Job Discussion Forums

[gabeen]

Hi I'm brand new to the world of TEFL and I'm in the process of trying to land my first job. I haven't chosen the easiest path though, as I'm trying to find work in southern California without any experience, although I do have a BA in Spanish and a CELTA certification.

All of the job listings I've found say I need 1 year of experience at the very least. I do realize I can go abroad and get that experience pretty easily but I'd like to stay in the States for a year before doing that. So I'm considering volunteering to assist with local ESL classes for refugees (it's a 4 month commitment), observing teachers at community colleges, and, if the opportunity arises, taking on some responsibilities once I've become more familiar with the process of teaching a class. Of course while doing all of this I'll have to find part time work outside the ESL field.

My questions are:

Do employers consider volunteering to be experience?
Will this time be better invested elsewhere?
If I don't find ESL work within a year, will a CELTA with a year of no experience hurt me at all?
Any other ideas for getting started?

[EFLeducator]

[SahanRiddhi]

It is not considered experience.

[gabeen]

Does volunteering help at all in an interview?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

No, I think during the interview they would rather you answer the questions they ask instead of volunteering.

Joking aside, it really depends on where you volunteered. If you volunteered for the anti-communist youth league and then applied to work in Cuba or China.... absolutely not.

[nomad soul]

Make your volunteer experience meaningful and appealing to future employers. For example, I chose a nonprofit ESL institute that had mandatory orientation and basic training for its volunteers. I did well enough in the training, that I was offered a 6-week, summer class to teach and as a result, I listed "Summer ESL Teacher" on my resume for this experience. For another adult ESL literacy program, I proactively sought more responsibilities outside of my volunteer classroom tutor duties. For instance, I asked if I could help with the placement assessments and ended up administering and scoring tests. And although I started as a classroom assistant, I began taking on more substantive duties such as leading the class in an activity, teaching new vocabulary items, creating worksheets, etc. After about two months into volunteering, I was asked to substitute for one of the teachers who would be away due to a death in the family. I took over her intermediate class and soon after, taught the beginning and advanced classes of another teacher during her two-week vacation. Moreover, I ended up turning this experience into my practicum for my MAT. I listed my title as "Substitute ESL Teacher and Teacher Assistant" on my resume and also had a reference letter from the lead teacher summarizing my active participation, classroom management skills, teaching performance, and overall growth in their program. Upon completing my degree, I applied for a TEFL position overseas. My volunteer experience had caught the hiring manager's eye and I was offered my very first teaching job.

Granted, my volunteer experience may not reflect the norm. But my point is that you should go into volunteer teaching with a purpose or goal in mind to get the most out of the experience. Make it an opportunity to not only gain teaching confidence, classroon skills, and networking opportunities, but also to enhance your resume/CV and give you credibility during your interview. And if the interviewer fails to bring up your volunteer experience, then you mention it.

[spiral78]

As nomadsoul has pointed out, volunteering most certainly CAN be a plus on a CV/resume. One of the keys he/she mentioed could be highlighted further: the letter of recommendation. If you volunteer with some high-level students, for example (I mean those whose English is fairly proficient and who have had numerous teachers over the years), their letters of recommendation are valuable in many cases. Also, as ns writes, if you assist in a classroom, a letter of rec from the primary teacher there is helpful.

Observing classes is also a very useful step in teacher development - we do it at the professional level often as well. You can definitely highlight this kind of 'training' (it's not 'experience') on your CV - you might ask the teacher you've observed in this case to de-brief with me about what was notable in a given lesson, so that you've got a list of terminology for the elements of lessons you observe.

Classroom time has value on a resume/CV, regardless whether you were teaching, observing, or a combination of both. I'd say that it's definitely worth it if you can organise the experience.

If you find that you can't do this in the end, having a CELTA for a year before you start work shouldn't be a tremendous negative in any case, but I'd say that it will be best if you can get into classrooms whenever possible.

(for the record, I've been on EFL hiring committees over the past decade and have interviewed quite a few job candidates over the years)

[Zero]

Volunteering is a positive on a resume. It does not, however, count as experience is the employer is requiring a set number of years of experience.

[gabeen]

Thanks for all the responses and info, it's very encouraging! I'm gonna try to do the volunteer thing for a while and see where it takes me.

A couple more questions:

[spiral78]

There is nothing at all wrong with getting letters of rec from both a few students and some teachers.

You are going to be short of a year's experience, but many jobs that advertise this as a requirement may still give you a look even if they know your experience is short and in a volunteer range. It basically depends on how many more qualified candidates they have for any given position. I think in your situation it would be best to simply do what you can, acknowledge that it's short of the standard, and try to get a job anyway.

What part of the world are you aiming for? People who are there with direct experience may be able to clarify what the 'desired' versus the 'accepted' credentials actually are.

[gabeen]

Right now, and for the next year probably, I'm looking for work in San Diego, California, which is the reason I'm having so much trouble. But eventually I'd like to make it to South America. Probably Colombia, Chile, or Argentina.

[DebMer]

Gabeen, I just PMed you with a possible lead, depending on where you are in So Cal.

[EFLeducator]