How To Land a Job In The Thai ESL Business And Teach English In Roughly 3 Days!

How to land a job in the esl business and teach English in roughly 3 days!

This is a very brief guide to finding yourself an English language teaching job in the esl/tefl industry in Thailand. If you follow these easy laid out steps it should be possible for most half decently qualified individuals to land them selves employment within the private language school industry / sector in Thailand.

Before you depart your home country.

A week or so before you leave home, email the major language schools and tell them that you are interested in working for them. Make sure you sell yourself and enclose a copy of your c.v. Tell them when you intend to arrive in Thailand and what your qualifications are. Tefl, celta, degree, diploma etc.

Now most people will say that emailing the schools before you arrive is normally a waste of time! This is not completely true! Although many companies do receive a lot of mail from prospective teachers abroad, who in turn never show up. So they might take your email with a pinch of salt. But don't be put off!

What we want to do here is really to introduce ourselves and plant the idea in their heads that we will be around. Also make sure you show up when you say you are going to. This will also show them that you are a man/woman of your word. You are reliable, and this is a very good and highly sought after trait in the esl teaching game over here.

Make copies of your certificates, diplomas and degrees. Never hand over your original documents unless you are really pushed for them. This should only be when you have to submit the original copy of your degree in order to obtain your work permit!

Go out and buy a decent pair of trousers, a shirt and a tie. Make sure you buy them in your own country. A number of reasons for this. You can buy all you want in Bangkok, however when you arrive, you really don't want to be wasting your time running around town looking for decent threads. It's tiring and your time should be spent looking for employment / job.

Make sure you know the locations of the private language schools you've already emailed.
Go onto the net, get their addresses, in Thai as well if you can. Find their websites and print off any location maps they may have. Some companies will have their location and a map on their web sites. This will come in very handy when you're in the taxi and trying to explain where you want to go.

Next thing get on the plane and come over here.

Day 1 arrive in Bangkok and proceed straight to your hotel. Now get some good quality rest and sleep. You need to get over your long flight and no booze!

Day 2. Wake up. Go to the nearest internet cafe and check your email, just in case you have any other correspondence from any of the companies you emailed.

Go out and buy a cheap mobile phone with a Thai sim card. You'll need this in order for employers to more easily contact you. I can't tell you how important it is to have a mobile here.

Next get all your qualifications together, put your best rags on and hail a cab. Make sure you have plenty of small notes / change for the taxi drivers.

Make sure also that you have a list of maybe 5 or six companies that you are going to visit. If you don't know any private language companies in Bangkok then check the link at the bottom of the article for more details.

A little tip here, make sure you go to the companies head office! Why? Well a lot of private language schools in Bangkok have many franchise branches scattered throughout the city.

If for example you show up at a small franchise branch, the manager may not be able to help you. So you might find yourself redirected back to their head office. This is a waste of your time and money!

Now go in and introduce yourself as a prospective teacher. If the branch manager is in you should be able to get an interview, if he's not then you'll probably be told to come back later. This time could be spent by visiting the other schools on your list.

Don't worry about just walking in and introducing yourself, most of the larger chain schools are always on the look out for new teachers.

One of the best times to get yourself signed would be around March-very early-May and September. These periods are the school breaks. In these periods language schools are usually looking to recruit teachers for the following semester, for reasons such as new school contracts and teachers leaving etc.

Now you might just find yourself being offered a job at the interview if all goes well, so don't be too surprised if this happens. From here it''s up to you how you play it. You could tell them that you'll think their offer over and then proceed on to the next school to see if you can get a better deal. It really depends on you and how much you need the job! Or accept the offer whilst still on the lookout for something better to come along. It's really down to you at this stage of the game.

What I will say is this... take the job because you're always in a better position to find another job, when you already have one.

Day 3 Wait for the replies to come back and phone calls. If you haven't already been hired.

While your waiting go and get a cold one in, you've earned it!
Posted by thailanddelights