h Budapest

Teacher Training Department

How to get an interview at a school in a foreign country The following suggestions focus on how to get to the interview stage when looking for jobs. It’s our opinion that if you can get to the point where you actually speak to someone in an interview, you’ll have the ’hard part’ of the whole job application process done. It’s then up to you to impress in the interview itself. The list of pointers/suggestions was compiled from a set of stories that the founding members of the Budapest nNEST wrote about how they managed to find their first job teaching abroad. We hope you’ll find them useful.

1. Get qualified • You are going to need the CELTA- or a genuine equivalent. Trinity TESOL’s about the only other qualification that consistently measures up as far as we know. Whilst online certificates may be ’enough’ in some parts of the world where demand for teachers is highest and standards are low, having a certificate on your CV that is recognised is going to give you a head start at quality langauge schools. 2. Adopt the right attitude • Remember, you have have already accomplished what every learner you’ll come across/teach wants to do: you have become a proficient user of English and you are a proven learner of a language. You should be an inspiration to your fellow learners. • You have an excellent level of language awareness. When it comes to helping learners with patterns and rules, identifying errors and speculating as to why they may have been made, it’s you, the non-native (and fellow learner) who is going to be best at helping your students. You need to remember that. • Being a native speaker is not a qualification and is certainly no guarantee that one can teach. Don’t allow job ads that imply otherwise to discourage you (but be annoyed if it helps!). 3. Do your research • Go to the big sites such as www.TEFL.com and assess the market. It’s pretty obvious, but you’re going to find it easier to find a job in places where there’s a lot of demand. • Locate a geographical area or country that you’d like to work in (the more specific the better) and write up a ’hit list’ of schools in that area. Often you’ll find a local/national website that will help you to do this, but if this means hitting the local version of the ’yellow pages’ then so be it. Other great references for lists of schools are books like Teaching English Abroad (by Susan Griffith) and then there’s always google.

h Budapest

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Teacher Training Department

Before writing to schools, find out the names of the people you’ll be writing to (this’ll be appreciated) and what the school is all about. Tailoring your covering email to the school and stating why you’d like to work there (and what you can offer) is not going to go unnoticed.

4. Now get yourself ready • Complete an online profile/application and register yourself on sites you trust. www.ihworld.com is a great place to start as they are an equal oportunities employer (a real one). • Update your resume/CV and again, make sure it’s tailored to where you want to work. If you want to work in Spain, then make sure that comes across. 5. Apply • Unless told to do otherwise, apply directly to schools rather than through third party websites. There’s more chance of you standing out this way as you are showing initiative and you have the opportunity to personalise the application. • It doesn’t matter if a school on your hit-list is advertising positions or not, write to them anyway. You never know, if all you get for your efforts is a contact, then at least you get one more person who can help you in your pursuit of a position. • Follow up emails with a telephone call. This needn’t be expensive, call landlines for free with www.voipcheap.com or get some Skype credit. You’ll be able to allay any fears/concerns that potential employers may have about your ’accent’ if you actually speak to them, and you’ll be in people’s minds when they suddenly need a teacher and start going through recent applications. 6. One or two things to think about • Apply at the right time of year; August and December are key months in which to be looking for jobs as they precede the start of the academic and calender years. Demand for teachers is thus at its highest. • Use any contacts you have- or make some. Start by taking a look at the document on Budapest nNEST which lists some of the teachers in our own network who might be able to help. A second really useful list can be found on the Guardian website: http://www.theguardian.com/education/tefldirectory