About English Job Maze
Why this site exists
Most guides to teaching English abroad are written by the same schools that sell you a TEFL course or place you with an employer. English Job Maze is written by people who’ve been on the other side of that desk — and it isn’t owned by a course provider, a recruiter, or a school. We don’t get paid to rank a course higher, and when a link on this site does earn us a commission, we say so on the page, next to the link.
How we work
Every visa rule, salary figure and hiring-season date on this site is checked against a primary source — an embassy, a ministry, an official programme like EPIK or JET, or a recognised exam board like Cambridge English or Trinity College London — and dated the day we checked it. When we can’t find a primary source, or when sources disagree, we say “not yet verified” instead of guessing. Rules on visas, work permits and salaries change often and differ by employer, province and nationality: treat every page as a starting point, and confirm the current rules with the relevant embassy or programme before you book a flight or sign a contract.
Sources we trust
We prioritise government and programme sources over marketing pages: immigration authorities, ministries of education, official teaching programmes, and exam boards regulated by bodies like Ofqual in the UK. Course reviews and job-board listings from commercial sites are used only to flag a practice worth checking, never as proof of a rule.
The team
English Job Maze is written under bylines by people with direct classroom, training or visa experience in the countries we cover. Click a name to read their full bio and every article they’ve written.
- Sam Reyes — ex-ESL teacher, South Korea (2016-2022): EPIK, hagwons & Asia visas.
- Priya Nakamura — TEFL trainer & course assessor: accreditation and course quality.
- Elena Vogel — visas & relocation, former immigration paralegal.
How this site makes money
Some pages let you “get matched” with a TEFL course provider or a teaching-job recruiter; if you sign up through one of those matches, we may earn a referral fee. That never changes which course or country we recommend first — our salary and visa data comes from the same public sources regardless of who advertises with us.
