Job Discussion Forums

[demitrescou]

Due to a desire to leave Greece and move on from TEFL, I finished up my job this summer and returned to the UK determined to find a new path. However, the only viable opportunities seem to be in things such as sales, recruitment, and admin.

It seems there are few opportunities for ex-TEFLers back here. I'm not talking about the young ones who took a gap year, I'm referring to those of us in their late 20's or beyond who have been TEFLing for several years.

Even the feedback from careers advisers has been quite bleak. Saying that apart from going for the teaching license there's not likely to be much hope for anything but low-level nonsense (I'm paraphrasing of course). Am I surprised? No, not really. I guess I was just hoping.

I was told that apart from becoming a teacher or accepting regular entry-level work mentioned above, retraining for a new career in a field where there is actually a demand is becoming one of the few remaining viable alternatives for people in my situation. Fields such as nursing and engineering. I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone that such retraining requires a minimum of 3 years full-time study. Truth be told, I think if I actually knew what other career I wanted I'd put up with the retraining period.

Anyone else gone home in the hope of a new start only to be hit in the face by reality?

[creztor]

demitrescou, it hit me about two years ago and I came up with pretty much the same answers as you did. I'd happily retrain if I knew what I wanted to do/what made me happy, but I don't.

I am going to bite the bullet and just accept the fact that I'll be a licensed teacher back home. It's not that bad really, because after ten years of teaching I will be making a heck load more than I would if I stuck to TEFL for ten years. There's no ladder to climb up and pay scales have very low ceilings, whereas teaching back home gives me an opportunity to get a pay increase every year far beyond what TEFL does where I am now.

[SahanRiddhi]

This is quite normal. Except in extreme boom times, the need for unskilled white-collar workers is low -- as are salaries for such positions. So, yes, the alternative is to retrain. The other alternative is to doing something entrepreneurial or freelance. Career counselors aren't too good at advising about that, because their "expertise," such as it is, is in entering and navigating the established system, not bypassing it.

[smithrn1983]

I went home in 2008 after about 2.5 years abroad. I managed to find a job teaching English for a while, and then later worked in customer service. Tired of subsistence wages and dwindling savings back home, I got on a plane early this year and jumped back into TEFL.

However, I have decided that TEFL is not a good long-term option for me. The money's not bad in Moscow, but riding around on the metro all day is going to get old someday, and I need to have something else lined up.

With that in mind, I'm starting a diploma in finance from the University of London that should help me get into an M.S. program in the same field a year from now.

If you want to get out of TEFL, retraining might be your only option. I'm a fan of distance learning programs because they allow me to work as a teacher earning decent money while retraining. I'm not sure if I'll do the master's via distance learning, but we'll see.

[ls650]

I taught TEFL from 2003 through 2007. When I came back to my home country I had no problem getting into IT work, but as you can imagine the job market has changed tremendously since then. In '07 you could look at Craigslist or other job posting sites for the city I'm in and find a dozen entry-level IT jobs a day posted. Now the rate is maybe one posting every two or three weeks - the jobs are simply not there.

I'm currently employed in a position that pays my bills, but has no opportunity for advancement or even change. I'm finding it boring, and miss being in a classroom.

I have a couple of choices I'm considering: either returning to college for a year or more to get teacher certification, or return to TEFL overseas. The first option would involve taking on a lot of expense and debt, so the second looks better, at least in the short term.

I dunno; it's a tough decision to make....

[spanglish]

I'm in my third year of teaching and fourth year of living overseas and so am rapidly approaching the 'point of no return.' I've got an exit plan however, and am moderately optimistic of my chances of pulling it off.

Within a year I should be more than 'just' a classroom English teacher, and within a couple of years I hope to be ready to get into an ivy league caliber masters program in the US or Europe which will hopefully transition me into an exciting and better paying career. Meanwhile, I have a great work environment, am paid more than fairly, have fantastic colleagues and supervisors, very decent students and opportunities to branch out into other areas apart from just ESL. I have lots of opportunities for continuing education and networking and am taking advantage of those as much as I can. I'm hoping to get a DELTA next year to prove my worth to my organization, start a third and possibly fourth language and take on a few responsibilities outside of ESL teaching. I targeted my present employer 3 years ago and did a lot in terms of networking and gaining hard-won experience to get this job (that plus a little luck).

