Advice From a Teacher Recruiter - How To Get A Job Teaching English (Online or Anywhere!)

hey guys my name is Chris americo's and this video is about how to get a job teaching English online or anywhere but first of all let me tell you a little bit about Who I am I have founded several language teaching businesses in my career and I still work in the ESL sphere today I started from being a teacher to opening my own business and then hiring other teachers in becoming a teacher trainer and along the way I had to do other roles to like be the director of the language center be the HR manager of the language center and be the director of studies of the language center and all of those experiences were really great in helping me build my English teaching career from there I moved into teacher recruiting for other language centers around the world and online and coaching and consulting for language teaching businesses I also teach a course on how to start your own language teaching business online or anywhere but you can find more information about all that in the description below this video now when we talk about getting a job teaching English there are a lot of things to talk about in this video I'm going to talk about types of jobs preferred qualities that employers look for I'm going to compare being a native speaker to being a non-native speaker of English and looking for a teaching job I'm going to talk about the initial contact that you have with employers I'm going to talk about resumes attachments and the general process of applying for a job now I know that starting your own business isn't for everyone just because that's what worked for me it doesn't mean that that's what everyone else wants and it doesn't mean that that will work for everyone so I decided to make this video for all of you who are looking for a job online or a job abroad teaching English and maybe that's not what you want to do forever maybe later down the line you will decide that you want to start your own business of some sort but there are a lot of principles that apply to ESL and the teaching sphere in general and like I always say this industry is big enough for everyone it's an industry that continues to develop and is always underdeveloped all you need to do is find your niche so again if you're interested in starting your own language teaching business just click the link in the description below the video alright let's talk about types of job first of all a lot of people look for teaching jobs abroad in other countries and these jobs are much different than teaching online or teaching in english-speaking countries usually these types of jobs will pay you a salary will pay for your housing and they might even pay for your plane ticket or airfare a lot of companies also offer free language lessons in the local language and they might offer you an end of contract bonus typically companies are looking for someone who can work for one year or more so they'll usually present you with a year-long contract right from the beginning in some countries they might even present you with a two-year contract from the beginning when you're looking for a job abroad it's important to remember that jobs in each country will be very very different I've worked with lots of companies around the world in different countries that hire English language teachers and I can tell you that each company is looking for something different they're each looking for something very specific and this is usually different from what other schools are looking for however there is a tendency for specific countries to have specific hiring practices and different countries might want you to provide different documentation before you even arrive in the country to get a visa prepared for you if you're looking for a job teaching English as a foreign language abroad you can send me your resume and I'll let you know what I have available right now the email address you can send your resume to is in the description below this video next we have jobs that are in english-speaking countries now if you're teaching English as a second language or as a foreign language in an english-speaking country this is a little different from teaching it in a different country let's think about why people study languages if you study English living in a country where English is not the main language or where English is not an official language where where nobody speaks English then you're probably studying because you want to move to an english-speaking country or because you want to travel or because you're looking for a better paying job that requires you to speak English so probably you are studying this language for academic or business purposes while this doesn't include all students because there are a lot of students who just like studying languages we can say that this describes the module of students abroad whereas we can make a general assumption about students who are studying English in an english-speaking country they need to develop their communication skills and speaking skills very very quickly they are already immersed into the language culture and the language environment whereas students abroad are not that also means that when you're teaching abroad there might be an element of surprise or shock on the students part they may have never met someone from your country before whereas if you teach English in an english-speaking country they might be there on business they might be there for an academic program they might have come to study abroad outside of their country or they might be there on a specific immersion program employers who are looking to hire teachers in english-speaking countries are also looking for different qualifications they're usually looking for more academic qualifications from a university or a college they're usually looking for something closer to teaching qualifications and in that case teaching standards from that specific country may be stressed during interviews but if you're teaching abroad there are international standards that most employers use and we'll talk about those in one second thirdly there are online jobs now the online english teaching industry has exploded in recent years there are just tons of players in this market and it's becoming easier and easier for teachers to represent themselves now the only problem is most of these teachers don't know how to represent themselves that's why I created my best-selling course how to start your own language teaching business online or anywhere the help teachers who are online or offline get more students and build their business to a level that they can control and they can predict to make business easy for them but if you don't want to start your own business you can always find an employer to work for there are many online employers who specialize in one country or maybe in businesses in one country or children in one country so first of all decide what's fear and what niche you want to be in now in my experience as a teacher recruiter I know that a lot of people who are looking for online teaching positions will basically take whatever they can get but you don't want to be in position you want to know exactly what you're looking for and you want to be persistent because guys there are tons of online schools in fact just a week ago I sent out an offer to 200 online schools and that included schools on every continent on the globe except for Antarctica online