Job Discussion Forums

[GBF100]

I am going to move to Bangkok for about 60 to 90 days in either April or May, as long as I can get the visa for anyway.

I am looking for an ESL teaching position there. I have a TESOL certificate from the TEFL International school in Zhuhai China that I received last June. I also have a BS degree. I have 15 years of professional job experience as a computer software engineer, but no teaching experience.

I already have accomodations worked out for my time in Bangkok.

So what should I do to find a teaching job there? I have been hitting all the Bangkok jobs on several ESL web sites for the past few months. So far no bites from any of them.

Please tell me if you think I am crazy, but I believe it is very difficult to obtain employment in this field. My graduating class in Zhuhai had nine students. One was already employed prior to taking the course. One found a job shortly before graduation, and to my knowledge the other seven, including myself are still unemployed in the ESL profession.

Most of the job sites I look at have more TEFL course advertisements than they actually have ESL job openings.

My plan is, after arriving in Bangkok, to dress professionally and, bring copies of my BS degree and TESOL certificate, and physically go to the schools where I have an address and ask them for an interview.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Should I perhaps re take the TEFL course in Bangkok? But if so, can someone recoomend a school that will actually assist the graduate in finding positions? The assistance TEFL International gave was to direct graduates to a couple of job sites, and tell them how easy it would be from there. The English school they were located within in Zhuhai hired about eight new teachers around the time our class was graduating, several of whom did not even have TEFL certificates, but strangely enough did not hire a single graduate from our class. Makes you kind of wonder what they think of the program and the certificate.

I truely want to be an ESL teacher, and I like Bangkok. I had a lot of fun while I was performing my practice teaching in Zhuhai. However, I never realized it would be this difficult to find work. I have heard so many people tell me how easy it is to find jobs in this field, and yet not a single person has ever told me what I am doing wrong, and clearly that must be something if it is as easy as 'they' say.

[Sheep-Goats]

Thais won't hire you until you're in-country and have a Thai cell phone number. This isn't China -- there are a million folks in Bangkok who'll step into these jobs if need be, and they'll show up for an interview first.

Once you're in the country and have a cell number you'll have no trouble finding adequate work. Often those two things plus native-speakerhood are enough for lower end jobs. With a degree and a TEFL you should get about 40,000B/month if you take your time and hustle a little bit.

Arranging anything -- work or accomodation -- before you arrive will usually turn out to be a slightly expensive mistake. It's really cheap to stay here from day to day and wait things out, unless you won't stay away from the beer and hookers, and that makes it the wise thing to do. People hire all year round, apart from the month of April, when it's still easy to find one-month stints at summer camps that no one else wants to screw with.

The Chinese don't care about TEFL certificates, is why so few people in you class got hired. They care about BA's/MA's and hustle. You'll find the situation is much the same here in Thailand -- and while your TEFL will lend you a bit more creedence it's more important that you learn how to find work by yourself here rather than depend on placement agencies or TEFL organizations -- who'll usually take a cut, which reduces your wages in the long run.

Don't worry, you'll do fine. Every country has different ways of doing things. Try punching the words "mai pen rai" into Google to find out about the way things work in Thailand.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Sheep-Goats is right.

I posted on this topic a couple of months ago and thought it might be useful to repost it:

While I was still teaching in Russia (back in January of 2004) I sent out roughly 40+ resumes to various schools in Thailand that had advertised available positions on the internet.

Out of those 40+ online applications, I got roughly 10 replies and out of those 10 replies, 8 schools were offering salaries in the 30,000 Baht range or less.

Out of the 2 schools that replied that were offering closer to 40K, I eventually chose one of them, but not until I had actually sat down and discussed contract details face-to-face. Now, with roughly 40K net in my pocket every month, I'm glad I waited and didn't 'jump' at the first offer.

The point of this post is simple: Don't feel frustrated or obligated to accept an offer over the internet out of fear that you won't find something better once you get here. Arrange interviews if possible, be gracious, and thank them for their replies

if you get any

but don't give up or sign your life away for 25K until you're on the ground here with a mobile phone and have had a chance to scout around a bit on foot with your resume in-hand.

The schools offering better contracts and higher salaries want to meet you in person, to see what you look like in a tie or a skirt, to know that they can depend on you to show up for class on time & sober, and to make sure that you know a little something about teaching English.

Remember; Thailand is a major tourist destination, and as such, attracts a wide variety of "unique" characters, including backpackers with zero TEFL experience, playboys on extended holiday, dopers and even worse. And since many of these people are applying for TEFL positions, you can't really blame school managers for wanting to meet you in person before offering you the job.

On top of that, you know the old saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." For most Thai employers, you are still a bird in the bush. After you arrive in Bangkok, you instantly become a bird in the hand. In plain English, it's possible but rather unlikely that you'll land a great TEFL job in Thailand over the internet.

Hope that helps?

[stevenabroad]

Thailand has the the most competition for ESL jobs in the world. Everybody from backpackers, retirees, unemployed bums, sex tourists etc etc, oh and English Teachers are looking for work. Which is why employers can take the easy way out and not bother with people applying abroad and offer crappy salaries that haven�t changed in over a decade. Also why its the only major market in Asia that is now requiring TEFL certs. Even when your in Thailand you don't get much feedback via e-mail but you will get called back, so get a cell once you arrive - it�s your lifeline. And as far as I can tell there is more and more people looking to live in Thailand by teaching English every day, saturating the market further. The reason it's still possible to find work in Thailand is because the working conditions for the pay generally suck so there is alot of turnover and jobs have opened up teaching other subjects besides English.

Jobs within Central Bangkok and other popular areas are quite tough to come by especially if your not female and inexperienced and chances are if you'll apply for something that states �Bangkok�, it's over an hour commute in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, I'm not sure where your preferred place to work is, but find a job before you find work because Thailand isn't a place where you can stroll around your neighbourhood and find a gig, unlike Taiwan. The job you find, or the one with that 44,000B salary will be on the other side of town and you'll be waking up at 4am for 7am start.

Because of the tough competition working for Thai employers isn't quite as easy as some other places. They have pretty much zero tolerance, with higher expectations and little sympathy and flexibility (then say some place like China etc where you have the upper hand) since you could be replaced at a moments notice.

[Welshguy]

You shouldn't have a problem if you even half way know what you are doing. The best thing you can do is to log onto Ajarn.com, which is an excellent site and will give you all the info you need.

If you haven't much in the way of experience you can always try AUA. They throw a four day training course in for you and they dont pay too badly either, I've met some barely literate people working for them and getting along ok. Most of the major chains operate in Thailand and their relative merits are discussed in depth on Ajarn.

Bangkok Post and The Nation have a good few ads which you can check on the web.

Good luck