Job Discussion Forums

[phil_reimann]

Dear everyone,

I apologise in advance if this topic has already been discussed at length, but considering the mass of information on the site I hope you can understand.

Me and my girlfriend have been jointly seeking work in Thailand for 3 months after graduating from university with Linguistics degrees and a desire to travel (we're not the first we know).

We've had some intensive training from ITC and decided to search for work by ourselves to save some money by not paying a company to do it for us. HOWEVER, we are finding it extremely hard since the numbers of jobs being advertised on the internet are few and far between, and we rarely get any responses from those that do appear.

Can anyone suggest where we are going wrong or maybe point us in the right direction of a company, website (or school even!), that may offer more hope.

Thank you for reading and any responses you send,

Phil

[AnchorMan]

Buy a ticket. To Bangkok. Do a TEFL. Your chances will increase exponentially. Please be aware of pending immigration changes. Google Thai immigration changes.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

^ Hi phil


No apology necessary; AnchorMan is correct.


Your chances are much better after you're on the ground here.

This repost from Appendix B of The Master Index Thailand

might help to explain why that is the case:




Q6: I've E-mailed my CV to 30+ schools, but so far no reply.


The TEFL market in Thailand is a bit unique to the extent that there are already several thousand expats living here and available to interview on short notice. Because of this, many school managers don't bother answering applications from people living abroad, or they might tell you to "drop by for an interview" after you arrive.

i.e., Manager "X" advertises a position today, and by next week, he may have several hundred applications on his desk from TEFLers already in Thailand. Until you're on the ground here, Manager "X" figures he's wasting time on you, to put it bluntly.

With that in mind: your best chance of landing the ideal TEFL position is to be here, in Thailand, with a mobile phone on your belt, an updated CV in your hand, looking sharp & ready to hit the pavement. If you can arrange a few interviews and/or set up some appointments via E-mail before arriving, so much the better, but don't be too disappointed if you don't receive that great job offer over the internet.





Q7: Where's the best place for me to search for TEFL positions in Thailand?

A7: In addition to watching ESL Cafe on a regular basis (and the websites in the TEFL in THAILAND & TEFL WORLDWIDE categories located in Part II above) there are a couple websites that specialise in the Thailand TEFL job-offered market:


http://www.ajarn.com/ (Ajarn.com)

http://www.jobsdb.com/ (JobsDB.com)

http://www.teflasia.com/ (TEFL Asia.com)

http://www.shoppy.co.il/jobpro/ (The Job Pro)

http://thailandteacher.com/ (ThailandTeacher.com)


For international school placement, consider joining one of these:


http://www.iss.edu/index.html (International Schools Services / USA)

http://www.cois.org/ (CIS / Council of International Schools / UK)

http://www.search-associates.com/ (Search-Associates.com)

http://www.higheredjobs.com/ (Higher Education Jobs)

http://www.uni.edu/placement/overseas/ (UNI)

http://www.joyjobs.com/ (JoyJobs.com)

http://tieonline.com/ (TIE Online)


re: immigration changes mentioned by AnchorMan


Be sure the school or agency is providing a work permit.

There may be some new regulations on the way

which would restrict the number of times

you can extend an on-entry visa.







Thailand teaching and travel resources available here :::: The Master Index Thailand ::::

[phil_reimann]

Thak you both for your replies. I did fear that not being in Thailand was our main point of disadvantage.

Like many on these forums though, I have reservations about up-and-leaving to Thailand without any security of a job at the other end (its kind of a catch-22 situation) and am beginning to contemplate whether we should both enrole with a company like English First or i-to-i that provide placements and training for you.

We know that these are obviously profit-seeking organisations and therefore do not offer the best value-for money, but all that aside, do they still offer a farely good placement in an area of our choosing?

How bad can they be?!

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Everybody is a little nervous showing up without a firm job offer;

that's understandable, but there's really no need to worry.


There is a shortage of qualified teachers with degrees,

and you guys would get hired lickety split, imho.


If you really want to use an agency or do a course,

I certainly wouldn't try to talk you out of it.


Text-and-Talk Academy offers a quality TESOL cert

with Non B visa assistance and job placement.


TEFL International offers a quality training and placement

program as well, and they are both based in Thailand.


Because of this, I would recommend those 2

before EF or i-to-i, for what that's worth.







Thailand teaching and travel resources available here :::: The Master Index Thailand ::::

[laben18]

....a degree in linguistics....

hmmmm

its "my girlfriend and I"....

[phil_reimann]

hehe, pedantic! Having errors picked up is part of the territory I suppose. In my defense I could easily argue that your criticism is merely based on archaic scriptures and prescriptive attitudes that aren't realistic in modern linguistics.

In fact, I could argue that I was only intending to topicalise myself in such a sentense and therefore the fronting of the first person accusative pronoun is merely a pragmatic mechanism.

I could, but I won't.

Thanks for your help everyone. We're still looking, but have had an optimistic response from one school. Fingers crossed.

[myitoi]

I have seen plenty of cases where people have tried to get jobs abroad independently and been unsuccessful. It's tough but I'm sure something will come up.

Good luck!