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30 | Eight Easy Steps To Great Teaching Job In Vietnam Step seven: cut a deal | 31
person to the profession. Starting a new career path in a foreign country
is not a time to have an inflated opinion of where you fit into the picture. If STEP SEVEN:
there is a decent job on offer, grab it. The key features of a decent teaching
job are covered in the next chapter of this eBook. CUT A DEAL
It’s essential you remember that your first teaching job in Vietnam does
not have to be your ‘forever’ teaching job. It might be a stepping stone
to something better. By way of example, I mentioned earlier that I took
a teaching job in a semi-rural location when I first arrived in Vietnam (in ny discussion about an employment agreement related to teaching
2006). I didn’t mention that my second teaching job, one year later, was as work in a developing country like Vietnam must, in my opinion, start
Director of Studies at a tertiary institution in Ho Chi Minh City, with four times Awith a ‘reality check’. Here it is. First and foremost, the government is
the salary. If it weren’t for the first job, I would not have been competitive focused on meeting the needs of local businesses and people. Protecting
for the second. Who knows? You might find yourself in a similar situation. the ‘rights’ of foreigners who choose to work in Vietnam is not a high
priority. From my observations, an employment agreement in Vietnam is
helpful because it provides a point of reference for wages and conditions -
and it’s a core requirement for a Work Permit and a related visa. However,
it would be naïve to think that impartial dispute resolution options will be
available if your employment agreement goes ‘pear shaped’. In short, you
could be excused for thinking that a written employment agreement in
Vietnam only carries the value of the paper that it’s printed on and nothing
more. This is not a reason to baulk, but you must know the lie of the land.
As a new person to teaching English in Vietnam, here is a snapshot of what
you’ll encounter as you transition to employment and seek to ‘cut a deal’:
z Developing country (challenging infrastructure)
z Savings capacity (after all expenses) of 50% +/-
z Language barriers and related misunderstandings
z High expectations from employers
z Contracts in Vietnamese (occasionally with a crude English
translation)
z Convoluted labour laws
z Visa and Work Permit laws that frequently change, often without
notice
