Job Discussion Forums

[MyTrunkshow]

Was hoping for a job at CNA-Q. I still am. However, I'm out of the running for this year as my interview sucked. My experience is adequate but my telephone interview skills are dreadful.

In person, I present a better image.

I've not been to the Gulf before but am thinking of popping over for the conference. I haven't been able to see any dates yet for the fair.

Before I begin on a research campaign to back up this plan of going to the ME for a job fair, am I going about doing things right to get there in person? From what I've read, going to a job fair in the ME isn't just a crapshoot as long as one has the quals. and the experience.

I'm fresh off the heels of a rejection letter from CNAQ..and I need to change focus to stave off the depression. I thought I was a shoe-in. I've been taken down a notch or two tonight.

Regards,
mytrunkshow

[NadiaK]

It's how I got my current job.

[scot47]

If you can't get a job offer from one of the many employers at TESOL-Arabia then you are in the wrong business.

[MyTrunkshow]

Doh! bai,

I hope I haven't reached this age to merely discover I'm more suited for nuclear plant operations.

I'll do my homework before heading over to TESOL-arabia. I don't want to repeat my Homer-like answer for my CNA-Q interview when asked "How would a passage about a train be taught?." I found that question difficult without any additional information. True, this was my first interview on the phone and my first university interview, but that's making excuses for rambling like Homey.

Regards,

mytrunkshow

[Bebsi]

Don't be too hard on yourself, MyTrunkShow, that is a ridiculous question "How would a passage about a train be taught?"

OK, a question like "How would you teach the future perfect continuous?" might make more sense.

Mind you....????

A point to bear in mind is that many institutions in the Gulf region hire on the basis of the most absurd criteria. People with PhDs in Mongolian Cultural History and in Creative Writing in Swahili but no teaching experience, often get hired over teachers with ten years' solid experience and a DipTEFL or an MA in Applied Linguistics. Sometimes a teacher will be hired because the Dept Head will have an idea that just because he is from Bear Bones, Montana and has experience in using camcorders in class he will make a better teacher than someone from Wimberley-on-the-Wold, Wimbleshire, UK, tho not as good as a kilt-wearing graduate from Oughtereighter, Nessieshire. And sometimes, I suspect, they stick a pin in a list with their eyes closed!!!!


Good luck in your future endeavours MTS, you will surely find something out there. When you do, hope you enjoy life in the ME.

And even if you are from Oughtereighter, I would avoid kilts if I were you!!

[MyTrunkshow]

"How would you teach the future perfect continuous?"

I'm somewhat badoogled with that tense. Although I do have a firm grasp on future and continuous. It's that 'perfect' that stalls me. Also, the three words together is a mind-mountain. A definite period in time is what I think when referring to perfect. Examples and further examples are the only way in my experience to successfully convey the idea of fut perf cont....or most other tenses in fact!

Anyway, I'd do better with a query like that than the one question where I was bumbling like a 12 year old on a first date with a 14 year old. It was harsh to be me and likely even harsher to be the interviewer. Unbearable may be an accurate word to describe the moment accurately.

But reality is here and now. I was lacking in a few areas and I did not brush up on my education literature before the interview. I just googled a bit and hoped for the best prior to the interview.

However, allowing the same sham to occur for the next interview will be a wake up call in personal and professional endeavors.

I appreciate your post and tone Bebsi.

I'm looking forward to 2008. I have a colleague who has agreed to attend the conference and possibly relocate in fall 2008 to the ME.

Nonetheless, the forums will be followed regularly to glean what can be prepared prior to attending the TESOL-Arabia conference.

Regards,

Mytrunkshow

[Afra]

'The train have been travelling for ten hours when it arrives at . . .'

[Afra]

Correction . . . I don't know how to edit! . . . 'The train will have been travelling . . . . '

[veiledsentiments]

Hey Afra... there should be a small button at the top right corner of your message. On mine it has one that says 'quote' then 'edit' and then a red exclamation point... not sure what that is for actually.

I use the edit button a lot because my typing is getting terrible!

VS

[scot47]

You should have pointed out that there aren't any trains in Qatar. I doubt if there is much evidence of the future perfect continuous either.

I think you may have had a narriow escape from some people who are seriously challenged in many ways. Maybe they are aliens beamed down to subvert life on Earth ? Probably not - probably just Standard TEFL space cadets. Our field is full of them - the halt, the lame and the mad.
And the downright incompetent.

[MyTrunkshow]

I did note there were no trains to my knowledge. I am a geography and transportation infrastructure fanatic and when I was perusing the maps of Qatar prior to the interview, I learned where the dual carriage laneways go in the country by scrolling GoogleEarth. Additonally, the lack of rail, the two paved airports and the two unpaved airports caught my eye as well as the new city infrastructure north of Doha that radiates from the coast. Just to name a few things I know about Qatari geography.

However the interviewer did not acknowledge one iota of what I said regarding my geographic enlightenment. I told the interviewers that I would begin the lesson of teaching this train passage by eliciting from the students whether they, indeed, have ever ridden on a train in their travels. For having never been in the Gulf, I thought this general knowledge would have bettered my chances.

At the beginning of the interview, the HR gal informed me that there would be silence on their end after posing a question. I must comment that because she warned me of this, I have no reason to complain about the interview. Regardless, I would not allow an interview to be conducted by reading cue cards so darn quickly that the person has to ask you to slow down. Some of their questions would be suited better to exams or students fresh out of study.

Also, I rarely talk to native English speakers anymore, especially in conversation that uses extensive vocabulary or idioms. Few Taiwanese speakers have high proficiency in English and I don't hang around the expats a great deal. This is something I realize when I travel to England or the US. I feel dumbed down and I have also been told I'm not the quick wit I was a few years ago. Perhaps that showed in the interview. I'm continually grading my language to suit the level of the speaker.

As a senior teacher where I work, this morning we had a new teacher come give a demo after we gave him the interview last week.

My boss and I did so much to make this potential new hire feel at ease. We gave him time to prepare, allowed him to sit and choose his own style. Told him what we were looking for in a teacher. Let him know about the students a little. Yes, he was still nervous, but might I say, he was able to see our school culture in a transparent manner.

During the interview I told him that you must love people as we think that is important with the younger children. Sounds hokey pokey. Sure it is. But, our turnover rate is low in our school and our teachers are staying year after year in a country that has a high teacher turnover rate.

I guess I'm a little P....d Off at the interview to be honest. The temperature of the room the interviewers were in must have been 10c and the walls were made of stainless steel. Cold, cold, cold.

But that's just me, I guess. I like to connect with others, and I believe others need to try to connect especially since we'll be working with people.

What a relief to say what I really think about the interview. Right or wrong, it helps to write these things down when they are gnawing at one's side.

Rant, rant. Pant, pant. I think I need to lay down.

Besides Dave's and the TESOL-Arabia website, where else might I meander to glean more info. about the conference?

Regards,

Mytrunkshow

[Stephen Jones]

The question's absurd. You must have been interviewed by an idiot.

[helenl]

Probably the same idiot who, while interviewing a friend of mine with several years teaching in the GCC - proclaimed that they "knew all about living in this region, they'd spent a week there"

[scot47]

I am beginning to realise that in this field of EFLology some are ......challenged. Like people who ask about trains and the future perfect continuous. The Peter Princple ?

[Bebsi]

An example of the Future Perfect Continuous is the new Romanian highway system.

It will be continuous; it will, we are told, be pretty close to perfect (isn't that an oxymoron?)............and it will be very much in the future.