To find a job as an English teacher in Brazil you have to go through a process that is much different than what you would go through to find a job back home. If you’re thinking of moving to Brazil to become an English teacher then you have probably looked online trying to find a job. While it is theoretically possible to find a decent job online, I don’t recommend taking this approach.

The Good Jobs Aren’t Online

The first reason why you shouldn’t look online for a job in Brazil as an English teacher is because there just aren’t any good jobs to be found online. Brazil is around 10 years behind the United States in terms of internet usage and English schools haven’t thought to go online yet. This is going to change in the future but for the mean time there aren’t many jobs online.

The job listings that you can find online generally aren’t very good. Of the job listings I have seen, most are out in the middle of nowhere, offer horrible sometimes even hostile conditions, or offer almost no other information other than “hey look at me I’m an English school in Brazil.” Very rarely do they offer any kind of assistance and expect you to take care of things like accomodations for yourself.

Brazilian Employers Want to Meet You First

An even bigger reason than the lack of internet penetration for why its difficult to find jobs online is that schools and Brazilians in general prefer to do business with people that they know and like. You wont see many schools offering jobs online because they don’t want to hire a stranger they meet online, no matter how qualified they are on paper. They want to meet teachers in person before they hire them.

While it may be difficult to find a job online before you get to Brazil, it will be remarkably easy once you actually arrive here. If you are active in networking and seeking out potential employers you shouldn’t have any trouble finding work if you’re a qualified English teacher. This might be a challenge for someone who doesn’t speak any Portuguese and who doesn’t know anybody in Brazil, but it is possible to do if you are persistent.

You Want to Work Close to Home

The last reason why you should wait until you get to Brazil before you accept a job is because you are going to want to work close to home. After you teach for a while you will start to get annoyed by how much time you have to spend on the bus in order to get to your classes. If you take a job out in the middle of nowhere and have to travel an hour to get to your first class in the morning you are not going to be a happy camper.

Instead you should first figure out where you are going to live then try to find a job. You can look on Google maps and walk around to try and find a school that is nearby to where you live. You may not find something next door but you will probably find something that is reasonably close.

I know it may seem strange to travel all the way across the world before you start to look for a job, but that is just how the system currently works. Its an uncomfortable thing for most people to do, but if you are committed to making it work and are a qualified English teacher you shouldn’t have any trouble finding work once you get here.

Have you tried to find a job online? What has your experience been so far?