Job Discussion Forums

[Mehtap]

Hi everyone,

My name is Mehtap and i am a recently qualified ESL teacher, well i just got my CELTA certificate so I guess that makes me qualified. I live in England and have done so all my life, but my family originate from Istanbul. Anyway, i am moving to Istanbul in a few weeks and want to get started on a professional teaching career. Just to let you know more about me, I am 24 years old, a graduate and have had some one-to-one teaching experience. I recently completed my CELTA course at St Giles in London.

I was hoping that some of you could give me some advice. I think I know Istanbul pretty well. However, I have no idea about employement over there, especially with teaching. How do I apply? What to I need to be aware of? How easy is it to get a job with hardly any experience? What are the students like? Is there potential to develop a very successful teaching career? etc etc


I would be grateful to hear from anybody as any information will prove useful. Thanks to everyone who took time out to read this.

Wishing you all the best and looking forward to liasing with some of you on these boards.

Regards,

Mehtap

[dmb]

Welcome aboard Mehtap. You said that you have just finished your CELTA at St Giles, so I presume that you are lookind for a job teaching Adults. At this point in you career you will probably be restricted to working at language schools(although not definite.)

With regard to your Turkish background, I wouldn't worry about it. Actually a few years ago the English Centre used to do their recruitment through St Giles in London. I'm not sure if they still do. At that time the DOS was half Turkish/Scottish with a Turkish name- it never held her back.

However I did know of other language schools who hired Turkish teachers and told them to use English names. If you are asked to do this I'd walk away.

I'd say you are in an enviable position for a newbie. If you have family here, come get the lay of the land and then find the best options.
Best of luck.

[Mehtap]

Hi Dmb,

Thanks so much for replying and for your useful suggestions. My trainers at st giles did say it might be an advantage that i am Turkish and that i know the language very well, however i prefer to speak only English while teaching, i feel it may be more effective, what do you reckon?

My main concern is getting a job in a reputable place. I only decided to do the CELTA because i felt that it was the only immediate option i had to enter into this field. Therefore i don't know if i have a choice as to which age group i'll be teaching.

Anyway, this website is great. I am searching for jobs at the moment so i hope that maybe i can ask people on here if they have heard of the places that i apply and whether or not they are worth while.

Thanks once again and best wishes

[Londonlover]

Hi Mehtap,
I worked in Istanbul for 5 years before returning to the U.K. to London, where I do temporary University work and have done some language school work in St Giles!
If International House in Istanbul were still running that would definitely have been my first recommendation to you. I worked there for two years in two of their branches and it was a very professionally run set up,which had a good reputation as you'd expect of a school in the IH network, looked after its teachers well and treated them fairly and didn't try to rip teachers off or exploit them, unlike many other private language schools in Istanbul.
Unfortunately, IH doesn't exist there any longer as the original owners of the Istanbul IH franchise, decided to buy the franchise of the English First (EF) chain. The same people are running EF that ran IH in Istanbul, so I would have thought it would still be a respectable place to work at, with some of the good points mentioned above. I should say though that I never worked at EF, so can't say how different the working conditions are when compared to their IH predecessor. But I get the impression from people who have worked there that its still a decent deal.
Maybe some other forum members with more up-to-date experience of working at EF Istanbul (Yaramaz?) can comment.
As you are young, you might like to consider a couple of years in a private language school to get the experience and later maybe try to transfer to a state university (which has good working conditions i.e. none of the huge split shifts you sometimes have in language schools, no weekend work, good holidays etc, average pay but wonderful students- the private university students are often atrociously behaved)
Good luck with the job hunt!

[whynotme]

[Mehtap]

Hi Londonlover,

Thanks for the information, very helpful indeed. I had heard about EF before
but didn't know much about them, so thanks for the info.

I hope to develop a career in ESL but sometimes i get the impression that i might not be able to do this with a CELTA? i hope that this is not the case.

Thanks once again,

all the best

Mehtap

[Mehtap]

Hi Whynotme,

Thanks for the message, I replied to your PM, hope you got it?

Best regards,
Mehtap

[Londonlover]

Hi Mehtap,

I think my main advice to you is not to jump straight in and immediately accept the first job that gets offered to you, without researching the school first. You will literally be able to get loads of job offers in Turkey. In Istanbul there's always work going. You must do your research about these places first to avoid it all ending in tears after you've accepted the job.

The people and postings on these pages can help with the research process, though bear in mind sometimes negative posts come from people with axes to grind. DMB who posts here, sounds a really decent bloke who always gives sensible advice. Maybe he will respond here too.

You have a good CELTA and so can afford to be choosey and go for the more professionally run outfits (EF, for example).

You sound like you are after a decent and secure job with employers who will look after you, professionally. You are very marketable, but you need to avoid pitfalls and to be aware of the fact that there are dozens and dozens of cowboy English schools in Istanbul which happily rely on transient young backpacker types with no ELT qualifications. The pay and conditions in these places will be correspondingly bad with high staff turnover. With your CELTA, you deserve much better than ending up in one of these places!

Incidentally, I taught at International House for 2 years, then progressed onto Istanbul Technical University, with my CELTA. (I did have a BA and PGCE too though).

If, as it seems, you want to start a career in EFL, you can consider doing a DELTA or Masters a couple of years down the road. I'm doing my MA TESOL in London at the moment.

I really wish you all the best in landing that job in Turkey.Working in a decent school will contribute to your general sense of contentment, living in Turkey.

Take Care.

[dmb]

[Mehtap]

Hi London Lover,

Thanks so much, this is exactly the sort of imformation i wanted. I'll definitely take your advice amd take it slow. I was planning on doing a DELTA or even my masters in a few years as i want this to be my career and not just a temporary thing.


Thanks once again and good luck with your masters.

Best wishes

mehtap