I would not recommend accepting a position here and I will explain the reasons why so that others can make a more informed decision than I did. I will just start from the beginning and try to add every day or so.
My First Clue
I have taught abroad in China three times and they ALWAYS pay for 100% of your travel expenses. EA expects you to pay your travel expenses. That is just crazy. I have taught abroad and NEVER have been expected to do this. It cost me a fortune. Sometimes a school might want you to procure a visa as an act of good faith but paying for 100% of your travel expenses is nuts. If you get an offer such as this, run for the hills. I really should have known better but I lived in Texas and overall, it was not the most expensive thing in the world, yet. It wouldn’t be long before I saw my savings slip between my fingers.
However there are teachers from India, Nigeria, and other places that are just screwed. One of the Indian teachers paid something like $1300 USD to get over here just to be an assistant and got FIRED when a native speaker whose husband had been deported applied for a position. So he had to get back to India. We still speak. As far as I can tell, they had no real reason to fire him and offerred to let him to stay until the new woman arrived but you DO NOT want to find yourself in that situation. Do not stray too far from home unless you have a friend that has been through the program and can recommend it.
Housing
EA (Escuela Americana) offers single housing for teachers. I have been told that it is like a hotel. Dorm size fridge, no real ability to cook etc. so most teachers are looking to get out of there though I don’t know that it is a bad place. I haven’t been. EA pays 100% for that from what I understand. I have not been there so I cannot comment beyond that. I do know that taxi rides to/from school from that location are 80 pesos x 5 days a week which adds up.
Since I brought my child and my pets, I needed different housing and they found a place near the school. It was not the worst place on the planet but it was not well maintained (the skylight over the toilet would rain on you) and the landlord frequently “forgot” to pay the internet bill although he collected the cash for it. The biggest issue was the expense of this house. I was told they could find housing for 4000 pesos and they would pay 3000. Instead, they found substandard housing with no enclosure for my dogs for $7500 pesos a month. There also was no refrigerator. I was shocked. I had no idea where to buy a refrigerator and ultimately it cost me another 6000 pesos because they let me know it was not their problem and I had no other choice.
I found a beautiful place very quickly that was modern and well maintained for 6500 pesos a month. LESS than the poorly maintained house. It was also probably 3x the size with a jacuzzi, 4 bathrooms, and a beautiful view of the mountains. A new teacher had arrived that was living in the complex I mentioned before and she decided to take my old place. What happened next was shocking. They bought HER a refrigerator and only charged her 2000 pesos for a month as opposed to the 3500 pesos they were charging me and I am a single parent supporting a child.
Salaries
The salaries are very unfair. The teacher I mentioned before had been working in a call center in CO the previous year. As far as I know, she never finished higher education. It is possible she has a BA but nothing beyond that. She taught pre-school, had an assistant, and two small groups of kids.
I have 2 BA’s, a MA, a teaching certification, several awards, and have taught for a number of years. I initially was offerred 28,000 pesos a month plus a 3000 peso housing stipend but they were never really clear on what I would be teaching. They gave me over 100 7th and 9th graders which was absolutely unmanageable. I negotiated to lose the 7th graders because I was accustomed to HS and college students and the insanity in the classroom was way too much. They agreed and I took a pay cut that put me at the same salary range of the person mentioned above of $22,000 pesos a month.
The Mexicans make far less and they are not happy about it and they shouldn’t be. An educated Mexican colleague who is perfectly bilingual made half of what I did. We also rarely got paid on time and when we did the foreigners usually got paid well before the Mexican employees but not always. It seemed very random and we were just expected to wait. During Christmas Vacation, I was paid 2 days before the holiday was over. It was the worst holiday of my life.
From bad to worse
I separated from the school on May 28th after my daughter was injured and still did not have a valid visa for her or insurance as promised by the school. I went to migration myself with my limited Spanish and spent 3 days there applying for her visa. It was expensive, complicated and still hasn’t been approved. Basically, she is attending school here illegally on a tourist visa because of their negligence. Initially, I was happy with the settlement the school gave me and felt that we parted on fair terms until this happened.
So obviously I needed another job and was interviewing at a local University. During my 4th interview or so they told me that the General Director, Michele Bell had called them to warn them not to hire me. They know about the reputation of the school and Michele in general because she had worked there at one time. They assured me this was of no concern to them but what an awful thing to do to a single parent that was lured from her home country full of promises that were never fulfilled. They offered me the job anyway and I was supposed to start in the fall.