teaching jobs are also the most diverse whereas one company might say that you don't need to have any experience at all another company might say that you need to have at least five years of experience one company might think it's great that you've been teaching adults for two years another company might think that that doesn't mean anything some companies might say you're too young other companies might say you're too old it can be pretty confusing so let's go ahead and look at all of the different qualities that employers are looking for and I have looked into this topic for a long long time I mean I work with lots of schools so I can tell you exactly what they're looking for they're looking for three things professionalism experience and qualifications now when we talk about professionalism as an English teacher a lot of people think how hard can it be to be a professional well you would be surprised how easy it is to look unprofessional and I've seen it happen time in time again a teacher who's new to the industry might not realize that by presenting himself or herself in a specific way they're actually undermining their own professionalism so of course being professional means doing things like being on time being prepared for lessons but being professional is much much more than just that being professional is about having a plan knowing what is going to happen before it happens and planning for every possible situation being professional means dealing with things that come up in the appropriate way without spending a bunch of time thinking about what you're going to do it's very easy for recruiters for language teaching business owners and HR directors to see your professionalism and they know that students will be able to see it very easily as well they also want to see that you are experienced now I know if you're just getting into ESL and if you're just looking for your first teaching job that experience is something you don't have yet but guys you need to be a little creative you need to show that you have at least a little bit of a experience that's going to help you do this job even if you've only had one job before that show so you have experience working if you've completed a college or university program then you have a diploma or a degree which shows that you have experience starting and finishing things so you can see things through to the end remember that experience doesn't have to be teaching experience on the other hand if you have a lot of experience don't overwhelm people only include experience that is most relevant to the position that you are applying for and the third thing people are looking for when they hire English teachers is qualifications they want to know that you are qualified and that you've gone through some standardization process they want to know that you know the standards of this industry so when they start to use industry terminology you know what they're talking about and you can join the conversation now there are a lot of different types of qualifications and that's something we're going to talk about here in a second but before we get to that we need to talk a little bit about native speaking teachers and non native speaking teachers if you're looking for a job teaching abroad most companies want a native speaking teacher a native speaker of English is a person who speaks English as their first language they learned English at home from their parents and family a non-native teacher of English is a person who learned English sometime in their life but their first language is a different language if you are a non-native English teacher then it might be a little more difficult to find a job the best place to start looking is companies that are located in your country or in a country that speaks your first language these companies are more likely to hire you now that being said there are some companies abroad who are looking to hire teachers who are not native speakers you just need to have a high level of English usually at least b2 or c1 on the CEF are scale native speakers on the other hand have different issues when they're looking for jobs companies want to know that you are actually a teacher they don't want to hire someone off the street because not everyone who speaks English can teach English these are very different things and when you're looking for a job in this industry you need to understand that from the get-go teaching English a second or foreign language is completely different from teaching English to other English speakers it's also completely different from just speaking English oftentimes people who are very good at speaking English they might have a literature degree or an English degree from a university still do not possess the skills or qualities necessary for a teacher of English as a foreign language those who have held teaching positions in the United States or England or another english-speaking country also usually are not very well prepared to teach English as a foreign language because when we teach English as a foreign language we're focusing on different aspects of the language a native speaker might have different problems understanding the language and using the language properly whereas the speaker of another language who is learning English will have a completely different set of problems and will have different goals so remember just because you speak English doesn't mean that you can teach English but if you already speak English and you're interested in teaching English go ahead and click the link in the description below this video luckily the online English teaching space continues to grow and grow and grow every single year opening up opportunities for many many different types of teachers so if you know ahead of time that you don't have experience and you don't have qualifications maybe you have a different product that you can present maybe you can demonstrate these qualities to people in a different way if you're interested in how you can do that and how you can build your business on this model click the link below the video and sign up for a free strategy session where you and I could talk about this more in depth but now let's talk about our initial contact with an employer usually you're going to contact the employer either by email or through some kind of online site or platform if you go through a site or a platform then they'll probably have limited options on what you can enter as far as information about yourself they might also have requirements like you need to upload certain types of documents but if you're writing an email and you're reaching out to make first contact with an employer here are some things that you need to include at the top of the email make sure you write your first name and last name or name and surname if you prefer British English the next thing that you need to write very very clearly is where you are from any recruiter or hiring manager or owner of a language teaching business who looks at this email will automatically see who you are and where you're from and this will show that you understand what they're looking for next write a sentence or a paragraph about what you are looking for to make sure that you're contacting the right person and to make sure that they have something that they can offer you and don't be afraid that they're going to say sorry we don't have that goodbye if they have something else to offer you and they like your application