More on Jobs for Americans Teaching English in the Philippines

I’ve mention the excellent source for Philippines jobs, http://www.jobstreet.com.ph/.  Although this site is far from specific for foreigners, there are thousands and thousands of jibs listed.  In the past year or so I have been pleased to see this site evolve as well, it’s been cleaned up, searches are faster, options to narrow searches are more robust and it general it’s a very good example of Philippine business moving smartly into the “on-line” generation.

But if you’re one of my average “frequent searches” trying to find that elusive, but oh so desirable foreigner job in the Philippines, I don’t recommend you waste time on JobStreet or any other “job Listing” site.  Why?

Simple.  What they have to offer, mainly, is JOBS.  And I’ve tried to tell people for years now, you most likely don’t want a JOB here in the Philippines.

Let’s take a look at a typical listing that most Americans can easily qualify for … except for things like a work visa which, you can see, the prospective employer requires, but isn’t about to help you get … and they ain’t cheap or easy to get.

Online English Teacher
PHP 12500 – 13000
(National Capital Reg – Pasig City)

Responsibilities:

• Teach English to Koreans online using the company’s curriculum

• Help in other tasks such as giving tests to applicants, scoring student’s tests, making changes in the company’s curriculum, etc.

Requirements:

• Degree holder of any 4 to 5 year course, but degrees in Education/Mass Communications/Communication Arts and other related courses preferred English teaching experience especially with Korean students preferred.
• Must be very patient and can handle pressure extremely well With pleasing personality Ability to multi task With neutral or American accent preferred.
• Must be willing to work from 2 to 11 pm Mondays to Fridays, and 4 hours on Saturdays.
• Must be willing to undergo paid 2-4 weeks training Living near Ortigas Center, Pasig preferred Females 20-35 years old preferred With good typing skills and internet savvy preferred.
• Can start immediately Only Full Time positions are available Salary for Full time tutors : Basic Salary P12, 000 + (class incentives and bonuses)
• Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.

Does this look like the job for you to focus on so you can support yourself in a comfortable life style here in the Philippines?  Hoy, my Filipino friends, keep reading, this is for you to read as well).

You may think so, but me, I think it’s a pretty poor choice for anyone who can read, write and speak the English language … which pretty much means almost anyone reading here and looking for a job in the Philippines.

You see, jobs for English speakers aren’t hard to find here at all.  A relative just recently set out for a call center job and landed a “good” one in less that two days.  She’s happy, so I’m happy that she’s happy, but personally I think she sold herself way too short … her job pays very much like this one illustrated above … and I think, if you seriously consider jobs like this then you sell yourself too short too.

You see I hate to sound like some reactionary rabble rouser, but in many ways … the so-called “security” of a job is nothing more than a voluntary entry into legalized enslavement.

Go to any good business school and work on your MBA, and one of the things you will find about “jobs”, how to create them, manage them, hire and fire for them, etc. is that in order to justify creating a new job … rather than paying overtime to existing workers, for example, is that the new job needs to bring in a minimum of three times the “burdened” cost of the new position.

“Burdened” cost simply means the cost of the actual salary, the cost of whatever benefits you are providing, the cost of owning or renting space for the new employee to work, taxes, medical insurance, in short the actual “grand total” cost of establishing a new person’s position.

Now there’s another pretty easy to use rule of thumb that the “burdened cost” of most entry-level jobs runs right around twice the published salary.  A lot of people may not believe this, but they are folks who never opened a business with employees and started paying all the bills that have to be paid even before you hire someone.

So what does all this estimating and averaging mean to you, the dear reader who thinks the solution to their problems is to find a JOB (means Just Over Broke, by the way).?  That’s easy.  What is the illustrated job paying?  PhP 13,000 (max) per month.  That’s a whopping (almost) $300 USD per month at today’s exchange rate.

By rule of thumb as we already mentioned, the burdened cost for that jib will be close to $600 USD per month, and by the profitability rule of thumb, the person who did the analysis and decided to advertise the position is pretty darn sure that the successful candidate is thus going to generate about $1,800 USD (or the Peso equivalent) for the school.

Now $600 USD per month is a wage you can live on (barely) … don’t forget that figure is all before mandatory income taxes, social security deductions and such … see my recent update to living in the Philippines on $700 USD per month for a local Filipino readers viewpoint on living on that amount.

But $1,800 USD per month is an OK income so far as I am concerned.  My wife and I live decently in the Manila suburbs on that amount, send our nice to college and enjoy some other perquisites as well … and we save money every month to boot.

So if you are a person eagerly looking for a job like this, let me ask you a serious question, which I don’t want to know the answer to, but you, yourself, really needs to consider carefully.  What personality flaw or other fault are you burdened with that makes you want to “sell yourself” … because that is what a JOB is …  to sell yourself to a bidder who is only willing to pay 1/3 of your proven worth?  

