Job Discussion Forums

[lady z]

I am a newbie, and this site has been very helpful to me already. Many of my questions are constantly posted in various forms.
What I would really love to hear from those of you who are currently working in the field is about your beginning. What led you to where
you are now? How did you start, and when, and where?

If this is not the appropriate place for this post I apologize in advance.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

"The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize; he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament... My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon... luge lessons... In the spring, we'd make meat helmets... When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds - pretty standard really. At the age of 12, I received my first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian named Wilma ritualistically shaved my testicles � there really is nothing like a shorn scrotum � it�s breathtaking... I suggest you try it. " ---Dr.Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

ETA

I'm in Japan. I'm on the JET program (I'm in my third year- normally the maximum length for JET). It was suggested by a professor during my year-long TESL Certificate programme as a good way to ease into teaching English language.

E(again)TA

Prior to the TESL certificate I had worked as a (night crew) retail manager for a year ( a promotion from working full time day non-management for almost a year) after a truly unsuccessful job hunt in advertising copywriting/marketing communications at the end of a couple of contracts- one at a radio station that dried up because there simply were no sales, and therefore no new commercials to be written and one at an opera company that I left because 1. I didn't particularly like the job 2. I had moved in with my then girlfriend and the total commuting time was almost equal to the length of working day combined with 3. the cost of the daily total commute was almost equal to half of the entire days earnings, which was lower than I could have got working full time at a big box store retail store in a non-management position (I job I did that I didn't really like, but at the end of the nine hours I was free- at the end of the seven and a half hours at the opera company, I had over a three and a half hour trip ahead of me).

[PAULH]

[denise]

Shy little ol�me saw an ad in a laundromat in Berkeley, California for a TEFL training course. Not knowing what else to do with my life, and not even knowing if I was outgoing enough to teach (the shyness issue is on my mind right now after reading a thread on the general forum), I decided to give it a try. Did a standard office job to save up money, then packed up and headed off to Prague for the ITC course. And haven�t regretted it once!

After Prague:
grad school, a summer program in China, two years in Japan, a brief stint in Chile, and now I am just getting started in Peru. Today is my first day of teaching. I am so excited!

(And many, many thanks to another forum member for getting me in touch with my new school!)

d

[Gordon]

After finishing university, I travelled with my g/f (now wife) to Europe for 9 months. Broke, we went back to Canada, couldn't find decent work and 2 months later landed in Korea where we both started teaching at a little school in a hole of a city. That was 10 years ago, have taught ever since, got more qualifications and now have a great job in a Japanese university. Never regretted it either and we have 2 little ones to share it with.

[Irish]

I was minding my own business working on a psych degree in university when I started tutoring friends (both native and non-native speakers) who wanted help with English. What began as helping out a couple of friends or co-workers soon turned into a second job. Instead of doing grad work in psych, I got a MATESL and now I get to do what I really like and get paid (a little) for it.

Regrets? Only that it took me too long to figure out how much I liked this gig.

[Guy Courchesne]

I had come out of school and decided on a freelance writing career. No office cubice for me I thought to myself! So, I went traveling across Canada to gaine experience, submit a few stories, and see if I could earn a living doing it. Turns out it ain't that easy living asd a freelancer.

I had taken a TESL course already and decided somewhere south would be a good place to go, to write travel pieces and teach English to supplement my income. 5 years later, I'm still here, married to a local gal, and firther along a career pat in teaching. Wish I could pcik up the freelancing again, but I'm happy where I am now. Poor Dave's posters have to suffer my writing instead of finding it in a glossy mag somewhere.

[lady z]

Wow, I didnt expect such a quick response. Thanks so much. I am coming to this field later than the ideal...and hearing about the various places that you have come from and the paths you have taken to get there is very inspiring. It doesnt make the long road ahead any shorter, but it does remind me that there is light at the end of the tunnel...

Thank you!
Zenia

[schwa]

"Later than the ideal" -- blah.

I was in my later 40s stuck in a dead-end job feeling bored & hungover one drizzly sunday afternoon & on pure whim I typed "teaching english abroad" into my computer. Well. Seemed like there was a whole world of new opportunity out there.

With cautious determination I found what seemed like a good fit, & leapt.

