouldn't even live in it) and bill payments, etc.

Don't assume that they're up to something, just be direct and polite and get the answers you need.

Dear Kyle,

Your post was very interesting. I would like to talk to you more about it. I received the same job offer from the school in Klin (starting 10 January). I am currentlly studying in St. Petersburg, and looking for teaching positions in Eastern Europe. I found the school on the ESL Employment site. I have never heard of this school and couldn't find any info on the web. Could you reply to me at email removed to help save member from being spammed up the Khaiber?

Thank You,
Ania

Curiouser and curiouser

Anyutka, I'll get your PM access straightened out ASAP. I'm on a crappy backup computer at the moment because the video card on my computer gave up the ghost. Said crappy backup computer isn't quite up to the task of meddling in the database.

For anyone interested, a capacitor burned out.

For the very few that are interested at all, this site has a fascinating conspiracy theory as to why that happened: http://www.badcaps.com

Anyone else had a capacitor burn out/blow up?

A contributing factor in the demise of my V-card may have been the fact it was stacked up against a wireless adaptor which was probably interfering with the cooling. Hell, I didn't know it had a fan on it!

Blah... rambling again. Note to self: don't stay up this late translating.