Pros
I got to travel and meet some great people during my stay abroad. Salary was well above the local average and I was able to support my girlfriend and myself comfortably. I was not able to save a lot but we had a fair amount of fun and made some great memories. The health insurance was also very good. The HR department was quick to respond but not very helpful once I was on the ground in another country!
Cons
TLDR; -disorganized management - poor communication skills -terrible hours As a disclaimer, I am willing to admit that the company as a whole must have some good aspects about it given that it has grown so much within the past 5 decades. It is one of the world's leading ESL education providers and that does not happen overnight. That being said, the management at my particular school in Russia was disorganized and demonstrated poor communication skills time and time again. Several months before arriving, the HR department provided me with a labor contract. As soon as I got there, I was told I had to sign a different contract. The key differences between the two contracts were that I would have to work weekends and that the school was not obligated to pay for my housing. I was also told before arriving that the school would find me a place to stay. Two days before arriving, my manager told me that they couldn't find me a spot "because it was hard to find a landlord who would rent to a foreigner", but "it will be okay, you can stay in a hotel for a couple days and then surely, you'll find someone". WHAT!? Thank goodness my girlfriend was able to find a mutual contact who lived in the city where I would work, so that was taken care of. We arrived and suddenly, magically, I was told that they had found an apartment for me, of course it was significantly more expensive than the one we had found. When I told them we had found a spot on our own, their eyes lit up like a deer in headlights, "REALLY!? HOW!? THEY SAID THEY WOULD RENT TO YOU, AND DO THE REGISTRATION!?" I was met with skepticism from the get-go. This attitude carried over into the work environment. The management and other coworkers were very much the type to let problems linger and build up until the damage had already been done. Ultimately, I knew I could teach, but being there made me feel like I couldn't. At the same time, my planning and organization skills did improve. They had to, imagine 4, 2-hour classes back to back with less than 10 minutes in between.