Will getting a new job be difficult?

[ev1lchris]

I know that right now the market for teachers is dead.

However, when the hiring season starts up again is it going to be hard to find a decent job here? I want to make at least 35,000 baht a month.

I have a four year degree and online TEFL.

[Puyai]

It'll be very easy.

[ev1lchris]

Even if I'm Japanese American?

[eldragon]

Yeah, it'll be very easy. You can find work now too, but you gotta bang on a few doors. Just get a stack of resumes and hit the bricks. It's gonna be a lot of part-time stuff until April and May though. The way you play it is just tell everyone you're more or less a hired gun and you're working for the first person that calls you every day. They'll understand.

[crickets]

One of the easiest jobs to get.

[ev1lchris]

Yeah, it'll be very easy. You can find work now too, but you gotta bang on a few doors. Just get a stack of resumes and hit the bricks. It's gonna be a lot of part-time stuff until April and May though. The way you play it is just tell everyone you're more or less a hired gun and you're working for the first person that calls you every day. They'll understand.

Do you mean walking to schools and stuff? I'm bad at that thing. I am applying online.

[cgphuket]

If the on-line TEFL certificate did not have a real teaching component could cause some problems. If you have any real teaching experience it will help. And your right, some schools don;t want an Asian looking ESL teacher, but for the wage you need, should not be a problem.

[eldragon]

Yeah, it'll be very easy. You can find work now too, but you gotta bang on a few doors. Just get a stack of resumes and hit the bricks. It's gonna be a lot of part-time stuff until April and May though. The way you play it is just tell everyone you're more or less a hired gun and you're working for the first person that calls you every day. They'll understand.

Do you mean walking to schools and stuff? I'm bad at that thing. I am applying online.

It's intimidating, I know. And come to think of it, you might not want to do it with language schools. But try walking in a few schools in your neighborhood and asking for the English office. If you can hand your resume to the head of the department, you stand a better chance of getting hired. Some of the schools have summer courses too.

[Rooo]

Moved to Teaching Forum.

[Scott]

If you can teach the Japanese language as well as English, you should have no problem at all.

Our school doesn't particularly like to hire Asian teachers, but if your passport is from a Western country, you should be OK.

Best of luck.

[garrya]

Even if I'm Japanese American?

You only need a passport from a native English speaking country. Also, being good-looking is a real advantage. If you walk into 5 schools in March, you'll get at least 3 offers.

[ev1lchris]

The kids at my current school love me. The girls scream at me. I feel like some kind of celebrity.

[micmichd]

I would wait for an online reply, and then make a phone call to find out if they want to see you faceto face. They might want to test your non-verbal communicative comptence, ie your performance in stress situations, also check the way you move from person to person.

They did this when I applied for a bank job. My boss to-be on one side of the table, a psychologist on the other side. My boss later told me why I got the job. They tested my rhetoric talent, and the psychologist was there to see from my body language if I lie or cheat. They might also engage you in a little role game to find out if you get nervous when a third person (like mother or other kid) enters the scene.

They should pay for transportation, even if they do not take you. Nearest branch, of course, you can't expect a business class flight from Paris to Bangkok if the school has an office near Paris. Big companies usually make a pre-selection, and they usually take the ones they invite personally. Maybe it's a smaller school, and maybe you can introduce yourself via Skype, depends.

[jamie obda]

I have an Ed.M., as well as a B.A. in English from legit universities, with ESL and 20+ years experience, but I'm 55. Can I get a job.

[mikecat]

Getting a new job may be ok but not as easy as people seem to think it is on this forum and 35,000 not out of the question but not so easy to get either. However, lots of ifs and buts in mm statement.

Its is not so much the schools that will be your problem but the teachers council who have been a lot fussier of late about the type of TEFL you have i.e did it have a face to face teaching componant to it monitered and graded by an independant observer. Online TEFL is not accepted in many places now. Also they are more serious about what your degree is and where you obtained it from.

If you are changing schools and are going for a third waver this has also become more difficult.

Having said this, the rules can change and be interpreted in a different way from one day to the next.

Good luck

[smotherb]

If the on-line TEFL certificate did not have a real teaching component could cause some problems. If you have any real teaching experience it will help. And your right, some schools don;t want an Asian looking ESL teacher, but for the wage you need, should not be a problem.

Yeah, you are right. Most Thais school administrators seem to prefer white English teachers. My wife, who is of Filipino ancestry, taught English here for several years. She was paid as an NES; her nationality is US, she graduated from a US high school, she earned a US bachelor's degree with honors, and she is a retired US Government employee. However, there were a couple of schools who were reluctant to hire her because she is not white. She is still asked to come back to teach at one of those schools who did reluctantly hire her.

I think an Asian face may be a benefit to teaching younger Thai children. The children may be better able to relate to someone who is more similar to them in appearance and not be apprehensive of the white, funny-sounding, and often huge, farang.

[ev1lchris]

Thais are accustomed to paying Filipinos 2/3 of what they would pay Americans.

They probably looked at your wife and got all confused.