Job Discussion Forums

[Chris_Crossley]

If, like me, you are a qualified teacher for public schools, you're probably not unfamiliar with the idea of applying for teaching jobs at such places several months before the job actually begins. To take a simple example, one can expect a job at a public primary or secondary school in the UK starting in September to be advertised as early as January when the schools know that a vacancy or three is going to be created.

With the world of TEFL, though, it's different, as I'm sure many of us know. While private language schools don't advertise months in advance, it seems to me that the time window between when a vacancy is actually advertised and when the job is due to start can be quite short.

I have sent off my resume "on spec" to at least a dozen schools belonging to a well-known international chain of private language schools, one that is, interestingly enough, hardly ever mentioned in these fora. (Perhaps that's a good thing, because people usually air their complaints prolifically about the rotten eggs in the TEFL business....) However, although I have indicated to them that my current contract is due to expire at the end of January, not one of the schools has even bothered to reply.

Clearly, it would appear that at least four months constitute far too soon a period of time even to start making speculative enquiries as to whether there will be any chance of a vacancy at those schools. I guess that this may be because people are undecided as to whether they will stay at their current school or else move on to another or else leave the business altogether and do something completely different.

Bar responding directly to advertisements, what, in the experience of fellow posters, would, for example, be a kind of "minimum" period for starting to look for one's next job? Two months? Just one month? Of course, people are bound to be snapped up for a hitherto unfilled vacancy for a job which starts the very next day, provided that one is in the right place at the right time (i.e., already in the town where one intends to work).

In my case, I was offered my current job less than one week before it was due to start, but only because I literally walked into the school and asked whether there was still a vacancy (which I had seen on a website, so it wasn't a purely speculative enquiry). However, perhaps the situation might be different for those people wanting to teach either in a different town or even in a different country.

[kev7161]

In China, it seems, schools hire at the last moment. The Chinese New Year/Winter Break is sometime around late January/early February so most schools probably will hire shortly after the break. My school seemed to drag its feet this past summer and we had foreign teachers arriving as late as just before the National Day break (our school term started on September 1st). We are now fully staffed . . . I believe. When to apply? If it were me, I'd probably start around the beginning of December to get the ball rolling.

[Glenski]

Timing may be important.

In Japan, if a place is not advertising, it is likely because they aren't hiring, so sending a resume out of the blue won't help you.

One more thing. If you are a "qualified public school teacher", you may be considered overqualified for simple language schools. They may be afraid that you will deviate from their set lesson formats.

[Chris_Crossley]

[lagerlout2006]

I worked with an agent in EFL and teachers are notorious for backing out at the last minute. When they see a resume months in advance it might as well be 4 years in advance. Also there is a certain "window" during which they make arrangements for the visa and maybe a flight. There is no point (to them) in looking at people much before. You need to go with their timetable.

Some schools that always hire will take you but do you want to go somewhere that is always hiring? I like the last minute approach but that's just me.

[Roger]

in China, as Kev7161 said, there hardly is any forward-looking and planning on the part of schools; they hire when they feel the pinch. Obviously, a foreign face has more business promotional value, not educational value. They sometimes even promise a "foreign teacher" without having hired one, and if students complain loudly enough one gets hired.

I have also been on the short list of several would-be employers who contacted me when they urgently needed someone; this sounds nice, but I found every time they were unprepared to accommodate any of my special wishes that might be prompted by some of my other engagements. Either they want me, in which case I must be at their beck and call full-time, or they don't want me.

It is also true that many job seekers promise to be available, and then they let their employers down. Very common, indeed!