Do you want to know 10 Job Guidance Tips I Wish I’d Known 17 Years Ago?
If you had told me in 2006 that my true calling would be as a teacher, I would have said: ¡Qué va! No way! (There’s a little third conditional for all you grammar enthusiasts.)
All the travel between classes. Personalized materials. Paying for photocopies. Cancellations. So many holidays! Somehow in all that hustle, I fell in love with Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
I loved it so much that I became one of the most sought out Teacher Trainers for Job Guidance in Barcelona. I provided professional guidance for four of the city’s top TEFL schools. I started the Barcelona TEFL Teachers Association (BTTA) with our weekly meetings, happy hours, book exchanges, potlucks, lesson plan swaps and so much sage advice and support between members.
At the time, I considered myself the leading expert in getting a teaching job in Barcelona.
Here’s the thing though: I missed some big steps. As I’ve navigated through many teaching jobs on three continents, there are a few lessons I wish I had known. 17 years later, I’m here to give one more Job Guidance session.
10 Job Guidance Tips I Wish I’d Known 17 Years Ago
1.- Save Everything. KEEP:
- Your paper and digital copies. All of ‘em. Save your digital materials where you can access them from anywhere (like Google Docs.)
- That Snakes and Ladders game you created with your 5-year-old learners.
- The practice exam you wrote for your First Certificate class.
- The mock-up market report you designed for your business student.
Employers (education and beyond) may ask for a portfolio of your work. As an EFL Teacher, you probably have created hundreds of materials that could be adapted for a professional portfolio. I’m still kicking myself for nonchalantly recycling a semester’s worth of lesson plans from when I taught at the University of Kanagawa. Turns out, yes, I would have used that stuff again.
2.- Make Money from Your Materials:
Have you heard of Teachers Pay Teachers (now called TPT)? It is an online marketplace, nay a wonderland of teaching materials. If you’ve created a gorgeous worksheet, video, or learning guide, consider posting and selling it on the site. It’s free to get started, you can sell at your own pace and it could be a good side hustle.
Oh, and of course, they have amazing resources for your classes too (some are even free!).
3.- Track Your Data:
Data tracking is a big buzz word in hiring these days. If you can say you instructed 14 students to pass their ACE exam, you look more impressive than saying you taught ACE students.
Keep track of texts you use, the number and ages of students, and student goals you helped them meet such as getting an international job, working on presentations, passing English exams or travel.
Quantify your accomplishments e.g. 95% of students improved test scores by 20% or Helped school-aged students increase vocabulary by 40% in 9-months’ times. See? Very impressive.
4.- Student Engagement Surveys:
This is another big one. If you can show with the numbers that you took student feedback and made changes to your teaching, you get a gold star.
Ask students to write about what they are most proud of in their English learning journey. Some qualitative data to accompany your numbers will tell a good story about your success in teaching. It’s also great writing practice. Two gold stars.
5.- Save Your CVs:
This one seems so obvious now, but when I first started out as a teacher, I must have rewritten my CV (resume) 50 times. Each draft is lost to cyberspace (or the locutorio).
I suggest saving all copies of your CVs in a central place like Google Docs so you’ll never lose them. You may want to access them again in the future.
6.- Contact Information:
Record all email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, websites and names of supervisors from schools you work for. Check in with them every year to update their information if necessary.
You may end up asking them to be a reference for you; it’s also nice just to say “hola” from time to time. Remember to keep track of the dates you worked with a school or a student.
7.- References:
Ask your supervisors, students or families to write a reference for you while it’s fresh in their minds. Suggest a few key skills that you’d like them to mention such as your staggering professionalism, creativity or flexibility.
These are all transferable outside of the teaching world too, if you end up going in that direction.
8.- Network Now:
Get on LinkedIn and connect with classmates from your TEFL course, prospective students, and school administrators. Start building your profile and network while you have a constant in-flux of new people in your life.
Consider asking them to endorse your skills or write you a short recommendation for your profile.
Provide a few areas for them to focus on such as your integrity, dedication to equity or technology-wielding skills.
9.- Join Professional Associations and Groups:
Find other like-minded teacher folks online and in your community. BTTA was an absolute liferaft for many new teachers in Barcelona.
If your city doesn’t have a community, start one! BTTA was born from 2 new EFL Teachers, a bottle of wine, and a rooftop terrace.
10.- Be Proud of Your Teaching:
Teaching English may not be the professional love of your life (so you think now) but these tips are still applicable for if/when you do want to transition to another field.
The skills and experiences you have while teaching are transferable to your next gig. Be proud and showcase all you have learned and done as an English Teacher.
Jen Whelan is a teacher of English, Spanish, children and other teachers. She now lives in the Twin Cities and enjoys creating Spanish teaching materials, reading about feminism & anti-racism and striving to make education a more inclusive, equitable experience.
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