Finding a Teaching Job

Making sure you know the ins and outs of how to find teaching jobs in Taiwan can make all the difference to your stay.  There are many different ways you can find jobs and they’ll be listed from what I believe to be the worst to the best.

Agents/Recruiters

This would have to be the absolute worst way to find teaching jobs in Taiwan.  Why?  Simply because agents make their money by finding teachers to fill available positions.  This means that agents often end up having jobs or positions that are available in very remote areas of Taiwan (because schools don’t know how to find new teachers) or the positions they do have are extremely low paid or have long hours.

There might be a few sincere agents, but the majority are more concerned about making money than making sure you are 100% happy.  While many won’t lie to you, they will often leave out certain information about positions or they will make some jobs sound better than they really are.  Some agents may take advantage of the fact that you are new to Taiwan and most likely know very little about the working conditions, pay and living in Taiwan in general.

Newspapers/Websites

The most common and reliable way to find work in Taiwan is either through local newspapers (not much help if you aren’t in Taiwan already) or through classified websites.  There are many different classified websites where both schools and agents list positions they have available in Taiwan.  When browsing through these websites, be aware that many ads posted are from agents.  It is best that you apply for positions that are offered by schools directly and not a middle man.

Friends/Contacts

The best way to find work in Taiwan is through your friends or contacts.  If you are new to Taiwan or haven’t arrived in Taiwan yet, then this won’t be of much use.  Just keep this in mind as usually the positions with high pay or best working hours rarely are advertised online and instead are gained through contacts or knowing people.