Job Discussion Forums

[mccallum.mitchell]

Hello

I have been lurking this board and seen alot of different posts regarding the changing landscape over there. I am interested in starting my career over there, for better or for worse, for other personal circumstances and I would like a better idea of where someone who has no teaching experience and unrelated degree could look for their beginning gig. (inb4 OTUSIDE OF SAUDI). I am actually looking at other opportunities but having a year long teaching contract that I could move on from would be my focus.

[nomad soul]

[RustyShackleford]

You're basically restricted to sub-contractors who just want a body. I got hired by one in a pretty good military job with an unrelated BA and online TEFL used as my qualifying documents. So, for a fact, it is doable if not ideal.

However, I had accumulated a few good years of experience prior and, of all the kinds of guys from all kinds of backgrounds who got hired (and fired...) from the gig, I don't recall anyone doing it as their first-ever TEFL first job.

[nomad soul]

[RustyShackleford]

I recall it got mentioned in the interview. However, almost everyone else I worked with didn't have anything above a bachelor's, so in retrospect I doubt it was a deciding or even significant factor in my hiring. It also wasn't used to process my documents at all.

[hash]

.
Hi – If you re-read your posting above, I think you’ll see it sounds... well... slightly incoherent. To me, it’s not really clear what you’re saying given that the title of the post is “Starting off in Saudi”. One thing your post seems to be saying is that you may, might or could be looking for a job beyond just Saudi.

If that’s the case, I may have found just the job ad for you.

One of the amazing things (I almost said “alarming things”) that appears under this job ad's QUALIFICATIONS section is the following statement:

Bachelor’s Degree or Associate's degree + TEFL certificate (or willing to obtain a TEFL certificate)

This “statement” of qualification bears some scrutiny.

Not only, seemingly, will they accept ANY Bachelor degree, they presumably will accept even a BS. But not only that, they’ll even accept (amazingly) an “Associate Degree” if you can believe it.

(In the US, an Associate Degree is a 2 – year certificate obtained at a "Junior" or "Community" college for little or no cost…..the idea being that you will eventually get your BA/BS by transferring to a regular 4 year institution later on.)

To top it off, they would prefer YOU HAVE a “TEFL” certificate….but guess what….if you don’t have one, THEY WILL HELP YOU OBTAIN ONE !!!!! To me, it sounds like they will even PAY for it.

To me, this sounds right up your alley. The job is actually on DAVE’S right now for you to peruse. Here’s the URL for your convenience:

http://www.eslcafe.com/joblist/index.cgi?read=46572

Best of luck.

.

[scot47]

Teaching Kindergarten in Taiwan would be a cruel and unnatural punishment.

[In the heat of the moment]

I've worked in north, east and central Saudi, and am aware there are cities in the south and west, but I've never heard of the region OTUSIDE of Saudi.

[scot47]

I had one year's experience when I went to work in Saudi Arabia in 1970. That was a different universe. I think most employers will look for 2 to 5 years as a minimum before taking you on.

[thefinalexit]

I had an unrelated BA, a 100 hour TESOL (by correspondence), and one year of voluntary teaching experience when the notorious Ed Ex hired me for a year. While almost everyone on Dave's will suggest getting years of experience before coming to KSA, I'd recommend finding a dubious contractor and coming sooner rather than later. It'll probably be quite tough, but Saudi remains an acceptable place to save US$20K+ over one year.

[nomad soul]

[sheikhitnow]

[quote="hash"].
[b]Hi – If you re-read your posting above, I think you’ll see it sounds... well... slightly incoherent. To me, it’s not really clear what you’re saying given that the title of the post is “Starting off in Saudi”. One thing your post seems to be saying is that you may, might or could be looking for a job beyond just Saudi.



ESL/EFL instructors generally aren't very good writers. They also tend to make a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. I don't mean here on these threads, where mistakes are expected, but in formally written documents, letters and narratives.

[Colombo]

@ sheikhitnow...

Totally agree with your comment. Mia fi mia.