Not great to be honest... You can do better!

My girlfriend and I decided to work for Hess as it seemed like a safe option and they seemed very reasonable after our initial experience with the HR process. Sadly, we found that the positive experiences with them do not extend much further than this.

The HR team are mostly great and the training is really thorough (if not a bit intense). This experience sets a really professional tone to the company which actually stretches no further than this for a number of key reasons.

Firstly, Hess will make you do a lot of unpaid work. This can amount to almost as much work as you get paid for. There are a vast array of employers in Taiwan which will not make teachers do unpaid work and the amount of marking and admin can be mind-bending and soul-destroying at times. Particularly if you have large, upper-level classes. Hess offer bonuses for retaining these large classes as an incentive for this work but in comparison to the amount of extra work this involves over a year, the bonuses are frankly miserable!

Also, Hess will charge you a fee if you break your one-year contract. If you choose to fight this, it will prove an ugly and unpleasant process for those who stand their ground. This is something that very few employers in Taiwan do. Many language schools will not even bind teachers to a contract.

I simply had a terrible time at the branch I was placed in. I worked twice as many Saturday hours as any other NST (native speaking teacher) - working all day, while others had Saturday free. I was also the only NST who worked late each day from Monday to Friday. This did not give me much free time, was not similar to my girlfriend's schedule and made me very unhappy. I endured this for nearly ten months of a year-long contract before some small changes were made to my schedule for my final two months of employment.

I also found that I had little or no support during my struggle, as there was no head NST at our branch. In addition, I found the response of upper level staff to be quite dismissive of my concerns by simply stating 'you signed the contract'. This is a mealy-mouthed and jobs worthy response to an employee's occupational health concerns. I was also lied to by a senior manager during discussion of my aggrevance in order to strengthen her position on the matter! My advice would be not to consider one of their contracts considering the potential outcome and the lack of compassion and decency extended.

To give you further context on this issue I should inform you that I am a man in my thirties who has worked full-time for well over a decade in a number of roles for various companies. I have not taken a single day of sickness absence in over a decade -despite a number of broken bones - and have never been informed of any issues with my working attitude. Quite the opposite in fact, I have received awards and commendations from most companies I have worked with. When I worked with Hess, I was informed that the issues I experienced were simply due to culture shock and differences in working environments and that all of my issues resulted from a poor attitude. In this case, I am pretty confident that my working record speaks for itself and that the problem lies elsewhere!

It's easy to lack confidence when making such a large move across the world to live and work in a foreign country. It is very daunting and the secured prospect of working for a giant company like Hess can be comforting. However, I can simply inform you that the language teaching market in Taiwan is ripe for the picking and if you just have faith in yourself to find a job out there you'll find a role with better pay and conditions with significantly less unpaid work. I know a number of people who enjoyed their first year with Hess, and a couple which stayed for a second year. However, with such a variation in experiences and the risk of suffering from a company's unfair practices, I would simply advise that you seek employment elsewhere on arrival.

Believe in yourself and you can find something far superior in an incredible country, even with no prior experience. I wish you the best of luck with this and hope my opinion has been of assistance to you!