Pros
- You are picked up from the airport (the person who picks you up doesn't speak much English so the car ride is awkward). - There is accommodation which is nice (depending on which apartment block you are placed in). - There is six weeks worth of work that has already been planned out for you.
Cons
- You don't get to choose which centre you work at. Some teachers can walk to work while others spend over an hour on the train just to get to work. - If you are placed at a centre that is far from accommodation you are not compensated for that and it is expensive getting to work. - The working hours are incredibly long and you have no time in between lessons, not even 2 minutes. - You basically work 6 days a week as the half days don't count as half days. - The salary is not competitive at all; you work such long hours and you get paid peanuts. Even if you have teaching experience your salary remains the same. - Your salary also depends on how much the company likes you. - The area managers are incredibly unprofessional - especially the female managers. They gossip about teachers behind their backs and then pretend to be their friends when that teacher is around. They don't know how to do their jobs! If you have a problem they don't take it to management or even try to help you with your issue. - The area managers are either on your case all the time or you never see them. - The 'professional development / teacher training' is a joke. The people who do the training are other teachers from the company (that don't know how to teach) and you just end up chatting about your Sunday. - The company is like a version of high school - the area managers and senior teachers think they are a gift to the world. - If you are sick they will try and convince you to come into work even if you have a doctors note and they don't always pay for your sick leave. - English Excel sell themselves for offering cooking lessons but these lessons are a disaster - you don't have a proper kitchen to use and you have to clean up using public toilets. - Teachers at the bigger centres do double the amount of work than that of teachers from smaller centres but they get the same pay. - There is no work/life balance and it puts strain on your mental and emotional well-being. If you are struggling mentally, no one will help you anyway. Many teachers are desperately unhappy and many leave before their contracts are over.