Job Discussion Forums

[Mac]

My name is mac I am currently in China I am looking for a position in taiwan. I am 46 years old and I am from America. I have a bachelor's degree with a Tefl certificate and I have taught in 3 different countries. I have applied to David's English about their teaching adult positions but without much success. I have checked int Hess and John Dewey but from the postings all of the positions you must work with children. Teaching children is not my strength. A recruiter had adult positions but wanted me to sign a contract with the company not with a school so I backed out of the deal. Does anyone know of any adult positions available now? I could go ASAP if needed right away. Any help would be appreciated thank you.

[Pop Fly]

The best advice I can give you is choose a city you want to live in, take the train there, and start walking in circles of ever-increasing circumference. Drop a resume at each adult school you pass. You will find a job same day, even if it's only at Global Village. It gets your foot in the door and allows you time to find more meaningful employment.

[twinkletoes]

Mac,

A couple of points:

First, don't worry about all the ads you see asking for young teachers. When a school is specifically looking for "young" teachers, especially when they are recuiting from overseas, "young" is often just a euphamism for "doesn't know their rights, has no business experience standing up to a boss and can be easily pushed around." You want to avoid these jobs like the plague. Also, "we want young teachers " also can mean "our school wants a singing dancing monkey who our not-so-serious students can laugh at." These kinds of jobs can be fun, but anyway...

There are A LOT of adult business students in Taipei. A lot of students desperately need teachers who can explain articles in the Economist or Wall Street Journal and the vocabulary in them. The last thing these students need is a 22 year old Art major who says "umm, corporate takeover, that's like, when a corporation gets like, taken over, I think. Lemme look it up in the dictionary and get back to you."

Also, there are a lot of centers that help prepare students to take the TOEFL or IELTS or GRE. I imagine at 46 your vocabulary is a bit higher than it was at 22 and these students would find you very valuable.

The highest-paid teacher I know is a guy with a degree in Mollecular Biology. All of his students who are scientists or doctors who desperately need someone who can talk scientific terms with them.

So, what did you do before your six years of teaching? Any business experience at all? What's your field of expertise? What you need to do is find the school with the students who need you, and go there.

The bad news: (but it's not that bad) You're going to have to come here to find these jobs. These jobs are in demand, so these schools don't need to recruit from overseas. However, most of the young recent grads don't have what it takes to explain an article out of the Economist or explain GRE words or TOEFL essay-writing, so I don't think you'll have any problem once you show up at the door, looking professional like someone who can show up at a corporation and not be mistaken for the janitor.

It's cheap to stay at a youth hostel here (no age restrictions at youth hostels) and there are several in Taipei. Check out the "travel in taipei" forum on forumosa and do a search on hostels. You can make a reservation and stay as long as you like. Then, yes, hit the pavement, comb the job ads, and put your resume that emphasizes everything you have to offer out there. You'll be hired in no time.

One business school is Wall Street. I don't know much about them except that they specialize in business classes and I don't hear anybody complain about working there. They have quite a few branches in Taipei. There are TOEFL/ IELTS prep centers all over the place. There must be more business schools, but it just isn't my field. Try some of the other forums in the questions thread to try and get info.

With all of your experience, you shouldn't have any problem getting a job once you're here. But DO wait until you get here. You have a lot to offer and don't need to work for one of the schools that has to recruit from abroad. Most of the good adult schools don't, because they don't have to.

Don't stress, it's easier to stay in the hostels and get a job than you think. Also, you'll meet people with job contacts there. have fun! The only downside is that you may have to come here on a tourist visa and do a visa run to HK two months later. But you'll survive. We all do.

[Pop Fly]

Good post, except: Wall Street doesn't specialize in Business English. They specialize in separating a student from their money. They claim to "teach" "naturally", and they don't "teach", they oral test and it is still memorized answers, rote learning at it's most unnatural.

They are amongst the lowest on the pay scale and demand that you wear a tie. Upper management is mostly clueless and the last thing you'd want to do there is have aspirations.

But it's easy to get a job, the curriculum is bullet-proof, once you learn it, and it's hours are a sure thing. A safe bet for the less than adventurous.

They even have a KS branch.

[jonks]

[twinkletoes]

I was thinking of teaching a class of financial specialists when I said that, not a class of normal people who are taking a general business English class. Some businesses have requests for a teacher who is fluent in their field. Some adult business schools send their teachers out to work at various companies and select that teacher from their staff according to who has the experience necessary to help them.

Finance isn't my specialty. I'd be lost explaining high-level legal terms to a class of law students. I'm not very good at editing dissertations for people who are earning their PhD's in Biology. And so on.

But a teacher who has a specialized lingo for a field will be in higher demand by the students who need him than a younger person who doesn't have any experience in their field or with their jargon. My mollecular biologist/ teacher friend will never run out of work helping scientists write their research papers regardless of how old he gets.

That was the point I was trying to make. What does the OP have to offer that other people don't and certain students need? He should list it on his resume.

Didn't know that about Wall Street. The guy I know who works there talks about it like it's the most prestigious job one could have. Go figure.

[jonks]

[Miyazaki]