Job Discussion Forums

ryancw · Joined: 03 Nov 2005 Posts: 14 Location: Alaska

Just curious what "exceptional qualifications" means. I teach college in the USA, and I have (in this order) an MBA, an MEd, an MPA, and an MA in Communication. I also have 39 graduate-level TESOL credits and will have my CELTA in a couple months. I don't teach ESL, though I do teach public speaking. I'd like to switch to teaching ESL, and my daughter was in Spain for a year recently and speaks highly of it. As a US citizen, do I have a shot at legal work?

Thank you to anyone that has time to answer!

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

'Exceptional qualifications' essentially means that you can interest some institution in jumping through the considerable legal hoops necessary to hire you, as opposed to painlessly hiring a sufficiently qualified EU citizen.

You do have very good quals, but there are numerous UK/Irish citizens out there with relevant MAs to compete against.

It's probably worth sending out some CVs to selected institutions (right away, since the hiring season's September) but without local connections it probably isn't highly likely you'll find anything.

Maybe consider CEE countries where US citizens can get legal work visas more easily.