Interested in teaching English in Bali :)

Hello everyone!  :)

I am from the USA and am interested in teaching English abroad. I have always been an admirer of Bali and Indonesia entirely. In the midst of earning my TEFL certification, I was curious to know if anyone has any tips, advice or information on what it is like to teach English in Bali? What's the atmosphere like? Any good schools who may be hiring? The salary, etc.?

Any advice would be greatly helpful!

Thanks!

C

Also, I must add that I do have a BFA ;) and have worked with children for the past 5 years.

The requirements are:
From one of 5 native English speaking countries (Including USA)
5 years experience in teaching
A degree in English (any discipline is fine)
A teaching certificate
No drug use
no convictions
No HIV (I think the last three are still on the list)

Teaching depends very much upon your employer, as does salary.
Expect Rp8 million in a language mill, rising to above 30 million in a top quality international school.

To work legally you must:
Satisfy the above requirements
Get a work permit (Done and paid for by your employer)
Get a KITAS immigration document (Done and paid for by your employer)
You can't legally leave Indonesia unless the employer gets an exit permit for you. That protects the employer from losing a lot of money if employees run away.
To break a contract commonly means you have to pay the employer's costs (Fair enough as it's very expensive for them to hire you).

Unless you are fully qualified and have experience you will struggle to find work in Bali as it is full of people wanting the same.

Everything Fred has said is correct for teaching except you also need to have a year's teaching minimum experience as well and the degree can be from any field and also be over 25. The rules keep changing.

Now is a good time to start contacting schools as they well begin the recruitment process. Search for teaching in Indonesia ESL.

Private schools are always hiring but have tougher requirements due to the way they are governed. EF is the leading private school and are pretty good as employers.

"Unless you are fully qualified and have experience you will struggle to find work in Bali as it is full of people wanting the same."

That is so very true, thus the competition is fierce.  As a result, teaching salaries are pretty low compared with other parts of Indonesia.  Add to that the fact that a number of folks on retirement visas are willing to teach on a volunteer basis. 

Good luck with your job pursuit.