Career Break

Hey folks.

Just wondering if anyone had any experience of having a career break abroad?

I've gotten quite burnt out over the last few years, and I really need to try another place to get a breather. I'd like to work in Japan, but mostly I only see teaching jobs with a requirement of a degree. I have a Diploma, but 6+ years of working experience, so I'm not sure if that helps. As a credit Controller my level of English is quite high, so the teaching jobs sound quite appealing in a non-english country.

I've looked at quite a few destinations, visa requirements, etc, but the majority of western countries have quite a long period to wait for Visa's. Ideally I'd like to pack in my job and move off within 3-4 months, although I don't know how realistic that is.

lastly are the online TEFL courses actually useable, or just another scam, since they're usually quite a bit cheaper than the college TEFL courses..?

I'd appreciate any info or suggestions.

joePC

Have a look at the ajarn.com site and forums it has a ton of expats doing the teaching gig in Thailand. I'd recommend doing TEFL in a college, try doing it in your country of choice you get a much better idea of the teaching scene.

Niloc

A group of students are organizing a working holiday to Japan for this summer. Interested? The plan so far: Fly to Japan around the end of May, Work for June and July, travelling around the country on weekends and days off, sampling Japanese life, culture and cuisine. After finishing work spend a bit more time seeing some more of the tourist attractions around Japan. Next, get the ferry (aka the slow boat) to China, arriving in the port of Shanghai. Travel around Shanghai for a number of days. Get the newly opened train to Lhasa, in Tibet.
Spend two or three days there and then the train on to Beijing. Stay there for approximately a week.
From there board the famous Trans-Mongolian railway bound for Moscow. On arrival in Ulaan Baatar (the capital of Mongolia) spend two of three nights there, at least one of which with a native nomadic tribe. Reboard the Trans-Mongolian and go to Moscow.
See Red Square, the Kremlin etc. and then fly home. Easy as that.
Of course all this is optional. If you want to remain in Japan working, travel home directly, or by a different route its up to you. What do you think? You in…


I’m not entirely sure what kind of work we would be eligible for, there are a few professions and jobs that the work visa does not permit us to do, (and I think bar work and waitressing is included in that, unfortunately), but teaching English, factory work cleaning work construction work i even saw an agency looking for models so there is plenty of unskilled jobs available as far i have been able to see. Also one of the girls I’m traveling with, her uncle's company works out there or something like that so hopefully they might be able to sort us out with jobs, maybe.
I’m doing the job of travel agent at the moment, there’s no specific organization offering this package, it is just a dream i have always wanted to do, but for the trans-Mongolian train journey and stop off in Mongolia, I might be booking that part all together through a travel agency. (There’s a Danish company that specializes in it)

The issue of numbers is always a difficult thing to pin down. Hopefully the group would be in multiples of 2s or 4s, (best fits for trains and cabins and such). Currently there’s myself and the girl I told you about and two more maybes that are trying to organize finances.

How many I expect to be traveling is difficult. I don’t want too many but you would need a decent sized group, I’m hoping for 6 to 8, but the more the merrier (bring a friend).

Thanks for the offer. I wish I had seen the post earlier and I might have jumped in.

However I got a work & travel visa for australia, and going through the hoops to get a office job for my 1st 3 months over there. Going to Brisbane first, and then moving on from there once I've spoken to some people and gotten adjusted a bit to the situation. Have the intention of trying a few things, like fruit picking and others for variety's sake.

On the way back to Ireland (If I decide to), I'll go through Asia, but Australia has turned out to be the best option after all.