Job Discussion Forums

gungediana · Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 82

I signed up to these boards about a year ago. I'm very appreciative of the advice I've received over the last year. The year 2009 was a very very difficult one for me personally. Your helpful advice helped me come to some decisions about where I wanted to go with my life. So thank you very much for that. Some of my experiences have made me bitter. But I am now happy with the direction in which I'm heading, so maybe it was all for the best.

Now I'm studying an MA TESOL and Applied Linguistics at a British university. Things are going fine so far and I'm confident that I will pass the course and receive my degree.

My mind is now turning towards applying for jobs for the autumn. If things go as planned, I will hand in my dissertation in September. I'll then be ready and available to start work. I think I will rule out going to the KSA for now. I am not prepared to consider Yemen or Iraq either. But I'm prepared to go pretty much anywhere else in the ME. I have about three year's experience, with about six months teaching adults. I have no qualifications aside from the MA I will earn later this year.

So I have a few more questions now if I may.

I like the look of Oman, but have read that the salaries there are low. Can anyone elaborate on this?

Is the UAE a viable option for someone like me?

Is September/October a good time to be starting work in the ME region generally? If so, when does term start generally speaking?

Will it be a problem that I won't actually graduate formally (i.e. pick up my certificate) until December?

What general advice can you give me on this subject? I'm not looking for anything special, just a teaching job in the ME starting as soon as realistically possible after I hand in my dissertation with reasonable pay and benefits. I class reasonable as equivalent to at least �18,000 p.a, apartment, free flights in and out and at least four weeks holiday.

I think I have realistic expectations about living and working in the ME. My goal is to work my way up the ladder and save enough money to give myself a comfortable future income. In the meantime I just want to get my foot on the ladder.

Thank you all.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

gungediana · Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 82

Blast!

Well, I don't have a CELTA. The MA will be my only teaching qualification.

So that's it then? No chance of me getting hired in the ME until after the graduation ceremony?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Sadly... no... a BA+CELTA or other TEFL CERT + 3 years is pretty much the minimum.

Luckily for you, it is just a few month's wait since you were thinking Sept/Oct.

VS

gungediana · Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 82

OK thank you VS.

Just had a thought though, if I pass the first two taught semesters I will have earned a Postgrad Cert in TESOL. Maybe I could graduate in June with that and apply for jobs starting in September. Meanwhile writing my dissertation so I can convert it into a full Master degree later.

Maybe I'm just clutching at straws Sad

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

15yearsinQ8 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 462 Location: kuwait

the other problem is that you have no experience

experience is counted post-masters

anybody who interviews you is desperate as they can't get expereinced teachers ------- go to the far east to get expereince

gungediana · Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 82

thank you for the responses

Re getting experience, I don't mind going back to Asia to teach. But I need experience teaching adults. I also need a decent salary so I can start paying off my student loan etc.

However there are not that many countries who will pay a good enough salary. Also I understand that Korean universities for example almost always hire within Korea. I wonder if thats the case in Japan too.

well thank you anyway

NYCESOL11211 · Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 75

I'm applying to August/September university jobs in UAE, Qatar, and KSA without my M.A. confirmed. I won't finish my coursework until the end of July. I have interviewed, via webcam with one university already. I also have four interviews lined up at the TESOL conference. Four of my five universities require an M.A., so they must be interviewing me based on expectation that I will graduate.

If I'm getting these interviews, you should also be able to as well. Like you, I don't have a CETLA or TESOL cert.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

This is one of the advantages of being able to go to a conference like TESOL and do face-to-face interviews. When one friend of mine was applying by websites and email around the Gulf just before completion of his MA, some universities would not even consider him, and he was told to reapply when he could provide the official certificate.

Make sure that you are being offered an MA level salary. (some of the shadier employers use this detail to cut your pay) And, I suspect that the offer(s) will be contingent on your MA completion - if MAs are required at that employer.

Good Luck...

VS