Job Discussion Forums

[bdawg]

I usually lurk around (occasionally participating) over at the China forums, but I pop in the General room from time to time to take a peek.

Ever so often threads appear regarding "Life after ESL" tackling the tough question of "what is a guy/gal like me gonna do?".

I read a lot of them. Didn't find them too encouraging and at times rather depressing. Things look pretty grim.

Maybe I got lucky...probably, but I like to think I made some smart moves.

I'm on my way out of this field and I thought I would share a little bit about how I managed to do it.

After 4 years in the ESL field in China I was accepted last week to the School of Urban and Regional Planning (real estate and land development concetration) at Queens University (a well regarded Canadian institution). My undergrad was geography, but concentrating on the environment with little urban planning focus and prior to ESL, my working experience was entirely within the forestry consulting sector.

I'm still a bit in shock regarding my acceptance, as well as a nice scholarship as well. I applied to about four schools, not expecting anything given my total lack of professional as well as academic experiences in this field.

The below probably doesn't apply if you are TRULY only staying a year (party your face off then) or if you have chosen this field as your career. But nonetheless, this is what I think is key to making a transition and using those experiences to get you into another field.

1. Keep a goal. My goal from day one was grad school. From day one up to about 3 years into it, I had no plan, I didn't even know what I wanted to study...but I still had that goal...and the desire to obtain it became stronger and stronger as my life in this field became more routine and unchallenging. Eventually it came together.
2. Keep your brain sharp. It truly is amazing how quickly one's thinking, writing and speaking abilities will waste away if you dont' keep them running. For me, this was the toughest part and it took alot to get my shit together and pound out that statement of purpose. The environment I was living in was not very conductive to engaging and thoughtful discussion and debate. It was really hard for me to track down like minded individuals and actually discuss topics a bit more deeper than "I hate George W. Bush" and "Oh dude, I slept with this girl last night..." In retrospect, an number of those conversations with lifers on 4000RMB/month with zero assests/investments of any kind created a form of warning..."if you don't get your act together...."

I feel that I was very lucky to run into a few like minded people who were also planning Grad school adventures and conversations with them helped to stem the brain rot and increase my focus as one by one they completed their applications and were accepted. Some competition.

I also hijacked both my brother and my sisters university library accounts and was downloading papers regarding various topics I was interested in and might consider pursuing at grad school. I had no one to discuss them with though, so most just went in one ear - out the other, but helped to keep the vocab stable.

I wrote a blog for awhile. Nothing terribly special, but it kept the writing skills from getting rusty.

3. Seek out foreign owned schools. In this case I'm not talking about "John's English School", but preferably known western universities that operate in country running various education programs. For my last 2 years I worked for a reputable Australian institute operating several campuses in China. I answered directly to the former Dean of Business studies of the Australian campus, now working as Director of China Campus. The reference letter I received from him was instrumental (I cannot stress that enough) to my application. It provided the admissions committee with a known, credible and verifiable source that corresponed to my C.V. and reinforced with confidence that a a good proportion of my time was spent in China productively.

4. If possible, get active in your community, even if its lame. I volunteered as the newsletter editor and later webmaster for the local international club (expat GM wives club). Again, it will buff up your credibility.

5. Play with the local language. I studied a semester and half of Mandarin my second year in China. In most cases it won't hurt and it would be a good idea to get some sort of certificate, even if it is a beginner level. Unfortunately, I never was very good at language and Mandarin was no different. I began to discover that it wasn't actually making me any smarter or sharper as I was just learning how to say things I already knew in a different way. I opted to concentrate on reading things that might spur the juices into coming up with a research interest and placed Mandarin learning in the 'hobby' category.

6. If you are not planning on entering an education related field, I decided it was best to minimize any reference to ESL in a statement of purpose (didn't mention it at all). Even though it was something that I had been doing for about 4 years, it wasn't relevant at all to my future goals. ESL seems to get a bad rap in my home country (for obvious reasons) and I felt it wasn't something I really wanted to flash around to anyone.

7. Travel. A lot, and to as many countries and cities as possible. I managed to get 10 countries in.

That's what I did. Four years and then smack into an unrelated field. It's possible to make a successful change. You just have prepare the right things to make it happen. Make it as credible as possible. Spin it at bit. Sell yourself. If you want to make the move, try not to wait too long. Personally, I felt that 4 years was REALLY stretching it, 3 would have been better.

Good luck and all the best to those on the road now!

[ETG]

How great to see a positive, constructive post about what to do next! As one of the Lee Valley Tools products (the bookends) says - [/i]Success Favours the Prepared Mind BTW no Lee Valley in Kingston but only a short drive to Ottawa.
Getting all your ducks in a rw nd thinking about the big picture - and really doing something about it is so important. The advice about references is also a key point.
Thanks for this I hope it makes people start some planning instead of suddenly washing up back in their home countries with no plans just because they haven't done any prep.
You'll like Kingston and Queen's --just leave town during Homecoming weekend!

[fluffyhamster]

Well, if you hadn't worked in the field of ESL, you wouldn't've got the reference (I'm just glad that you got at least that out of your time in China).

[bdawg]