Rob worked in Austria
Rob McCarthy studied Mathematics with Finance at Liverpool University. Since graduating he has been working in Linz, Austria.
‘I would recommend anyone to work abroad on an assistantship – whether you are a language student or not. My assistantship didn’t count towards my degree as I did it the year after graduating but it helped me to get a job!’
What did you do on your year abroad?
‘I worked in a secondary school as an English language assistant through the British Council scheme. It was really easy to get involved as you just fill in an application form and choose the areas that you might like to go and everything else is done for you. They offered me a place and then emailed lots of information emailed about going. It’s really well organised and you feel that you don’t have to do too much form-filling – everything is taken care of.
‘Assistantships are open to non-languages students too and I only found this out because I was originally studying German and Finance, but changed my course during studies. I wanted to go abroad for a year so that I could build on my language skills and improve my German.’
Any top tips on working as a language assistant?
‘I made a real effort to be organised and punctual when I first started and this carried me through the year. I made an effort to talk to the other teachers and socialise with them. It has helped me to get an extension of my contract (I’m going back in September) and I enjoyed my time there because of it.
‘If you are teaching abroad, my advice is to be organised and plan lessons in advance. This will really help in the long run as you can re-use information and lesson plans throughout the year. It would be good to have a forum to be able to share lesson plans with other assistantships. I have over 30 lesson plans which can cover 100 lessons, with an 18-hour week it’s really handy and helps make things simple.
‘Another thing I’d recommend: be prepared, save up some money. You won’t get paid for the first six weeks – and you will need to do things like put a deposit on a flat, do a big shop and possibly buy things for your room.’
Where did you live?
‘As soon as I was told the school that I was going to, I emailed them to ask about housing. Within a week I had a reply from one of the teachers who owns a flat and rents it out to assistants each year. This made things a lot easier as I knew I had somewhere to go to.’
Making new friends and having fun
‘Before I went the British Council sent me information about others who were also going to Linz and their email addresses. This was helpful and I emailed people before I left and we chatted on Facebook.
‘The social aspect was the hardest thing to deal with when I first moved over to Linz – it’s a big shock. There was a seminar two weeks after starting, that’s where I met other assistants and where I made friends – this was really good but I wish it had happened in the summer before going as it would have made me felt more at ease.
‘With an assistantship you get lots of free time – I was working 18 hours a week, with every Friday off. So I travelled all over Europe as Austria is so central – I went to Madrid, Prague and many more places. It’s great to be able to see so much.’
