Chile Forum

Hello,
I am planning on moving to Chile arriving in September. I would be taking a TEFL course at Bridge which would probably be from Sep 20- Oct 17. I know the school year starts in March, but I was wondering if it is still possible to find a job (and start teaching) around mid October. Am I better of waiting until February to look?

"off"

Can you do anything else besides speaking your mother tongue?

Zenth wrote:Can you do anything else besides speaking your mother tongue?

I have a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics (and I plan on doing an IDELT TEFL). I've been investing on my own with what I've saved over my lifetime and I've done pretty well. I'd like to eventually get involved in investment banking in Chile, and Latin America as a whole. Given my limited Spanish I wanted to immerse myself and learn the language before even attempting to look for a position within my career area (plus I've always wanted to live abroad, and I figured this is the best time to do it). It would be pretty much impossible to look for an investment banking position in Chile (or LA), even as an analyst, without pretty Advanced Spanish. I don't really learn well in a classroom setting so I figured immersion (or a combination) would be much better. I have enough savings that I don't need a huge salary just enough to cover all of the basic expenses so I don't have to drain my savings too quickly. I have enough savings to last me until February-March if it came to it, but I would really like to start working in October/November. I know the Kid's school is on break December-January, but would their be jobs available teaching adults (or anyone for that matter) around Oct-Nov? I'd rather go outside of Santiago due to the air quality, but if that was where the job was then I don't have a problem with that. I've asked this question on the ESL cafe as well, but I've gotten good answers here so I figured I'd ask here as well. I worked as a camp counselor teaching Sailing as well for 3 summers, so I do have some experience teaching kids (with some minimal classroom time to learn the more technical terms, knots, etc..)... don't know if that would even be relevant. Any insight is appreciated.

Ask at a couple of major institutes, I believe they will say:

“Dec-Feb is summer and we have enough starving teachers (I added the starving bit) that work for us to cover the low class loads during this period, come see us the end of Feb”

I hope this give you the sense that the year for new teachers starts March 1 when everybody is back from holidays, and yes everybody does take much of Jan and Feb off, or part of each month.

As to marketing your services, hit the major institutes that have the Banks as clients, they are always trying to up their English abilities, I know a guy who teaches Engineering jargon (English) to Engineers and does very well he has contracts with 10-12 companies and makes much more than he would as an Engineer.

I happen to know there is an entry level position for a market analyst at a bank in Santiago and the only real requirement is English... but they are recruiting now... the point is, there may be other opportunities are out there for you with your qualifications and interests...