Job Discussion Forums

[passionateteacher]

How is everyone? Happy New Year again!!!

I need some advice about revising my resume for teaching jobs in the UAE. I have been posting my resume on seriousteachers.com for almost a year. I have recieved a few responses, but none that has led to a full job offer. I wanted some advice. I am in the process of getting my masters degree in TESOL. Also I have posted my photo on seriousteachers, and some of my friends advised me not to. Is it true that most of the Arab countries prefer to hire Caucasions? I am African-American and I was wondering if this is the reason why I am not getting any responses, or is it a question of revising my resume? Please give me any honest advice you have. Thanks.

Also besides here Daves ESL cafe and seriousteachers, are there any other websites that you recommend that I can post my resume?

[Sheikh N Bake]

If you teach English, I hope your misspelling of "received" was a typo. It's i before e except after c, remember? Also, it may just be your text- speech short cut...but as long as we're concerned about resumes, I trust you know that in American usage the correct form is "master's" degree (not "masters"). Have you checked your spelling letter by letter on your resume? (In a cover letter or CV, I am such a stickler that I also make sure there are two accents in "resume," but it's too much trouble to find them just for this forum.) I noticed in a couple of your other posts that you don't know how to use "whom." Try the AP stylebook for a clear summary of English grammar and spelling before posting resumes and writing cover letters.

We had an African-American TEFLer teaching at the now-defunct George Mason Univ campus in Ras al Khaimah. Previously s/he had been working for years in Qatar and the Emirates. Another African-American works for my present employer. The only reason there aren't more is because not that many Americans are attracted to the Middle East in the first place, and even far fewer African-Americans, in absolute numbers.

Finally, we don't know how much experience you have. If you want one of the university jobs in the Gulf, you need at least three years' full-time, post-MA teaching experience.

Posting resumes online is a waste of time except for crappy jobs.

[veiledsentiments]

I would never post a resume anywhere online... ever. But, perhaps it is more reflective of my age, because the privacy issues would concern me. None of the better employers mine those sites because teachers come to them and apply at their websites.

That said, as SnB points out, you need your MA + some related experience to get the better jobs.

As to the African-American question, I worked with a small number over the years and they were almost all Muslims. It is hard to know how many applied and were turned down due to race (or was it a lack of credentials/experience). Most places had a few African professors in the content courses. It is just my opinion and I doubt that there is any research to back it up, but I don't think race is anywhere near as much of a hiring issue in the Middle East as it is in the Far East.

VS

[Tom Le Seelleur]

If you have suffered from prejudice before, take off the photo you never know with recruiters.

Do put your resume online as I have received many offers of interviews through such a technique with well paying organizations so don't let Sheikh N Bake put you off. Don't worry about not having an MA many of the better jobs - ADNEC for example- (PPP)school improvement programs don't always ask for one and prefer you to have experience and teaching qualifications or managerial experience/qualifications. Having an MA obviously allows you to apply to most of the universities or because you are still studying for an MA - HCT might consider you as well.

Try
teachanywhere.com
tefl.com

They are free. If you like an organization enough apply directly without waiting for TESOL Arabia or other job fairs

Sheikh N Bake if you must lecture about spelling and such don't make the same misstake yruosefl.
"I noticed in a couple of your other posts that you don't how to use..." Tut tut

[Sheikh N Bake]

Ah, but typos such as leaving a word out are not the same as grammatical and spelling errors; there is a difference. The OP asked for frank input and in case her errors worm their way into her CVs and cover letters, my comments may be worthwhile...but then, that's for her to decide--isn't it.

[johnslat]

Dear Sheik,

"It's i before e except after c, remember?"

What a weird rule!

"beige, cleidoic, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign,
dreidel, eider, eight, either, feign, feint, feisty,
foreign, forfeit, freight, gleization, gneiss, greige,
greisen, heifer, heigh-ho, height, heinous, heir, heist,
leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir, prescient,
rein, science, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik,
society, sovereign, surfeit, teiid, veil, vein, weight,
weir . . . etc."

Ah, gotta love all those "exceptions."
Regards,
John

[Sheikh N Bake]

I'll be Ronald Reagan and reply

Well...there you go again!

You advocate EFL instructors spelling "recieved" on their job applications? I was trying to simplify.

FURTHERMORE...the old grammar-school spelling rule relates to PRONUNCIATION of the e sound in

receive, grieve, conceive, reprieve, etc. etc.

your list is therefore inapplicable here except for possibly "codeine" and "neither"...