Zero regrets. 7 years on in my late-found career, I couldnt be happier. Best luck.

[sigmoid]

...

[Gregor]

Great thread, just to allow us to talk about ourselves unrepentantly! HA!

Short version - I had a bad job (printer) in the United States, a bad relationship, and another band fell apart on me.
Months before, my sister had sent me an ad she'd torn out of a magazine, for a teacher training school to get a TEFL certificate.

Later, I remembered it.

At 31 years old (a little old for getting into this field), I had just taken up the Spanish Language and playing guitar. Hitting 31 was a little traumatic for me. I looked back ten years and realized that if I had been doing these things, even half-assed, in all that time, I'd have made SOME progress. So I took up those hobbies.
When things went to pieces with the band and the girl, I remembered my sister's magazine ad, and I just WENT. No research. No thought. It was totally impulsive. I had nothing at the moment but the job, and I hated the job. The school was in Mexico, and they speak Spanish there, so there ya go.

That was in 1996.

In 2001, at the age of 36, at the end of yet another contract, I decided that I needed to decide what I wanted to when I grew up. Time goes pretty quickly what you're not paying attention. I'd been teaching for all those years, and hadn't been back to live in the U.S. for all that time. Time just goes on, and it goes fast. So I just thought, is it THIS, or something else? Well, I'm lazy. I chose the path of less resistance. THIS is what I do, so I pursued a higher position (Director of Studies). I got the gig, and here I am. I've lived in Mexico, Lebanon, Indonesia, China, and a few months in Western Europe.
It sounds glamourous, and in my opinion, it IS. Plus, I love my job. I prefered teaching, and in my more stressed out days, I wish I could go back to being JUST a teacher. But I generally like being the DoS as well. I can really help my teachers out. And I still teach classes. I have no flippin' clue what might have become of me had I stayed in the U.S. I had nowhere to go, nothing to do, and I was THIS CLOSE to losing my job (because I hated it, and so I sucked at it).

That's how I started out. Now, I'm sitting at my computer in Dalian, China, screwing around. I've got a nice home here, and I own another one in Shenyang (I bought the one in Shenyang; my school gave me this house as part of my contract).
In addition to doing a job I love, I have been able to pursue my music - in Mexico, I did that as half of my income (I'm a drummer), in Indonesia, I made a decent second income with it, and I have been featured on TV a few times in Indo, and twice in China. FUN!
But most importantly, in Shenyang, China, I met the woman of my dreams. She is beautiful, smarter than me, and she is now my wife.
My wife.
This is something that would never have happened otherwise. I don't believe in fate, BUT! I never was, nor was likely to be, in a place in my head or life to accomodate an actual wife.
She wanted to marry me as much as I wanted to marry her. That is still something I have a hard time getting my head around.
But there you are. We're happily married, we live in Dalian, China, and I love my job. AND I make TONS of money (well, compared to Chinese people)(even RICH Chinese people).
TEFL has been good to me.

[Cdaniels]

[LadyJane]

I'm one of those "later than average" beginners as well. After 20+ years of marriage to an unrepentant homebody, I found myself divorcing and in serious need of a way to support myself. So, I had a long think and remembered that I'd always wanted to travel and see the world. Then, I had another think and figured out that teaching English would mean that I could really see parts of the world without having to leave when my two-week vacation was over.

I already had a VERY marketable degree in philosophy, so I enrolled in a graduate TESL program. I got my first job working in the school where I did my practicum. Now, I'm in my first overseas job in Slovakia. I expect to be here for another 8 months and then I'll be off to the next exciting location. (I'll know it when I see it.) While Slovakia may not be on everyone's must see list, it is safe and very close to a lot of other places, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria. So my weekends and holidays will be interesting to say the least.

If I had any advice to someone, it would be to plunge right in. The water seems to be fine. And, if it isn't, there's another pond around here some place.

Good luck.

LJ

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[Gregor]

Well, yeah...
I mean, so far as my experience is concerned.
I have people older than me working FOR me now (I'm a DoS at the moment), but for the most part, new teachers, who have never BEEN teachers (at least in ESL) tend to be in their early to mid 20s. That was certasinly the case on my TEFL certification course. It's certainly the case with most newbies I encounter or hire.
Yeah. Over-all, 31 is relatively old for starting into this field.