I've never really wanted to or enjoyed living in Colombia or Bogota, but after 3 years of hacking it, things are as good as they've ever been and I really can't complain. One thing I do not want to do is show up back in the US and start handing out resumes at Starbucks and other such places. I've come too far to accept that existence.

[nyc2323]

I'm at a similar crossroads and am writing this to both empathize and see advice (without hijacking the thread). I had 3 years of experience doing PR before I left to do TEFL. I spent a few months in Italy with kids and then moved on to do 10 months teaching adults in Turkey. I loved teaching and realized how much happier I was in the classroom than I was pitching products to the press. It's a better fit for my personality. I also loved many aspects of living in a foreign country, but the plan had always been just to go temporarily. I missed home - friends, family, the ease and normalcy of life in the US. So I came home. I'm now 31, unemployed and living at home with my parents who are helping me pay some bills (which I appreciate and feel fortunate to have as an option, so i'm not complaining!).

I feel like I'm looking over the edge of a cliff. I'm spending half my day searching for ESL teaching jobs here in New York, and the other half of the day looking at PR jobs. I feel that I shouldn't let my prior experience go to waste and that it's potentially more lucrative, but the job market sucks and I'm not getting any responses from jobs i've applied to, not to mention the fact that I think i'd be a happier on a day-to-day basis if I was teaching. Either way, i'm worried I'll regret my decision. I'm considering going for a Master's in TESOL next fall, but what do i do in the meantime? Is the master's worth it? Should I get any PR-related job I can and maybe go back to TEFL a few years down the road, or just forget my old profession altogether?

Oy vey. Like you said, the world economy sucks. TEFL is going to be in demand in the long term but it's tough.

[Perilla]

[demitrescou]

I wish I did all the research I'm doing now before I left my job in Greece. I didn't really plan so now instead of getting on with something I'm spending my time investigating possibilities and thinking about what I want while the days unemployed are steadily turning to weeks and months. Argghhh! It's so frustrating!

Another seemingly good option I've come across is becoming a social worker. I've discovered it's a field in short supply of workers in the UK. The pay is neither great nor terrible and becomes much better after a few years with good upward mobility prospects.

Qualifying requires a 2 year MA which includes 200 days of practical on the job training. Acceptance onto the course requires some sort of experience in the field, often achieved through some voluntary work.

From what I've read it seems there's little to no chance of not finding work in this field once qualified due to the short supply mentioned. Personally for me, this is an important incentive, especially in the current job market.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I'm in the late stages of my EFL-ing career, and plan to move back to the US in the nearer-term (18 months-ish). A year ago, as I thought about moving back, I understood that the job market in the US was rather bleak--especially for someone with a BA in English and 11 years teaching abroad. So I decided that I needed to take a master's degree of some sort. I did some research and learned that ESL specialists are in high demand in the US at the moment due to the increasing number of ELLs, and so started an M.Ed with an ESL specialization. Ultimately, I think the master's was a good idea; however, I am pretty realistic and understand that I might not have too many choices of areas in the US to move to with my family for a job. But I'm cool with that.
Best of luck to everyone.

[naturegirl321]

As far as the US goes, it's not just TEFLers who have issues finding a job, but everyone. The economy is bleak, the job market is horrible. They've just upped the unemployment average rate to 9%. That's average now.

Things will change, give it a couple years. But in general, I think most of us know that going back home as a TEFLer is hard. Maybe if you only have a couple years experience, you can go right back into your field. Ut if you spend years and years out of your field, then it's going to be hard to go back into it if it wasn't TEFL.

That's not to say that everything is dire. There are plenty of TEFLers who move back home with no issues. But forward thinking, planning, and back up plans are all necessary. Money doesn't hurt either

[Shroob]

I'm just starting my TEFL career, and that's how I view it, a career. Since university I've wanted to be an English language teacher, I've only just graduated so I don't have an industry to return to. I may have a jaded opinion of the TEFL world, but I think I'm suited to it and I'm trying to go into it with a positive attitude.

The UK job market is hard also, which is somewhat annoying as a fair few graduates are now doing TEFL as a gap year/ last resort, which means fewer jobs for the dedicated/career teachers. 1/5 of people my age are unemployed and over 2.5m people unemployed in the UK.

The only other career I could see myself doing is teaching history. I loved history at school, did my degree in it and considered doing a Masters, but the cost was prohibative unfortunatley.

[Perilla]

[Shroob]

[Perilla]