they're going to contact you after that it's a good idea to write another sentence or another paragraph about why you want this job and if you can mention something about that specific company when you show the recruiter or the hiring manager or the language teaching business owner that you did research and you learned about their company they're going to think wow this person is going to be a great teacher in our company alright we've written the body of the email and what do we write in the subject well there are two things that we can write we could use the title of the job ad that we found that made us want to apply for this position or we could write something like native speaker from New Zealand looking for work or native from England ready to start ASAP something that's going to get people's attention something that's going to tell them who you are and what you want now again if we're applying through a site or a platform there will probably be a place where you can upload your resume in other documents but if you're applying through email then you'll need to attach your resume in other documents so first of all let's talk about your resume or CV and what it needs to include first of all your resume needs to say something about your educational experience most employers are looking for someone who has a bachelor's degree or higher it doesn't usually matter what your bachelor's degree is in they just want to see that you have completed a higher education program don't be afraid to include non teaching certificates and accomplishments in this section next we have qualifications here you'll need to say something about your certificate to teach English as a foreign language you might also include other certificates that you've earned there are some specifics certificates that employers usually look for in this industry and when we talk about other attachments to include in our first email when we contact employers we will go through some of those certificates the next section that we need to include is our work experience now as I said before this might be your teaching experience but your teaching experience should be relevant to the job that you're applying for if you're applying to teach children online your two years of business English experience probably will not help you and if you don't have a lot of teaching experience then include other work experience that you have make sure it demonstrates good qualities about you and probably the most important thing to do when you're putting together your resume or your CV when you're going to apply for English teaching jobs is to stand out I already told you that I'm a teacher recruiter and I look to hire teachers for different companies around the world so I see several hundred resumes every single week sometimes a hundred resumes in a single day and I can tell you that the few that stand out make me want to hire them because they're doing something different and they are promoting their personal brand for example one girl who I interviewed and hired had a cartoon drawing of herself on her resume instead of a professional photo the entire resume was done in a cartoon fashion and looked very high quality so while the picture that was included was not a professional photo the layout and the format of the resume was very professional and it also showed that she was a skilled designer and a creative individual all right so let's talk about some other attachments that you might want to include in this email when you're applying for a job and we've already talked about it a little bit so let's go back to it certificates it's a great idea to attach any certificates that you have and that you reference in your CV or resume to the email when you apply the main certificates or diplomas that show that you can teach English as a foreign language that employers are looking for our temple certificates which means teacher of English as a foreign language TEFL this is probably the most widespread and the easiest to get probably the most renowned in the most respected certificate is the CELTA certificate or certificate of English language teaching to adults the CELTA certificate is issued by Cambridge University in England and another very widely respected certificate is the Trinity certificate or Trinity College certificate so including these certificates will help show that you are a qualified teacher of English as a foreign language if you're thinking of getting certified and you don't know which program to choose feel free to send me a message the next thing that you probably want to attach in your email when you apply for a job is your professional photo although this is not required and some employers may never ask for this this shows them that you are very open and you're very confident because you're not ashamed of your appearance or of who you are sometimes your professional photo will help you stand out and employers will choose you over other candidates who didn't include a photo the next item that you can attach to your email when you apply for a job is a demo video now this is not a requirement but some countries may ask for this so having one on file or attaching one to the email never hurts a demo video usually needs to be between 2 and 5 minutes long and it just needs to demonstrate how you speak the manner in which you speak is one of the main criteria that employers will be judging you by and when you get to an interview that is also one of the main things that they're going to be looking at so sending them a demo video from the very beginning is a good way to make a great impression another thing that you can attach to your email when you're applying for a job is a scanned copy of your passports photo page now some people don't feel comfortable doing this from the very beginning and I can understand why so if you want to wait and only send it when they ask for it that's fine too but including it in your initial application may show that you understand what they're looking for and the last item that people might attach to their email when they're applying for a job is a criminal background check some countries actually require this when a company goes to apply for a work visa for you so if you know that that is the case if you're traveling abroad to teach in a specific country and you know that they require this then go ahead and include it but if you're not sure if you'll need to include it or not it's probably better not to include it the first time around just think of it like this if you send it to someone who not expecting it they might think hmm what is this guy trying to prove all right so we've talked about types of jobs we've talked about qualities that employers prefer we've talked about native speaking teachers and non native speaking teachers we've talked about our initial email or application we've talked about our resume or CV and we've talked about other documents that we can attach now let's talk about the general process so first of all you see a job post or a job advertisement and you understand that there is a position available first of all we need to understand that sometimes these ads go out of date and don't get deleted so don't take it personally if someone doesn't respond to you or they answer you and they say that this position is not available another thing that might happen at this stage is that the details of the job offer you see might differ from the actual job offer that the company wants to give