Taiwan Teaching Jobs:
What's the Best Time to Find Them?

Before I start telling you anything about Taiwan teaching jobs, you should know that the best resource available online about jobs for English teachers in Taiwan is this huge English schools directory that I've included in this guide. It lists more than 500 English schools in Taiwan, in places like Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Taoyuan.

Taiwan Teaching Job - How badly do you want one?

If you're motivated, you'll be able to find English teaching jobs in Taiwan anytime of the year. Motivation, not qualifications, seems to be the big difference between people who get ESL jobs easily and people who struggle to find work in Taiwan. If you have motivation and know how to present yourself at interviews, finding TEFL jobs in Taiwan will be a breeze.

Taiwan teaching jobs - When is the hiring season?

The hiring season for ESL schools in Taiwan closely follows that of Western school systems, but it is complicated a bit by the fact that most of the teachers are foreigners. For the most part though, English teaching jobs in Taiwan are signed on one-year contracts, with the most common period beginning in the fall.

Taiwan teaching jobs - When is the best time to arrive?

Due to this, the best time to arrive is most likely somewhere in mid-summer, to ensure that you can hit the peak hiring time before the fall semester begins (usually around the beginning of September).

Important: If you arrive in Taiwan fewer than 187 days before January 1 of the following year, you will be taxed at 20% instead of 6%, resulting in a big blow to your income. This 187-day date falls around late June, so come before that if at all possible. You can learn more about taxes in Taiwan for English teachers here.

Many ESL schools in Taiwan also hire around the beginning of the second semester, which comes after Chinese New Year (late January -mid-February). However, coming at this time sees less hiring and makes it really difficult to avoid that pesky 187-day tax law. If you are able to secure a teaching job in Taiwan, or perhaps several interviews, before arriving, you could feasibly plan to do so around early January and go from there.

Still, the June-August period is undoubtedly the most abundant source of new TEFL / ESL positions and openings, and will be your best for having a wide range of choices and interviews. You can find more on this topic in Teach English in Taiwan: The Official Survival Guide. It's an eBook I've written about working and living in Taiwan.

Taiwan teaching jobs - Other things to consider

It is true that English teaching positions will come and go all throughout the year. But, the schools that have a more rigid hiring season will have a more stable environment. Why would a school suddenly have a job opening halfway through October? Probably because somebody was unexpectedly fired. On the other hand, a secure year-to-year job will do its hiring at the beginning and run its course until the end, so I recommend that you do your looking in the summer.

Join a TEFL program to find teaching jobs even more easily!

As I have already discussed in other sections of this website, you don't need much (only a college degree) to legally teach English in Taiwan. Still, you should keep in mind that ESL schools are always more inclined to hire "real" TEFL teachers with the proper TESOL certification, so you might want to consider taking some sort of TEFL or ESL training. Nowadays, it's easy to get ESL certification online, so it doesn't mean you'd have to go back to a traditional school to become an English teacher in Taiwan.

I wish you good luck finding teaching jobs in Taiwan!

Need more info about Teaching English in Taiwan?

If you'd like to learn more about teaching ESL and living in Taiwan, you should definitely have a look at the eBook I've written on the subject. It's called Teach English in Taiwan: The Official Survival Guide.

This guide answers all the questions you might have about teaching on Formosa - it's a step-by-step blueprint that shows everything you need to know to have a successful teaching experience in Taiwan.

The guide also contains a massive directory of more than 500 English schools in Taiwan. The directory is invaluable to find teaching jobs in smaller Taiwanese cities like Hualien, Tainan, Miaoli, Taidong, Pingtung, Keelung, and Hsinchu.

You can learn more about this eBook here.

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