No Saturdays, no kids, no evenings and no TEFL certificate
One woman's quest to find a teaching job through informal interviews
Kathy Willis from the USA contacted me to say that she was going to spend a whole week interviewing for teaching jobs in Bangkok. Yes sir, she was going to run a finger down all those banner ads on the ajarn.com homepage and hit the mean streets in search of suitable employment.
How to land a job
The very basics
If you send your application and don’t get a reply, it means that you didn’t make the shortlist. It’s usually useless to call the employer and try to find out why you weren’t contacted. There a big chance the employer found someone more qualified for the job or maybe you didn’t meet the job requirements.
The screening process
How I select teachers to work at my school
First, I run a detailed and thorough advertisement on ajarn.com and a few other Thai web sites. I do not advertise outside of Thailand, as I do not accept applications from abroad.
Ethics in interviewing and hiring
An article that will press a few buttons
I will again reiterate that it is not my goal to blacklist all teacher “wanna-bes” in this country who either mistakenly or knowingly make a sad joke of the employment process at schools in this country. In fact, I am not even that concerned about those who knowingly do so, often repeatedly. My comments in this column are directed at those who care about ethics and honesty, not those who don’t.
The negative interview mindset
Is it sometimes too easy to get a teaching job in Thailand?
A growing number of foreign teachers (particularly male) think that it's so easy to get an English teaching job in Thailand that all you have to do on interview day is turn up. Ajarn.com looks at a common mindset behind interviewing for TEFL jobs
The all important interview itself
How to perform well on the day
Interviews in Thailand seem to range from a Thai person simply checking to see if you have the right “look,” to more in-depth conversations between the candidate and one or two people responsible for hiring. I personally rarely spend less than an hour with a candidate for a job at my school, and often far longer.
Arranging an interview
Getting your foot in the door
Once an interview is scheduled, KEEP YOUR APPOINTMENT! You put yourself in a bad light by canceling an interview, or even changing the time, unless you give ample notice and have a very good reason for doing so. Changing your appointment time with a prospective employer even once is unadvisable; do it twice and you have effectively killed your candidacy.
Advice you can truly use
Don't listen to those barstool experts!
Having been warned-- or advised-- that appearance is very important here in Thailand, (just as important as Japan, Korea, or Taiwan I suppose), I set out on job interviews. Most of the advice for teachers on the Thailand websites struck me as either superficial or downright absurd.
December 2002
A year-end selection box of TEFL snippets
Featured this month is corporate work, Mr Micheal from Siam Computer, how to dress to impress at interviews and mingling with rich English teachers.
