Job Discussion Forums

[eurobound]

Hello again all

Okay so basically my next question here is exactly how conscientious are schools in Poland about actually contacting the referees that you give to them on your application?

I ask because last year I had a job interview for a school in Sicily and I gave as a referee my main co-teacher from my time at a public school in Sicily.

The DOS later informed me that upon emailing this teacher she promptly received an almost unintelligible response in English (a language this teacher could speak well.) Apparently the DOS then phoned the number I'd given and was given pretty short shift by the co-teacher (who I had got on with very well for a full year) before she promptly hung the phone up on her. Koreans are kind of crazy.

I think it looks strange if one of my referees isn't someone from the one school I've ever worked at - like I'm hiding something, which I'm not - but I don't want a repeat of this embarassing fiasco.

So is it better for me to use other referees (though non-TEFL based) from the United Kingdom, or risk this again? Any knowledge/advice appreciated...

[steviok85]

I think that the non-tefl based referees would not be much use. I have been applying for some EAP work in the UK this summer, and it is clear that I need referees who can comment on my teaching ability. I think that it would be the same for most of the language schools out there. I also have my old university lecturer, who is 'Academic Team Leader for EFL', and he is frankly not much use for some of the places I have applied to.

I left on good terms with my two previous schools, but I have a hunch that my referees from these places are simply too lazy to respond to reference requests which more than unnerves me. My referee from my current school in Poland has been doing the job for me, but I am beginning to see that it is too much trouble for him to 'tick the boxes'.

[spiral78]

I don't think this would help in all situations, but I've sometimes asked if someone will be a reference for me, and then I've written a standard reference which he/she can simply edit (I'm modest in what I put there, so hopefully they add some nice stuff). It seems to be take some of the work out of the job for them...and I always offer to write references for those people if they wish - many people have a collection of very short references on their linked-in page, for example, and welcome new contributions.

[eurobound]

Thanks for that suggestion, Spiral78. I have acquired a reference this way recently - an absolute corker as well - from an old boss in the UK; I just lack anything approaching a suitable teaching reference from the school I worked at. Oh well, time will tell...

[delphian-domine]

There's no hard and fast rule with Poland - it's very much up to the personality of the director. But in general, I'd say that most directors of schools are more likely to trust their gut instinct than look for references.