so remember I told you to write what you're looking for in the email that's where you can list all of the criteria that you're looking for what you're willing to accept and what you're not willing to accept that way you don't have to waste a bunch of time preparing for job interviews that aren't going to give you an offer that you want so when we talked about submitting an application or the first email the resume and CV all the attachments and what we write in the email we are basically talking about our first contact with an employer after we make first contact we need to wait for the employer to contact us back if they do not contact you back within 24 hours everything is okay they might not have even opened your email yet you should refrain from sending multiple emails or submitting your application again and again as this will demonstrate that you don't fully understand the hiring process if you need to follow up after you've made your first contact with the employer wait at least seven days before sending your second email but if everything goes according to plan you should hear back from them within a week when you hear back from an employer probably they're going to invite you to an interview and there are several ways that they might do this usually they're going to use some kind of videoconferencing software like Skype and they're probably going to schedule the interview for a time that's convenient for them so if you're teaching abroad let's say in China the time difference might be very big so you might need to wake up in the middle of the night to do an interview being understanding about this fact is very important if you tell them no I'll be sleeping at that time then they'll think that you aren't flexible and you're not good for this job during the first interview it's important to dress professionally you want to show those three personal qualities that I was talking about professional experienced and qualified you also want to show that you have a clean appearance just like any other sphere employers want to know that you maintain your appearance and in general people like looking at other people who look good so employers will think if this person is attractive and maintains his or her appearance then students will like looking at them it makes sense you also want to make sure that you speak very very clearly if you mumble or don't enunciate your words during an interview an employer might think that students won't be able to understand you if you have a strong regional accent you should try to speak standard American or standard British English as much as possible again employers might believe that regional accents will be more difficult for students to understand and one of the most important things to do during an interview is be confident no matter what happens show them that you are confident in yourself students want to see someone who's confident in their own abilities and in their own words and if you constantly apologize or you're unsure or you say I don't know I don't know then employers are going to think that's how you will behave in the classroom now some employers may tell you that you have the job right from the first interview but the majority of employers will not instead they'll tell you that they'll get back to you with a decision or that you need to submit some documents to them for further consideration if they request documents from you or if they tell you that you need to send them something after the first interview do it immediately if you can't do it immediately just do it as soon as possible it's very very important that they see that you really want this position and guys sure during the first interview you might not be talking to the owner of the company in fact you're only going to be talking to the owner of the company if it's a very small organization in most cases you're going to be talking to either a recruiter or an HR manager and that means that that particular person might not be to make a final 100 percent decision so if they don't need additional documents from you they might line up a second interview with you right away usually the second interview will be with a person who can make a final decision now if you're going to work for an online company they might request additional material from you at this point they might ask you for a demo video or a demo lesson they might want you to go through a trial lesson with a student or with someone from their company pretending to be a student or they might want you to do something else that will show them that you are the right candidate for this position whatever they ask you to do understand that without investing this additional time into getting this position this position will not go to you so if you really want this position don't complain about what they're asking you to do just do it and do it to the best of your ability now once we've submitted all of our documents once we've done everything that they've asked us and we've already gone through an interview or maybe two interviews and they've told us that we need to wait for their decision we need to do exactly that we need to wait again I would say that 7 days is a good period of time for you to wait for them to contact you back if they haven't contacted you back in 7 days then go ahead and write them an email say that you want to make sure that they've received all of the material that you've sent through or ask if there's anything else that they require in order to make a final decision these are good neutral phrases to use that don't sound like you're pushing and in general guys be aware that every interview process is different every company is different and their hiring practices are different also remember that in most cases you're dealing with an organization that's based out of a different country so rules that might be important or might apply in your country may not apply to this situation so again guys if you're looking for a job teaching English as a foreign language online or anywhere go ahead and send your resume or CV to the email below this video and if you're ready to start your own language teaching business go ahead and click the link below this video to sign up for a free strategy session with me if you are a language center owner or manager and you're looking for teachers to work at your language teaching business click the link below this video and help find the perfect teacher for your business and if you have any other questions or offers for me my email address is written below this video as well thanks a lot for watching guys and if you found this video useful make sure you press like and if you want more videos like this press subscribe good luck in your job hunt and if you follow the advice that I've outlined in this video then I'm sure you'll succeed

Channel: Business With Kris Amerikos

Views: 10,196

Keywords: teach ESL online, online ESL, how to teach English online, teach English online, language teaching, online language teaching, ESL teacher, teach abroad, teach online, earn money teaching, make money teaching English, EFL, TESOL, ELT, language teaching business, how to start your own language teaching business, teaching ESL online, equipment for online teaching, teaching career, free ESL teaching course, CELTA, TEFL, TKT, esl tips, English language learning, reading horizons, ESL

Id: uLGBqfDT7XQ

Length: 26min 59sec (1619 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2017