Great Entry Job as an English Teacher
Pros
First, I like to preface what I'm going to say by saying your experience could vary depending on which EF center you get placed in. You could get could get placed into a center with a not so great DoS and teachers or you could get placed into a great working environment with awesome staff members. EF is a great company that provides good training and materials for their teachers. I worked as a Kids and Teens teacher in Shanghai for 15 months and my experiences has been mostly positive. For the most part, my colleagues were helpful and friendly. The best part about EF was I had a lot of freedom in the creativity of my lesson plans. I was even able to start an Anime club which I looked forward to every week. I also love the end of the contract bonus that EF provided. It definitely helped me with that extra cash in my pocket when I decided to go back home. Lastly, the hours are good if you have a passion for teaching. My weekly schedule was as followed: Mon. and Tues. off and I work Wed. to Sun. The weekday hours were a little less hectic because I would "clock-in" (I use quatations because at the center that I worked in no one really clocked in. Everyone showed up at the center before our start time and there was a kind of trust between staff members and there was never any big issue with the system that was ran at thecenter that I worked in) at 2 PM and have two hours to lesson plan and then classes would start from 4 PM to 9 PM. It's been about four years so my memory isn't so fresh in my head, but I think my weekend schedule was from 8 AM to 6 PM. It took me awhile to write and publish this review, but I'm glad I did. EF is a great company to work for and they deserve an honest review.
Cons
I can't think of any but maybe summer courses. EF has summer courses that they do every summer and it could get kind of hectic and chaotic, but at the end of each summer course day, I really appreciated all of the work that the teachers and other staff members have done.
