My last day as an teacher at Hess Educational Organization was last Wednesday. Of course I bawled when I left my kindergarten class. It's impossible not to love those kids after working with them for 10 months. I'll miss them so much.
But even though I had a great experience working with those kids, these last 10 months of working for Hess have not been great.
I'm writing this blog because I know that even now there are people searching "Hess, Taiwan, Teach English" and they're not getting the full story. "Hess Sucks" is not completely accurate- there are some good things about Hess. But their website isn't completely accurate either.
A lot of people work at Hess for a long time, and it has been a wonderful thing in their lives.
Then there are people like me who have a less than pleasant experience.
It all depends on your personality and what you can or cannot put up with. I write this in hopes that someone like me will recognize the things that they can't put up with and look for employment elsewhere, so they don't look back on their first 10, or 12, or 6 months in Taiwan and say "God that sucked." or even worse, go home early and miss out on Taiwan. Taiwan is amazing.
Also, if someone reads this and says, Hey, Hess doesn't sound half bad, it sounds like it might be for me- then I hope they do sign with Hess. It is steady employment, you will probably get paid on time, you get training, and they do help you get settled in Taiwan.
I will try to be as even-handed about this as I can, but obviously I'm not really pro-Hess. I'll just tell my story as accurately as I can.
For a shorter version of my story and some links that might answer your questions, please click here.
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Thank you for writing this blog. I also have experience as a Hess employee. For all those considering Hess. Beware and read the fine print.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks for taking the time to write this blog. I'm actually trying to do the exact same thing you were thinking of doing. I love the ocean and have a surfboard but where I'm from the surf sucks. So I wanted a place where the surf was a quick walk from my apartment, the food would be awesome, cheap, and I would never have to cook, and I wanted a job with so much flexibility that I could just spend most of my day surfing. And make enough to cover my bills, college loans, and still save some money. And Ta-Da! Taiwan seems to be the answer! It seems that this was the exact same train of thought that you had going in. I hope it works out for me! I've been e-mailing some places, but it's ridiculous how no one is returning my emails. Any advice on how to get started? I'm from the state but I'm currently in the Philippines for several months now. Any advice???? :)
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