CIEE? fine. The partner school in Hanoi? awful.

Update, January 2019: CIEE's partner school, Amslink, has seen its management practices become increasingly strict, incompetent, and uncaring. Amslink is a deeply frustrating and unpleasant work environment. Very few teachers are satisfied with working there right now, and three teachers just left their contracts early at significant cost to themselves. Teachers' concerns and input are totally ignored, and Amslink is turning out to be the exact kind of place I was trying to avoid by paying to go through CIEE. I don't bear any ill will towards CIEE, as there's not much they can really do at this point, but I would seriously urge prospective participants to carefully consider if this placement is worth both the money and ceaseless agitation.

Update, October 2018: CIEE's partner school is pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy at the expense of most of its staff. Management systematically looks for ways to financially penalize foreign teachers through unnecessary, draconian rules and regulations.

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When I was researching this program, I searched all over for recent reviews but couldn't really find any. For that reason, I was hesitant. I still took the plunge, however. CIEE provides adequate support along the way, and there have been no surprises—what you see is what you get, thankfully.

One of the main reasons I chose the program was a placement in Hanoi, which I've really enjoyed since arriving. It's really hectic at first—overwhelming, really—but it's a lot of fun.

CIEE's partner school in Hanoi is one of the better ones to work for as far as I can tell. It can be totally disorganized at times, but it's hard to avoid that in this part of the world—be flexible and ready to roll with the punches. The staff have been nice and fairly supportive, but many things have a bit of a learning curve. They'll throw you into your own classes within a week of arriving, but there’s plenty of resources to use. The other teachers at the center have been nothing but friendly and helpful.

The CIEE staff have been responsive and accommodating, but the time difference (and correspondingly, work schedule) means it can take a while for questions to get answered since they must go through CIEE to the school. The included TEFL course was fairly useful and exhaustive if a bit of a slog at times. Sure, you could do this all on your own for less money, but CIEE provides so many failsafes (especially the travel insurance) that I found it really worthwhile.