So when I left, I sent my daughter to Cuernavaca for 2 weeks of intensive Spanish courses. I emailed the school asking for her final grades (I never withdrew her) and was told that they could not provide them which would result in her repeating the 8th grade. At this school, I have seen students miss 2 weeks to vacation with their parents in Malaysia and Iceland and nobody bats as eye. This is not over. If fact, it hasn’t even begun.
The Latest
The issues with my daughter’s visa and grades still have not been resolved. Today is July 15 and there has been no change in status since June 16 despite the fact that I have paid the fees and turned in all of the documents. I am about to return to migration and ask for her tourist visa so that I can send her home.
Tecnologico de Monterrey offerred me 3 positions in different locations and I cannot imagine how anybody survives on the money they offer. I was offerred a high level position in Toluca as Director of Multicultural Programs. I went through 8 interviews and cancelled my daughter’s birthday party so that I could rush there to meet their needs. I was formally offerred the position but the principal Maria Lourdes Bejarano rescinded her offer when I was not available for a zoom interview while on vacation, traveling in the U.S. on July 4 (a major American holiday) with less than 24 hours notice. My father is in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease and this was probably the last time I will ever see him. Keep in mind that Tec had not paid me a penny yet I was expected to be on call 24/7.
Since then I have met another Tec teacher who was suddenly let go for no reason on his way to the foreign policy conference in NYC. He ended up stranded and homeless in NYC with no money whatsoever. I was able to introduce him to Mexican friends in the area and gave him my last $20 USD which won’t last long because I don’t want him to starve there.
Just today a colleague was telling me of an Ethics professor at Tec Hidalgo who is 42 years old having an affair with a 15 year old student. When she reported him, Tec’s response was that they could do nothing unless the parents complained. This man would have been arrested in the U.S.
But wait there’s more.
So I was preparing to move back to the USA when I received a call while I was attending an event in NYC for the Foreign Policy Conference. It was from Mexico so I took it because my daughter was there and it could have been an emergency.
It was another American School called JFK in Queretáro. My first instinct was NO WAY for a few reasons. First, The person who hired me at EA was run out of town for sleeping with a parent and this is where he went. This is the guy that led me into this disaster so I was foolish for even considering it. I was told by the recruiter that it was one of the best schools in Mexico and overall I trust him so I thought I would give it a shot. Why do I care who S.P. sleeps with right? Things are different in Mexico. You see wacky stuff like this all of the time that we would find highly unethical in the U.S. The hiring practices and just firing people because you don’t like them would be a perfect example. I should reiterate here that I was not fired. I quit after a number of terrible experiences and they actually paid me a $sum and had me sign an agreement not to sue them.
So during my very busy week in NYC where I was averaging 6 hours of sleep a night, I made time to speak with JFK on several occasions very late at night in some cases. For the first interview, the recruiter made me wait over an hour past our appointment time. She sent me a follow up email saying that she was “sure” they would hire me and gave me about 30 pages of paperwork to complete to enroll my daughter. This was followed by a conference with the principal that went very well and he assured me that he thought I was great and that HR would contact me asap. Then they GHOSTED me for 10 days.
This would be a good point to remind you that my visa was about to expire and my daughter has never had one beyond a tourist visa. School is also starting in both places in about a month. About 5 days into the ghosting I started making plans to return home. One this 10th day I received this:
Dear Jennifer! good morning!
We have just made the decision amd for this time, we will continue the process with another candidate that fits the position we are looking for!
It has been amazing meeting such a interesting candidate as you, we hope we could keep in touch with you for further oportunities, ok?
Thank you so much!
My response:
We are returning to the United States in a few weeks. I would not be willing to pay to move out here again. I have already lost $10,000 USD this year. This was my last ditch effort to make this work. I am sure you can find candidates that better suit your needs. One piece of advice that I would give every school I have dealt with during my year here is to be honest and transparent with their candidates. I spent a lot of time while I was very busy in NYC to speak with each of you and it took 10 days to get any kind of response. I have had similar experiences with many schools here. While the US has plenty of problems, at least employees and job candidates have rights and protections that don’t seem to exist here. Best of luck to you.
Where am I at now?
That is a great question. I am glad I dodged the Tec/JFK bullet and can’t believe I survived EA. My overall recommendation would be to avoid teaching in Mexico. Maybe avoid working in Mexico altogether. If you do, you MUST have a savings account if one of these irrational people cuts you loose to be homeless in Mexico. I have lost almost half of my life savings trying to survive here and my time is almost up. My visa expires 8/31 and I think I am just going to chalk this up as a very bad decision and return to the U.S. to help my mother care for my father during his final days. We also received news that my ex-husband may have bone cancer (I only found out because he stopped paying child support) so obviously that has a serious impact on my daughter.
