Chester McGrath
- 2017-06-11
A few years ago I was looking to get a job in Istanbul. At the time I was doing site research in China as is required for my master's degree. I interviewed with New York Studio and was appalled by the interviewer. She was simply a grumpy and mean old woman who had no idea what she was talking about. About halfway through she even rolled her eyes and shrugged to ask me if my program and degree are real. All I can say is if she had checked the transcripts and done a five minute search online she would have known that it is a very well-regarded private university in California and that the program is legit, in fact it's highly ranked.
Later, I asked her basic questions about working hours and salary range (just out of curiosity, as I had absolutely no interest in working there at this point), and she did the eye roll-shrug thing again and said "no no no, this is not good way". Based on my brief experience alone, I can picture what follows such as sad excuse of an interview: nothing is transparent with this company, once you arrive to work for them you will be jerked around and probably paid peanuts for long hours. Things will change all the time, and you will be left out in the lurch once you begin to question their practices. Abhorrent bullies like her belong nowhere near a school. But I really doubt this is a school in any meaningful sense of the word.
I'm sure there are plenty of opportunities in Istanbul where you won't be treated so foully from the very start.
American in Istanbul
- 2014-12-01
I have just read the many blogs about New York Studio Kozyatagi Branch. Everything I read supports my own nightmare experience several months ago at that same branch. I was kept waiting for weeks trying to get units to teach from a totally incompetent Turkish scheduler. Most of the few lessons I finally got were offsite and as the other writers mention, these long periods of travel are completely unpaid. The company accommodation was a flea-infested dump and not worth the 300 lira I was charged for living there, not including community and utility charges which you never see!!!! Also, the ridiculous pay-date of the 21st. of the month means that you have to work 3 weeks in hand, which is totally inacceptable in todays market. This is by far the worst school in Istanbul. You have been warned - stay clear!
I am a female teacher who worked at New York Studio, Kozyatagi Branch for about 6 months. Everything the writer wrote about the school being a scam is true!! I especially spent up to 15 hours a week (sometimes more) travelling to and from company sites to teach. None of this travel time is paid for even though the school makes a lot of extra money from their students for offsite teaching. There are very few native speakers at the school, most of them Turkish and Russian! The training is awful and totally unprofessional - I was trained by a useless Turkish woman for example! Everyone would be very wise to avoid this school.
By the way I was totally taken for a ride with my salary when I left! 