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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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 Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 5:42 pm Post subject: Re: "Let me say this about that" (Richard M. Nixon |
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| richtx1 wrote: |
| All that said, there are legitimate reasons for a client to interview a teacher. |
I think part of the confusion is due to the types of job placement services available.
Most TEFL job seekers, especially those new to the field, probably envision a job placement service as an agency that helps them find jobs teaching English mainly in school settings. It could be private language schools, universities, or other types of schools.
It's not uncommon for some teachers, especially when employed by certain private language schools, to hold some or even all of their classes off-site. School owners or DOSs sometimes arrange for teachers to teach at other locations. It could be a group of business executives who want a teacher to come to their office building to teach them English. It could be a group of hotel employees whose boss has arranged with a school's DOS to have an English teacher give classes at the hotel. Sometimes DOSs make similar arrangements for their teachers, but instead of groups of students, the arranged instruction is one-on-one, especially with business execs. In these cases, I could see some type of trial period, but I don't feel interviews would be necessary. I'm not even sure that this fits in with real job placement. At least in many cases, it's more like the DOS offering more working hours to teachers already employed by the school.
There are job placement agencies that only deal with schools. However, there are other types of job placement services for EFL job seekers. For example, a placement agency may deal directly with businesses or other organizations that want their employees to have EFL instruction. Some placement agencies offer both kinds of services: placement in schools and placement in the private sector.
If a job placement agency deals directly with a business, then I could see a legitimate reason for a client wanting to interview a teacher, or several teachers, for the job. It wouldn't be all that different from an employment agency sending applicants for other job openings: accountant, secretary, office manager, etc. As a potential employee in that kind of situation, I'd prefer an interview. As an employer in that situation looking to hire someone, I'd insist on interviewing applicants. |
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moonraven
Joined: 24 Mar 2004
Posts: 3094
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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Some placement agencies may send folks out on interviews, but in that case why not job-hunt on your own and cut out the middle-person?
When I moved to new places in the US I sometimes signed up with a branch of a nationwide accounting placement agency, and did take several jobs through them. Never once was I sent out on an interview, and the service was 100% paid by the businesses who required highly qualified accountants.
If all you are paying for is for someone to get you interviews, it's not worth it. For 10,000 pesos worth of MY time I could knock on a lot of doors with my resume.... |
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Ben Round de Bloc
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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| moonraven wrote: |
| Some placement agencies may send folks out on interviews, but in that case why not job-hunt on your own and cut out the middle-person? |
The only answer I can come up with is that some people can't find jobs on their own maybe. I don't know.
The only "job service" I've ever used was right after I graduted from university with my BA in Ed. back in the Dark Ages. It was the university's Career Planning & Placement Center and amounted to a rather basic process of checking updated lists of current vacancies and then having the Center send out application packets -- resume, letters of reference, and probably some other stuff that I can't remember. However, the first teaching job I accepted was one I'd found on my own, halfway across the country and via a phone interview.
I've met quite a few newbie EFL teachers over the past few years who came to Merida looking for jobs. Most of them handled the process quite well on their own with no help from a placement service. I must say, however, there were a few who could've used all the help they could get and then some. They just didn't have much of a clue. For them maybe paying for placement services would've been worth their investment. |
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moonraven
Joined: 24 Mar 2004
Posts: 3094
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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| It occurs to me, Tim, that if those folks you mentioned really didn't have a clue, and a placement service sent them out on an interview, their cluelessness would have been rapidly apparent to the employer, and their money rapidly down the rathole. �O no? |
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