Living in Mexico is wonderful. I cannot recommend it enough. The tourism is amazing, as are the people, food, and standard of living. Working in Mexico is a very different thing. If you are working online or retired, I would highly recommend it but unless you have a friend working at a school that they love, I wouldn’t do it. I hate to walk away but there is only so much abuse you can take.
The American School of Pachuca / Escuela Americana 
You are well educated but not in shopping/buying! The prices you are quoting show you did not shop around much. You’re in Mexico, not Switzerland. Things should be cheap. If they aren’t you’re getting gringo prices. Going to an unfamiliar place with a child is ludicrous. I can’t imagine that. Buying a fridge for about $700 US? Did you not look at Craiglist? Ask around? People often have old fridges. You’re in a tropical country. Buy food fresh every day. You don’t even need a fridge. I traveled for over a year in the tropics and did fine without a fridge. Spent so little each day.
I think the problem with some people is expectations. You went to a place unknowing of local costs. Huge mistake. You should have known most of these prices before leaving.
Yes you were treated poorly. So you should have looked for another job while there. Once a company starts lying it never stops. Until you fire them as your employer!
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Well first Norman, this was not my first trip to Mexico. I studied here and traveled extensively as well before I moved. You need to work on your calculations because the refrigerator was $300USD brand new and a crisis purchase. Mexico is not all tropical..have you been here? I live in the mountains where the temps year round are about 70. Thanks for the super negative feedback. I was just hired at one of the most prestigious universities in Mexico. The purpose of this post was to help other people. I am not really sure what your purpose is other than trying to troll strangers. Good day.
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You are well educated but not in shopping/buying! The prices you are quoting show you did not shop around much. You’re in Mexico, not Switzerland. Things should be cheap. If they aren’t you’re getting gringo prices. Going to an unfamiliar place with a child is ludicrous. I can’t imagine that. Buying a fridge for about $700 US? Did you not look at Craiglist? Ask around? People often have old fridges. You’re in a tropical country. Buy food fresh every day. You don’t even need a fridge. I traveled for over a year in the tropics and did fine without a fridge. Spent so little each day.
I think the problem with some people is expectations. You went to a place unknowing of local costs. Huge mistake. You should have known most of these prices before leaving.
Yes you were treated poorly. So you should have looked for another job while there. Once a company starts lying it never stops. Until you fire them as your employer!
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Yeah, I spent about a year there on several occasions hitting most of the coastal resorts with a few weeks in the mountains (DF and Oaxaca City).
You sound like you’re not spoiled (when the roof leaked you rode it in stride) so I found it odd that you didn’t look around to find what a local person would live in. You certainly have the Spanish to converse with the locals who may have little English. The prices you quoted me seem so very high, especially for a 3rd world country. Is a fridge an emergency purchase when you have fresh food in the markets ever day? I can buy a mini fridge for about $50 USD here in Canada easily. You say you spent $300 or 6000 pesos at the time on the fridge. You mention substandard housing for 7500 pesos or about $375. Was that really the market price? How would a poor person live there with a family? Where do they live I wonder? I don’t know what the crime is like there of course. Maybe you felt you had to isolate yourself in a certain area to retain a level of safety you were comfortable with, especially with a child? That would be understandable. You mention 28000 pesos which would convert to about $1400, then 22000/$1100. I’m curious, with your background/education, why work in Mexico? Of course you knew you would be making a fraction of what you could command in the US or Europe. I would think a lot of your readers would be curious about that.
What would make this article a lot better would be if you mentioned some of the positives there. There must have been something you liked about your employer. Anything? You don’t want to sound like you posted this just to bad mouth them after you left because you felt short changed (which you undoubtedly were). It would also make a future employer more hesitant to employ you as well if you post with your real name. Not sure if that is anywhere on this blog – hopefully not. I found this from a Facebook post and most people are naive enough to post on FB with their real name so I presumed. It would be most understandable if you removed this part of my post!
It would also be informative to hear what you’re doing now – did you walk away, did you find another job in the same location or did you have to move but stayed in Mexico? These are natural curiosities that most readers would have. Especially anybody contemplating working there. Another option would be to teach languages online while working there supplementing the comparative meager income paid there. With your qualifications perhaps you could make more money that way as then you’d have the world as a customer base AND save money living in a 3rd world country. I remember talking to someone from Japan in Mexico. We compared prices. I remember cabbage (usually very cheap in Mexico) was 150 times more expensive in Japan! How about that for cheap Vitamin C?
