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bhog
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 22
Location: KCMO
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 Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 7:10 pm Post subject: Thoughts about your future |
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Hey everyone,
I'm just starting up in the TEFL world, still pretty young at 28, single, but getting old enough to begin seriously thinking about my future. I've chosen S. Korea as my destination, mainly to try and finish off my debts. I doubt that I'll do the TEFL thing for 30 years, but see it as a great opportunity to live abroad and gain more experience with other languages and cultures.
In the future I would like to actually have a job were I can make decent money and eventually have a comfortable retirement...ie pay the bills and not have to become a Wal-Mart greeter, nothing fancy.
My question is this: What is the best way to parlay experience in this field into other and possibly more lucrative fields down the line...say 5-7 years or so. Does this sort of thing look good or bad on a resume?
BTW, what are your plans for the future??? Thanks! |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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| It looks bad. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| thrifty wrote: |
| It looks bad. |
It looks bad for "thrifty" because he has no skills to list on a resume. If you do a good job in Korea with English-teaching jobs, you'll have plenty of skills that you can parlay into good jobs in another field.
PM me if you'd like more info. If you listen to "thrifty," you'll hear only his tired old whining. But he's a failure. You sound like you won't be a failure, so you'll be fine.  |
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tedkarma
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 1598
Location: The World is my Oyster
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:26 am Post subject: |
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Don't rule out EFL as potentially comfortable and somewhat lucrative long-term employment.
I headed out into the EFL world at the age of 41 - with almost nothing. But good jobs in Korea, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia have allowed me to invest in and completely pay off three rental properties back home in just 15 years. Something I doubt I could have done had I stayed home. Those will provide me with an income (and some tax protection) when I get older.
The difference though, for an enjoyble long-term career in EFL, is a graduate degree. Sample the career - and if you like it - RUN, don't walk, to a relevant graduate degree.
You won't always make more money - but you'll get much better employment conditions: fewer hours, longer paid vacations, shorter work weeks, etc. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:21 am Post subject: |
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Gosh, tedkarma. You've made quite the financial coup as an English teacher. How did you do that if (as "thrifty/31/Mark Loyd" repeatedly maintains), the English-teaching industry is "crap" and cannot possibly provide a "decent" lifestyle for anyone. Your finances seem a bit more than "decent," eh?
Perhaps you have several graduate degrees and an MBA????? |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 5:16 am Post subject: |
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Please provide just one example of a good job back home that you can parlay your TEFL skills (sic) into.
No 17000 a year jobs though. |
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tedkarma
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 1598
Location: The World is my Oyster
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 7:56 am Post subject: |
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| Henry_Cowell wrote: |
Gosh, tedkarma. You've made quite the financial coup as an English teacher. How did you do that if (as "thrifty/31/Mark Loyd" repeatedly maintains), the English-teaching industry is "crap" and cannot possibly provide a "decent" lifestyle for anyone. Your finances seem a bit more than "decent," eh?
Perhaps you have several graduate degrees and an MBA????? |
I DO have two graduate degrees. An M.Ed. and and anMBA (almost irrelevant). How do you find financial success? Go to the countries that provide for some savings. Korea - and the Middle-East specifically. I recently went back to Korea for three years to pay off two mortgages on the rental properties. But . . . it was a nice job - 20 weeks paid vacation per year, four-day week, twelve hour per week contract . . .
Yeah . . . EFL scuks.
Really, it is like anything else - if you upgrade your entry-level qualifications you can land the best jobs - just like in any career. Back home OR overseas. |
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sidjameson
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 629
Location: osaka
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 9:27 am Post subject: |
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| Sounds like you were lucky with your timing as well Ted. I doubt you could do that if you started today. But I do agree that long term financial security can be had in this game. BUT language schools are a step onto the ladder only, if you want to make a career out of it then university work is the only way to go. |
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Chris_Crossley
Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 10:00 am Post subject: Work, career and higher study in the TEFL world |
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| sidjameson wrote: |
| BUT language schools are a step onto the ladder only, if you want to make a career out of it then university work is the only way to go. |
Language schools were a step onto the ladder for me, that is true. I spent two years with EF English First in Wuhan (Hankou area), China, before moving onto a state primary school, again in Wuhan (Wuchang district), for a year before then moving onto my present training centre (same district) in February of last year where I have been teaching on its pre-master's programme (PMP).
My job is to prepare Chinese university graduates with the study skills they need to go to England to undertake a postgraduate taught master's degree there, so it is not the kind of "oral English" that foreign teachers have to do, whether in part or in whole, when they teach at Chinese universities on a full-time basis.
Having gained an MBA 7 years ago (which helped me, in part, to land my present job), I am also currently undertaking an MA in Education by distance learning while I am working. I hope that this degree, once I finish it by the autumn of next year, will help me land an even better job, even though I realise that there will never be any cast-iron guarantee of that happening. Unlike jobs, though, degrees are permanent once you get them. |
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cam
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
Posts: 124
Location: Maine, USA
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 10:27 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| What is the best way to parlay experience in this field into other and possibly more lucrative fields down the line...say 5-7 years or so. Does this sort of thing look good or bad on a resume? |
In the long run ESL experience combined with a higher education in the field might help you get a better position in ESL but it will not help you get a great job in some other more lucrative field. Ask yourself....How many jobs outside of ESL have you seen advertised that were asking for teaching experience at a hogwon in Korea? |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:32 am Post subject: |
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| Agreed. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| The increasingly pathetic "thrifty" wrote: |
| No 17000 a year jobs though. |
17,000 was the lowest of several I offered you. What about the others? What salary meets YOUR financial requirements? If I'm to be your career advisor, I need to know YOUR requirements. If you don't want to disclose those particulars, you should stop your complaining.
Agreed? |
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saint57
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 1221
Location: Beyond the Dune Sea
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| if you upgrade your entry-level qualifications you can land the best jobs |
It's almost like the good jobs look for you at a certain level. I took a job at Christmas to begin teaching in July. I've seen many other attractive opportunities in the meantime. I would argue that at the high school level a B.Ed would open up more opportunities than an MA TESOL. However, for the sweet university jobs, an MA TESOL is the way to go. Yes, I know international schools hire people with MA TESOLs but the majority of staff have B.Eds. |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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| You are definitely a *beep* advisor. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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| thrifty wrote: |
| You are definitely a *beep* advisor. |
If you were to give me your actual salary requirements and I were to find jobs that met them, you'd still find an excuse for calling them "crap."
"31/Mark Loyd/thrifty": Once a pathetic loser, always a pathetic loser. |
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