Moving to Bali as a family - a few questions

Your wife should be fine with her qualifications.  As you no doubt already know, there are a good number of private schools here in Bali where she might find an opportunity.  If she wants to start applying from the top down, she should start with the Green School.

Your situation is a little different in that only when a qualified Indonesian cannot be found for an open job position, can the job be offered to a foreigner.

In any event, you should contact Joe Yaggi at Jungle Run Productions to see if he has any ideas or suggestions for you. 

https://jungle-run.com/

Good luck!

This is very helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time and sending the contact.

Best.

As far as I know, Bali is one of the very hot places where teachers want to work, so not really sure how easy it might be finding a job there. Working for an international school in Bali is like a dream job for so many. Also, I am not sure how the situation is with schools at the moment. Here in Java they are talking about doing online classes at least until December 2020.

A friend of mine who was a Brit worked for Ogilvy in Jakarta for some years as Head of Design or something like that. I don't think that there are many big advertising firms in Bali but there might be a few or branch offices of larger companies there. So I wouldn't give up hope in searching for a job, you just never know in Indonesia and may get lucky. I think you are in a good field with your skills and experience.

If your wife can find a good job in an International school then I think you will have no problem paying for housing. Teacher's salaries are one of the reasons why those school fees are so expensive. If she ends up working in a lesser private or semi-private but English speaking school such as one that uses the Cambridge syllabus, the salary might not be adequate for a family. So as the above poster says, aim for the better international schools.

Wishing you luck.

First of all thank you for taking the time to give a detailed reply, I really appreciate it. We're planning on moving next summer the earliest so fingers crossed, this pandemic will be over by then.

Do you recommend Java as an alternative in terms of finding jobs and moving as a family etc? We're open to alternative places to look at, just not Jakarta. Because our primary goal is to move to a smaller town, live a slower paced life and enjoy it. We don't really want to leave a big city here only to find ourselves in another one.

Here the list of jobs available for foreigner in Indonesia starting from page 8.

https://jdih.kemnaker.go.id/data_puu/Ke … 019_OK.pdf

Of course Bali is a wonderful place to live. I actually lived there back in the 1990's for a couple of years and have been visiting it very often since the early 1980's. But for me it's getting pretty commercial and too many foreigners there for my liking, and also that just makes it more expensive. However, there are plenty of areas of Bali that are less crowded and more enjoyable.

When I moved from Malaysia to Indonesia I could basically have lived in any part I chose. I decided on a city about 3 hours away form Jakarta called Bandung which is in West Java. It's in the hills so it can be down to 16 or 17 deg C in the mornings which is really nice. The city is full of trees and there is lots of nature just outside the city. It actually feels like a town rather than a city, and people are friendly and you don't see too many foreigners here which I like. So this was my place of choice which is suitable for me as I do not work. There are international schools here which you can see online.

But some people like places like Bogor or Yogyakarta or even Surabaya to live. The latter two places have very hot weather. However, of course Bali is a paradise for so many people with a really rich culture that you feel and see everywhere you go. Also a fantastic place for photography and videography because there is so much to see and do.