Advice on job offer

Hello,

I have received a job offer in Beijing (teaching) for 12,000RMB a month with free shared accommodation, totaling 38 hours weekly including hour lunch breaks.  I have never seen any serious ads for a salary any higher than this, although I sometimes read comments that would lead me to believe that some teachers manage to make quite a bit more than this.  Methinks they are tough-talking without any real idea of what they are talking about, for the most part. 

I have 120 hr. TEFL, teaching observation, a Bachelor's, a semester each of TA-ing for a professor and working at a Montessori summer program, and work experience as a senior analyst at a financial company, which I kinda hated.

So I would like to know how the offer compares to others, and whether it is feasible to do better.

On a related note, is it worth it to instead take a lower paying job (with free housing) that figures out to a higher hourly pay rate, and then pick up private tutoring gigs on the side? Can you reliably get tutoring jobs? 

The thoughts of knowledgeable people are greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Hi loveglitterdanger!

Welcome to Expat.com!

Armand

Hello,
12K is an ok salary but it depends on how many actual teaching hours you have. From my experience (I've lived in Beijing for the last 5 years and run a language school) with your experience you can make much more money by either a) working in an international school (such as Western Academy of Beijing or British School of Beijing) or by working on an hour-basis through private schools (experienced teachers can earn between 200-250Y an hour).

Hope it helps.

Ilya
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