Job Discussion Forums

[Gawain]

Anyone have success in a new career after EFL globetrotting?

I'm an old EFL globetrotter having trouble finding good job in USA. Stuck temping as cubicle slave. Googled "temp" looking for temp support chatrooms as helpful as Dave's is for teachers. All I found were "temping is hell" nightmare stories. Surely it can't be so impossible to find a tolerable job once you've outgrown your EFL career!

How did you transition to some cool job or new career after your EFL drifter days, or back in homeland between EFL gigs ? Anyone got any cool stories?

[Deconstructor]

After globetrotting for a few years, I went back home (Canada) and discovered that the only jobs for me were at language schools.

So:

Got a real University TESL Certificate (30 credit program).
Got a M.A. English.
Got a job at a local U.
Got a job at a public school.
Got a job at a private secondary school.
Each one paid at least $40.000/yr.

Still have the last one.

I'd say I've been pretty successful. I know that any one of my qualifications is useless by itself, but combined they pack a pretty powerful punch. This was the only way to survive.

I think those who find themselves in deep trouble are the ones who only have a B.A and a CELTA or some such thing. I've said this many times before: the one month deals are useless if you are planning on teaching back home (U.S./Canada).

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Deconstructor]

[bdawg]

Anyone have any post tefl sucess stories in careers other than education?
What about sticking around a studying the language? Any benefits from that?

[darkside1]

A mate of mine in Barcelona, Spain went from EFL to setting up his own business organising sports tours for teams from the UK, he's doing very well apparently. (He ran an ex- pat soccer league there so he had previous experience).

Another guy, via setting up on his own doing business English classes and networking, eventully got a job in a media company and was making megabucks the last I heard.

Someone else I know edits a magazine and does translations and is doing pretty well.

Various people I met in Saudi have retrained since leaving, using the 'warchest' assembled there to good effect.

I'm still in teaching, but in a different sector to the one I was in previously.

Transitions back home after a few years away are hard, you need money, determination and a clear focus in order to succeed. You also need to be flexible about how to reach your goals. My motto is, 'you'll get there in the end'.

[bobber46]

If you enjoy globetrotting and want to make more money than TEFLing, you might consider a career as a Foreign Service Officer with the Dept of State. Check it out at:
http://careers.state.gov/officer/

They actually value people who have spent a lot of time overseas.

To start the process, you have to take a written exam which is offered only once a year. This year it is April 23 and the registration deadline is March 23 if you're in the U.S., March 15 if you're not. The test is free and is offered at thousands of locations all over the world. A study guide is available and is highly recommended if you plan to take the test.

There's a Yahoo group of aspiring test takers which I also recommend you join for more info:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fswe/

[struelle]

Deconstructor is on to something about how various Educational credentials pack a bigger punch when combined.

If all goes well, I'll soon have a BS, BEd, and CELTA. The next step is to get an MA in either TESOL or App Ling. There should be more flexibility in getting good university or high school jobs with some combination of the above.

I taught in Shanghai for 3 years and the experience was the best time of my life. I would go back in a second, but I need to discipline myself to push through this reverse cultural adjustment at the moment, and stick it out. At the moment I'm doing my practicum and it involves a lot of 'putting out fires' with disciplining Grade 8 students and marking papers. Not exactly fun, but I have to start, or should I say re-start somewhere.

Steve

[Gregor]

I know this isn't really to do with the original question, and I don't know what the REASON for the question was. But I hear and read a lot of negative stuff about TEFL so I thought I'd chime in.

I didn't become a TEFL teacher until I was 31 years old. It was to get out of my country and away from a society and a government that wanted me to do things that I didn't want to do.
I hear people in the US describe themselves as successes and in the same conversation complain about poor pay or bad working conditions, boring work, OVER work, house payments and the cost of living in general, job cutbacks, salary cutbacks, and on and on.

MAN.

Sure, I'd like to further my education to give myself a few options. I've discussed this on another section of this site. But why can't you be successful in TEFL? Get a DoS job, which can, in some school systems, go into an Academic Ops. Manager job and higher. Or pursue an International school. Open your own school maybe. There must be other things that I'm not thinking of.
I'm successful so far. At the age of 40 (this June) I will have a house with three more years to finish paying off (making it mine, free and clear, before the age of 45 and I don't personally know anyone in America who can say that). I have a beautiful wife whom I love a great deal, and a year after my home is paid off, I will qualify for permanent residence in the country I live in, if I stay here for that time.
In the mean time, I'm looking for better jobs, but at the moment I am making more than twice the going rate for foreign teachers and almost ten times the salary that a Chinese man my age can reasonably earn.
I'm the DoS in one branch of a well-known English school chain, making me feel a little like I'm doing the teaching equivilant of managing a McDonald's (while, say, a professor of English at a Big 10 university is a chef). But so what? It's a good, respected and respectable job that pays for a really good life right now, as well as allowing me to put enough money into a retirement program that my wife has set up.
I never in a million years would have married, bought a house OR found any sort of retirement program had I not entered TEFL and left my country.
Yes, more education is a good idea, and that is something else I can afford if I do it right.
Why do you have to leave TEFL to be a success? I'm a success, more or less, right now.

[lozwich]

Wow, thanks Gregor! I've been lurking on this thread, somewhat in the middle of a career crisis, and at 35, slightly worried about the big nasty future ahead. Thanks very much for your inspiring post, gives me a little hope for my own future!

Have a great day,
Lozwich.

[Guy Courchesne]

Kudos Gregor...I'm in the same boat as yourself, though a little younger. I think something can be said for sticking it out as well...any career or job has its entry level and steps upward.

[XXX]

It can be done.......... Let's see... I girl I taught with in Moscow is now teaching in the public schools here in Pa. I guy I taught with in Russia is now teaching at the University of Wisconsin. Another girl is teaching in Kentucky. I am teaching AP World History and a couple of ESL classes at the local high here in South Eastern PA. Then again, another guy who I met in Moscow is driving a big rig ( and making a decent living), but he wasn't really into being a teacher.

[Dave]

I had a successful transition to a non-TESL job. I returned to CA in 1999, worked at a dot-com for a brief period, then moved to a large financial services company where I've been working in marketing for the past five years. I earn a decent living - high 90s, but this is an expensive part of the world. I'll probably return to TESL part time when I retire just as a way to see more of the world.

[Glenski]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050301.wshellgame0301/BNStory/Business/

Not necessarily related to teaching, but somewhat informational.