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You are making a whole lot of assumptions and quite frankly I don’t think I have time to address them all due to the visa issue I am dealing with thanks to the school. The school found the house. I had no idea of the cost before I arrived and moved out as soon as humanly possible. I actually made a good salary there. That is the only way they can get foreign teachers and are still unable to retain them for a number of reasons.
As far as the positives, there were not many. My immediate supervisors were wonderful but they found themselves in the same terrible position as the rest of us. I have no fear of posting with my real name, Jennifer Trujillo. I don’t ever want to work for another employer like this again. I am not trashing the school because I have nothing better to do, in fact the school has put me in a crisis and if prospective employers don’t understand that, it is their problem. In FACT, when I walked into a local University with my CV in hand and told them I was an American English teacher, they gave me the side eye and asked, “Are you an American English teacher or do you work at Escuela Americana?” Thankfully they saw past that once they reviewed my CV and qualifications.
So yes I resigned and actually they were fair with compensation and provided it right away. They blame the foreign teachers for causing trouble and are happy to replace us. What they don’t understand is that we cannot accept things like not getting paid and having students telling us chinga tu madre (fuck your mother) on a daily basis. It is a VERY difficult job and I worked for Dallas ISD for 6 years which is a very problematic urban district with shootings, drugs, corruption etc. I could not have imagined anything worse
Right now I am considering multiple offers at Universities with good reputations. This was a HUGE fail but it did not make me hate Mexico in any way. I do teach online English courses which is getting me through this transitional period. Yes Mexico is a very affordable place to live, with wonderful people, food, historical sites, and natural beauty. I would like to stay but right now I am suffering through the immigration process but I am not quitter.
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I should also say this is a very rich part of Mexico which might explain the cost of things. As far as the refrigerator, I have a 13 year old kid that needs food constantly lol Also, my work schedule was insane so local markets, meal planning etc, was not a thing. I arrived at 1am on a Saturday night and was working by Monday morning. My plan was to stay so I just ate it. I ate a lot of things actually. This has been a very expensive experience for me. However, I didn’t get sucked into buying a car so thank god for that.
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This is one fascinating experience. I’m very curious as its a nice area of Mexico with hopefully a reasonable standard of living, why would the students have such a “chinga tu madre” aggressive or rebellious attitude toward a teacher? Do you think many were forced to go there by their parents? I do wonder if the narco bandits with all their wealth still has a powerful effect on even middle class kids. Sometimes the sheer allure of the “free” criminal lifestyle with all its apparent riches, can be the most dangerous aspect of all as it corrupts a whole new generation. Just the thinking “I can always do that” in the back of their mind can take away much of their ability to push themselves in some academic areas they may not be initially thrilled with.
Its fantastic that you are plugging along with online work. I guess it doesn’t pay anything like a proper position but its nice to have as a backup, especially if you’ve moved to less expensive accommodation.
One problem people have in working in foreign environments is our expectations. In developed parts of the world we’re used to people having far more diligence when it comes to timetables and deadlines. Manana time is still very apparent in much of Mexico, indeed in much of the developed world and its difficult for us to adapt as it affects so much in society. It even extends to payment expectations as you’ve mentioned. Its aggravating for us when we’re used to an accepted level of punctuality.
What is nice to see is your mentioning of all the positives you’ve experienced there, both from the country in general and the company you worked for. Hopefully they will improve and hopefully this page can help many other prospective teachers choose well in the future. Its very hard to know how things are or even what costs are when you don’t know what you’ll need until you get there. We all think that “it’ll be OK” and “I’ll make out OK”. When you’re traveling its much easier than if you have a work schedule that is very demanding of your time. I hope you can answer about the attitude of the students. This I find perplexing. The students I’ve met in nicer areas of Mexico have shown a huge amount of general respect for others. Way more than I would ever see in most areas of the US and Canada. I remember meeting a guy who mixed with some wealthy people in DF. All their kids were multi-lingual, often fluent in several European languages. Complete fluency in English was a given. They were going to private schools in Mexico, the US and Europe. One weekend they took off in the family jet for a weekend in Europe. And this was before all the narco activity began. There’s so much of Mexico most tourists never even get a glimpse at.
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Sorry for the late and probably lame reply but obviously I have been putting out fires. This part of Mexico is kind of bizarre and what we would refer to in Texas as full of “rednecks”. There is money but I don’t really see much of an educated population and a lot of people are getting their jobs/wealth based on nepotism. After I left, they fired an admin for taking bribes and fired others just because they don’t like them. It makes me miss the employment rights and protections in the U.S.
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These things have been going on for years at EA. I don’t blame you in the slightest…glad you landed well for work and wish you all the best on the continuing battles.
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