Codeine is a medicine and we all love medicinal exceptions.

Neither is debatable as there are two accepted pronunciations.

[johnslat]

Dear Sheikh,

"I was trying to simplify."

Well, jeez - how could i know that? I'm not prescient, you know.

Regards,
John

[Sheikh N Bake]

Nice try on the flip answers and inapplicable list. See above.

[johnslat]

Dear Sheikh,

"Nice try on the flip answers . . ."

I humbly seek only to emulate thee, O great Sheikh.

Regards,
John

[Sheikh N Bake]

My other moniker is Carnac the Great and I normally retrieve my pearls of wisdom from a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnell's porch.

Thou shalt receive a pass though wheels had already been set in motion for friends of ours to maketh you disappear. Instead thou shalt merit a probationary gracing of these pages.

BTW--I need to review that extremely long blog on speculation of TS's fate. It talked a lot about POV proving the final blackout was what TS experiences at the moment of getting whacked. But...the final shot was of his face, not POV. Comments? Did I misunderstand, or read too quickly

[johnslat]

Dear Sheikh,

True, it's Tony's face just before the "blackout":

"Tony HAD to be the last image we see because this show begins and ends with him. In order for Chase to accomplish this and also have the last shot (10 seconds of black) as Tony�s POV, he had to create the POV pattern. Because of the pattern, the final glimpse of Meadow from Tony�s POV isn�t necessary. If Chase hadn�t laid out the pattern, the final POV shot of Meadow would have been necessary to express the black screen as Tony�s POV."

but of course, the whole final episode in not seen from Tony's POV:

"You need to read the whole thing more closely and logically. You don't need to see Meadow to make it a POV shot, that�s the point of the whole pattern. The pattern sets it up so the next logical cut is to Tony�s POV. At the precise moment of the normal cut to his POV, it cuts to black, i.e. Tony POV=black=death. What do you think was the point of the POV pattern anyway?"

Regards,
John

P.S. Of course, if/when the movie comes out, there goes this whole deconstruction - yet another reason for ambiguity.

[Sheikh N Bake]

Indeed, should a movie occur, my thoughts abound. 1. What proportions will be devoted to soap, comedic relief and goombah thrills? 2. Please no 45-minute dream sequences with talking fish, salesman conventions or evil monks 3. Will it be better than Godfather? Better be--any 6 sequential episodes are. 4. Please, Ton', improve your taste and get a Chinese goomar 5. Let Sil recover and do a few of his Al Pacino shticks and otherwise stand there looking like a comic book gangster 6. Please make it like my fave episode "Commendatori" (half in Napoli), and let Tim Van Patten direct it and make Pauli repeat : "Commendatori--like a commander. I like that. Dat's respect!" 7. Please reprise the following dinner scene, a kind of Last Supper, if you will: the despicable Janice has taken anger management classes after beating up a soccer mom, releasing the beast of fury within Tony, because now his name is all over the local TV news thanks to his thuggish sister. ("Looks like she'll have to enter the Soccer Mom Protection Program," the newscaster quips.) Now Janice walks around with a halo on her head--but Tony is having none of it. "Hhhmm," he says, "I wonder how [Janice's son] Harpo is doing on Thanksgiving up in Canada. Is he getting Thanksgiving dinner?" Nasty look from J. "Yeah, I wonder what French-Canadian is for ...'I grew up without a mother.' Hhmmm...'Sacre bleu! Mon mama--'" and suddenly Janice's anger management skills fly out the window as she chases Tony around the table with a fork. Tony exits with a smug smile, walking down the leafy street, to the tune of "I'm Not Like Anybody Else, yeah, I'm not like everybody else..."

Just when I tot I was out...dey pull me back in!

Finally, 8. After all that sophisticated POV Citizen Kane-like direction of the final episode with POV blackout death and whatnot, what if there's a movie?? D. Chase will have to say "Ha ha, fooled ya." And we shall have lea

[usa_in_gulf]

Race plays a big role in the Gulf countries. The Gulf countries do prefer Caucasions. As silly as it sounds, often it is assumed that English is not the first language of an African-American applicant. I would suggest that you remove your picture. Let potential employers contact you and hear you first. This way you dispel this silly assumption from the beginning.

The internet is a wonderful tool and almost all employers look at the different employment sites. I hope this helps and good luck.

[iketz0]

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