I’m no Doctor Phil, to be sure, but it certainly sounds to me as if a person who sets their goals 66.666% below what they already know what they are worth in today’s economy need to seriously re-evaluate their own thinking … ya think?

You might already know what’s coming … because you’ve heard it here before.  Why don’t you set up an online English School, for yourself, no matter where you live now?  here’s a recent pricing example from an online English school web site I recently watched get sold in an online auction:

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Payment

1 hour trial class  Our Price: $10.00

1 hour trial class with free book.

10 English lessons Our Price: $90.00

10 hours class via Skype with free ebook. Any level/age. Any English course.

23 English Lessons  Our Price: $187.00

20 hours plus 3 bonus hours total of 23 hours, private class

<
strong>30 hours English Class  Our Price: $249.75

30 hours. Private lesson via Skype. Any level or age. Any English course.

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This little "online school site" sold for less than $400 USD as a “going concern” with a number of eager English teachers ready to be on staff, custom written eBook class texts and … get this … an email list of over 65,000 prospective students who had mailed in over the past few years to inquire about the school. 

Now even if you did this yourself, with no staff, if we were to look at our notional $1.800 USD “target”, so we could assure ourselves we were getting paid what we are obviously worth … we would need only 20 people per month, based on an average of the sales prices, to get our $1800 USD target.

The fellow who has acquired this site is now using a Japanese address and a Japanese phone number for his contact data .. easy and cheap to do with Skype .. Skype cab provide a cheap local phone number in over 21 countries, so he is obviously targeting the Japanese market … although he can accept students world-wide.  I used to work for a language school in Japan part-time when I was living there.  I have first-hand experience for the enthusiasm of Japanese for conversational English classes and coaching, and for the prices they are willing to pay.

This sample site is offering instruction for $9,00 USD per hour.  In the Tokyo area, students commonly pay their English schools $40 to $50 USD equivalent per hour.  Do you think he is price competitive?  Too damn cheap in my book!

Think this JOB charade through closely, friends … in my opinion it is NOT how you want to live in the Philippines, even if you are Filipino.

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OK, I looked this over since I posted it, and I also have some questions from many people who aren’t really clear on a couple concepts. One question I have had several times is, "If this is so easy, why aren’t you doing it, Dave"? Well that’s a very good question. part one of the answer is, I didn’t say it was easy. I said that anyone with normal spoken English skills and a computer and the free program Skype can do it, but it’s work.

It;s a legitimate business opportunity that you can pursue from anywhere you live, and it requires virtually no investment .. but … like any conventional or self-employed venture, it requires effort.  I’m 65 years young and I enjoy being retired.  that’s one reason I don’t teach English online as a business (Although I was really, really tempted to bu7y that example site I showed you earlier )

The second reason is, like any successful business, it requires a certain amount of setting up, planning and developing specific techniques for the market … and I spend way too much time on other profitable on-line ventures as it is … I don’t care to start something else again from scratch.  I’d rather build the properties I currently have to be bigger and better.

But I di the next best thing.  I found those of you who are interested in a sensible, doable way to make real money online for performing a necessary and useful service, a complete package on how to set up a working business, step by step, written by an American living in Japan who earns money teaching English online.

An online English teaching journey and how you too can teach English online and get money:

My name is John Buchanan, and I’m an online English teacher.  I love to travel and help people.

In 2005 I moved to Osaka, Japan with thoughts of meeting new people, witnessing the culture and exploring the other mysteries that awaited.  I never thought I would become self-employed after being hired by a Japanese conversation school by the name of Nova.
With them I taught English to Japanese students from all over Japan by using a computer and the Internet. For myself, I paid attention, learned a lot, and eventually adapted a working strategy that paid nicely. …

I did all of my teaching with a webcam, microphone and their special software. The setup was pretty neat because it allowed me to show pictures, play audio recordings, write with a typing tool, as well as the ability to draw with colors.

Pretty cool! I got paid to sit and talk and teach English and draw funny pictures for students.

After I got to Japan, I was blown away by how much money students were paying on average for a 40 minute one-on-one private lesson over the Internet.

Guess how much?

 

About $70.00 for one 40 minute English lesson was the average! My eyebrows flew off my face when I heard that number. …

If you want a no BS look at the details facts and figures of how one man does this, for real, and you want a professionally written step by step course, complete with custom video instructions on things like how to set up Skype to do this teaching professionally, then I suggest you read John’s Teaching English Online sales page.

I find his facts, figures and conclusions are very believable, based on personal experience, and best of all, the offer is completely risk free .. if it ain’t what you want, you get back very penny.  A no nonsense course in how to make teaching English online, from anywhere, work for you.

Will you make a move, or will you wait and see if the government makes things better just for you?

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