When Vietnam Schools Hire Teachers

Most people choose their moving date around their savings. Then they land in Vietnam in the wrong month and wait. Schools are polite about it. They tell you to come back in September. Meanwhile the rent goes out every month and nothing comes in.

Vietnam hires English teachers all year round. But the number of open jobs swings hard from month to month. Time it right and you choose between offers. Time it wrong and you wait half a year for the same job.

This guide walks through the whole hiring calendar: when schools fill positions, why kindergartens run on their own clock, how long the application takes in practice, and the two months you should not book a flight for.

There are two semesters. The first one starts in September. The second one starts in late January or in February.

That second date is not fixed. It moves every year. Everything in the Vietnamese calendar bends around one holiday, and that holiday is the reason.

Tet is Vietnamese New Year. It follows the lunar calendar, so it lands on a different date each year. One year it falls in late January. The next year it lands in the middle of February.

Tet is not a small holiday. Picture Christmas, New Year and a family reunion in one week. The country closes. Schools close with it, usually for one to two weeks.

Here is the part that costs teachers money. Most schools do not pay foreign teachers during the Tet break. If you arrive right before it, you pay rent and eat into your savings while nobody is teaching. Plan around it.

This is the peak. Schools are filling the positions that start in September, and that is when the market opens up.

You get the most open jobs. You get more cities to choose from. You get better conditions, because when schools compete for teachers, the terms improve.

Some people will tell you June is part of the season. In practice the real surge happens in July and August. That is when schools get serious about September.

So aim to have everything finished by early June. Documents, CV, intro video, all of it. Then you are ready the moment the wave starts instead of scrambling inside it.

This one catches people out, and it works in your favour.

Many kindergartens start their year in July, not September. So they hire earlier, around April and May.

That is good news in three ways. You get more time to prepare your documents. Flights are cheaper outside the summer rush. And you arrive without the stress of a September deadline breathing down your neck.

One warning: kindergarten jobs fill fast. If that is the direction you want, do not sit on the application.

Longer than you think. This is where most people lose their window.

The slow part is your introduction video. Not the documents, the video. You write a script. You record it. You listen back and hear every unclear word. You fix the lighting. You record it again. Teachers who do this properly often spend weeks on it, sometimes a full month.

They spend that long because it matters. That video decides which schools invite you to interview. It is your first impression, and you are up against a lot of other applicants, both native and non-native speakers. A camera pointed at your face and one take is not enough any more.

Then there is the rest: a demo teaching video, an updated CV, your documents, and interview practice. Add it up and you are looking at months rather than weeks.

If you want a September start, begin now. Not in June.

There is a second hiring round when the new semester starts, in late January or February.

It is smaller. Schools recruit closer to the date, and there are fewer positions than in September. The reason is simple: schools want teachers who stay for the whole academic year. Parents want the same teacher in front of their children in June as in September.

The weeks right before Tet feel different too. Businesses slow down. People are already in holiday mode. Interviews get pushed to after the break, and the whole process loses urgency.

Do not panic. Vietnam is not a country where the door closes for eight months.

Teachers leave mid-contract. Schools get more students than they planned for and need someone next week. Language centres sign new contracts with kindergartens and public schools in the middle of the year and suddenly need staff. Turnover happens all year.

September itself is surprisingly good for a last-minute job. Some summer positions never got filled. Some teachers change their mind at the final moment and do not fly. We have seen teachers land good jobs in September after a week or two of searching.

The market is slower outside the peak. It is not closed.

First, the month right before Tet. Usually January, but it moves with the holiday. Schools slow their operations, hiring freezes are common, and the unpaid break is coming. You arrive, you spend, and you do not earn.

Second, May, if you have your heart set on a public school. The school year is ending. Public schools then close for summer, so June, July and August are dead quiet on that side. Some language centres do hire in May, but plenty of them would rather wait for September.

There is a pattern we see every year. A school likes a teacher in spring and still says the same thing: there are only a few months left, let us hire them for September instead.

• Want a September start? Have everything finished by early June and apply in July.
• Want a kindergarten job? Apply in April or May for a July start.
• Start the intro video first. It takes the longest.
• Do not arrive in the month before Tet. You will not get paid through the break.
• Avoid May if you want a public school.
• Missed the peak? Apply anyway. September has last-minute openings.