Job Discussion Forums

[bfrog]

So we've read the thread on life after TEFL, and I think it's just as interesting to know the part before it, if you were always motivated in teaching or if certain events drove you towards it, the qualifications and experience that made you believe it would be something you'd enjoy and do well, and such.

Myself, I have never taught English nor are my studies in any way preparing me for that. (For the critics, I do plan to get certified before stepping into a classroom.) However, I have been fortunate enough to travel more than most people my age, on the cheap, exploring new places, meeting new people. I have the patience and curiosity for others learning English, and the wanderlust is definitely addictive. I hope to make the most of it while I'm still young and responsibilities are relatively low. My main reason for wanting to teach English is to continue this and learn more about the world before settling down, perhaps learn a language, and help people along the way.

But I also know that there is no place I'd rather live than Canada, and I don't plan to teach forever. I hope to have a good exit strategy already established before giving this a go.

So that's me, in the before stage.

[Marcoregano]

Good post.

For me, getting into TEFL was a last resort - I never wanted to be a teacher. But I got tired of always being semi-employed in the UK in the early to mid 90s and decided to give it a go.

I have no regrets. I have always enjoyed experiencing other countries, and that was the big draw with TEFL - and having a job of course.

[father Mackenzie]

Well, my life turned upside down in 2005, so I sold up and traveled the world in 2006 and during that trip I met some teachers who told me of the life they led and the fun they had.
Having to choose between returning to the rat race in England or taking a chance in another country I opted for the latter, went and got qualified and ended up in Indonesia.
No regrets and no plans to go back.

[santi84]

I am a police dispatcher and since I'm in North America, I still use it to supplement my income. I teach a lot of domestic violence/property crime prevention/bylaws information to community services ESL classes.

[nickpellatt]

I was a jobbing salesman for around 10 years prior to EFL. I was never the high flier type, but I was never out of a job either. Spent 7 years in new car sales, but my last sales job was managing a health club sales team.

For about ten years Id liked the idea of becoming a teacher ... but it just looked impossible. I even went to visit my sons headmaster to discuss the options. She was excited when I said I would like to work in a primary school, (Im an under-represented minority for that - older, male) but seriously unimpressed when we went through my qualifications. Getting qualified just didnt seem possible.

So the idea went on the backburner ... and I stayed in sales but always said teaching was something Id like to do, until I got involved in a messy love triangle, and I ended up on the sharp point.I decided to quit the job, and booked a volunteer trip to Africa. Although this wasnt classroom orientated, there was a chance to work in schools, which I enjoyed. I extended this trip by three months, and also booked another trip to do 3 months teaching in China. China was the turning point, as I realised (for the first time) that whilst UK state school teaching was out, EFL was certainly possible. And I kinda liked it.

The initial 3 months in China ended in Dec 06, but I had wisely used my time there to find paid employment that was starting after the Spring Festival 07. I came home and made some life decisions, making sure my family approved and understood...and returned to China in March 07 to begin teaching in my first paid position.

I wisely decided to return with a distance learning course with the Open University to start to bolster my qualifications too.

18 months in China, during which I also did an EF summer camp. I came home last June and went straight into an EFL summer job with a local student organisation and made a decision to stay home for 18 months and finish my degree ... and just pick up some seasonal EFL work to keep my going. I have agreed contracts with another school in China, and am currently looking at flights that leave around a week before Xmas. I have started this years summer work too, its my second year with the student org mentioned above, and I have completed a huge amount of work towards my degree.

My summer contracts finish in September, my studies end in October, and Im treating myself to a trip to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro immediately after ... a month of lounging follows before I head out to China!

Its been great so far, the last 3 years have been the best ever! It has been quite a dramatic change that friends can hardly believe sometimes, and have required some dramatic lifestyle changes too. (the sports car, designers clothes and wilder spending habits have long gone)

My only regret is not doing this sooner. I was 36 when I first boarded that plane to Africa.

[Blingcosa]

I completed a Computing degree, only to finish it and realise I hated working with computers!

I decided I might become a computing teacher instead, but all the schools I approached said I also needed a teaching qualification. As we all know, the fastest teaching qualification you can earn is TESOL course.

When I finished the course, a local language school approached my lecturer to recommend someone and she chose me. I have been an English teacher for 3 years now, and loving it!!

I really want to teach in Asia now, but nothing has worked out yet.....

[cmp45]

With a bachelor of fine arts degree and a graphic design diploma, I was working as a graphic designer as well as teaching adult evening art classes on the side in Canada.

Dissatisfied with life in general and approaching 30, I was looking for a radical change and anxious to experience a different culture-country.

I found my opprotunity through a client we were working with at the time and landed a volunteer job teaching art in a Junior Secondary school in rural Botswana. I taught in Botswana, Africa for 3 years and discovered that I enjoyed teaching. Not to mention was the most challenging, rewarding and exciting experience of my life!

However, I realized that without proper ESL credentials I would not find much paid work teaching abroad, so after the 3 years, I went back to Canada and took a ligitimate one year TESL certificate program at a university in Montreal.

After completion of the TESL program, I sent out 100's of applications all over the world and just by luck got my first paid ESL teaching gig in the UAE. It was bottom of the barrel in terms of pay and work. (This was back in the mid 1990's)
I didn't save much, and the teaching was horrible, but enjoyed the social life and managed to stay for 3 years as I knew it would be good on my resume.

As I still had massive debt to pay off, I landed a better paying job in Saudi Arabia. After two different jobs in KSA, moving up the pay scale and gaining more experience, I managed to pay off my debt and just completed an on-line masters degree in Post Secondary Education.

I have to say I have no regrets and have enjoyed the long and winding path. I am now 50 and figure if I can handle it here until 55 I should be able to retire or at least work part time somewhere that I can call home and put down some roots.

It's been very exciting, as my job also allows me to travel to many different places during the vacation times.

[Mike_2007]

I studied Electrical & Electronic Engineering at uni, detested it, and knew there was no way I could spend the rest of my life doing that, especially after a week's work experience at the MoD and a temp job at BT. I've always hated offices and the whole office atmosphere and so I made a radical change.

I went back to college and studied horticulture and then an NVQ in construction and firstly sub-contracted for an agricultural engineering outfit and then for a landscape architect, often working on my own designs and builds in my free time for extra money. The work was often very satisfying, but I knew it also wasn't something I could do indefinitely and the British weather, depressing social climate, expensive housing and other factors were getting to me.

At the time I was engaged to a Turkish girl and after some discussion we decided to try our luck in Turkey. I went back to college (again) and got my CELTA and in '99 we moved to Istanbul.

Mike

[Chancellor]

All of my working life has been in jobs that required a significant amount of writing. When I was finsihing up the first four years of a Navy enlistment, I seriously considered going to college to get teacher certification and go into the public schools. Instead, I stayed in the Navy for another almost eight years (I left in 1992 when the Navy offered me a year's salary to leave under the post-Cold War downsizing). I then started a new career working for administrative law judges and worked my way up to my current position writing their decisions.

About 10 years ago I was working as a legal assistant and one day a co-worker and I were talking and joking around. She suggested I go into teaching English. We laughed about it but over the years since then I mulled the idea over in my mind. Then, in 2006, the opportunity came for me to spend a month at a private IBO candidate school in Bandung, Indonesia (meaning the school was working toward certification as an IBO PYP school) teaching English to 3-6 year-olds. Well, I was hooked and from then on I began working toward appropriate certification with a goal of going into TEFL as a career.

[missjones]

This is a really cool post. Thanks for this.