How English Teachers Are Finding Jobs in Korea Today

1How English Teachers Are Finding Jobs in Korea Today Obtaining a job teaching English in Korea used to be a great deal like falling off a log. You uploaded your resume to a career site, had a phone interview, and a week later you could be on a plane. But with more and more individuals seeking shelter from the recession overseas, and increasing government restrictions on ESL teachers, those days are absolutely gone. The good news is that as the number of lecturers and regulations has increased, contracts have turned out to be far more standardized and work environments have grown to be far more foreigner friendly. The bad news is that we are now looking at a really competitive job market. To uncover a good career, it's not sufficient to merely upload your resume anymore. You need to know the three avenues by which schools are hiring teachers today, and use all of them to your advantage. These are: By applying straight to schools By using a recruiter By posting your resume on a job forum 1. Be Your Own Recruiter: Applying directlyBy far, the best method to begin your job hunt is by contacting educational institutions immediately. Basically search for some thing like "teach English in Korea," and start sending our your resume! A excellent first contact email will include a short note introducing your self, a picture, and your resume. Even though going by way of recruiters and posting your resume can definitely bring you very good career options, I highly suggest putting in the lion's share of your job-hunting work contacting schools directly. Only you'll be able to be sure you find the best work available.2. RecruitersMost Korean educational institutions simply do not have their own international HR departments, so they outsource the finding and choosing of employees to recruiters. Recruiters get their fee from the colleges, so you are going to never need to pay one. But keep in mind that, ultimately, they do function for the school and not for you personally. While you can find certainly a lot of honest recruiters out there who will level with you on the details of your contract, bear in mind that it's their employment to fill a position, not to get you the perfect employment! There is nothing wrong with doing work with multiple recruiters--just make certain you let all of them know if you have taken a position.3. Posting Your ResumeSome web sites have services for you to post your resume so it could be viewed recruiters and employers. Personally, I would advise staying away from these sites until you've tried every other avenue. It will absolutely flood your inbox with many job offers of dubious quality and you might possibly be subscribed to a couple of pesky mailing lists. Nevertheless, should you feel like you aren't acquiring results from the other two strategies, posting your resume can open some extra doors to suit your needs.For better or worse, the days of posting your resume and jumping on a plane are gone, but obtaining good teaching work in Korea is still very possible when you use all of these three methods.

Help, What Do I Put on My Virtual Assistant Resume

1Help, What Do I Put on My Virtual Assistant Resume A resume is a resume is a resume, right? Well... not exactly. For optimal performance resumes are curtailed to the position being sought. Say, for example, you are looking for a job as a high school English teacher. You wouldn't want to use your resume curtailed for a position as a delivery driver or sales manager, would you? Well, you could, but it most likely would not deliver the desired results. Even as a freelancer I have a couple of different resumes. Yes, specific experiences and education may be the same, but the credentials, skills and references would vary.In my last post we discussed getting your business ducks in a row as you set up shop but definitely before you put out the 'open for business' shop sign. Hopefully you've had a chance to take care of business. Let's continue building on the foundation set. It's time to talk about your resume and portfolio; both are very important and if handled properly could save you hours down the line. As a virtual assistant I have found that the two most important items on your resume are your skills, and a list of programs with which you are familiar.Skills: Your skills, they all count! You don't have to add the details of HOW you developed those skills, whether as a mom or administrative assistant. List your skills relevant to being a virtual [administrative or personal] assistant. A client will be looking for skills pertinent to their needs.Did you work in an office handling the schedule for a busy entrepreneur or plan and schedule your next family outing, complete with ordering or reserving things online? That counts as travel arrangements. Document formatting? Did you format Joey's report for him...yep, that counts, too. As a mom you have to keep things organized. Whether totes, Ziploc bags or filing cabinets, you have organized. Many clients are overwhelmed with their information and it takes someone like a virtual assistant to help them organize their ideas, data and plans.I'm not positive that making PB&Jelly sandwiches actually count as a skill, no matter how many you've made over the years, unless you are looking for a job in the kitchen!Programs: You are probably wondering what you could possibly list here besides Gmail and the Sesame Street game your children play on the family computer. How often have you 'Googled' something you were not quite sure about, so you figured you had better look it up? I mentioned in the skills section about making travel plans for your family. You probably used a service such as Hotwire, Expedia or Priceline. Those count as programs you are familiar with, too. What about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? Believe it or not there are clients who will have you manage their professional accounts? I personally manage several accounts for my clients.

Getting a Job As a Teacher Work Experience Is a Must

1Getting a Job As a Teacher Work Experience Is a Must As a former administrator, I learned that one thing all prospective employers look for on a teacher resume is former work experience, particularly work experience involving working with children. When looking over a resume, principals look for the following:The quality that employers seek above all else is a strong worth ethic. They want teachers who are energetic, dependable, team-oriented, and hard-working and set a good example to the community. Job experience with a positive recommendation is the best way to demonstrate you meet these qualifications.Prior to my first job as a Special Education teacher, I had work experiences as I worked my way through college. I was a nurse's aide in a nursing home, did respite care for a foster child with autism, and worked in a group home for teenagers and adults with disabilities. In addition, I had numerous jobs from McDonald's to a work study job as a typist in my college department. In addition to being valuate to my obtaining a teaching job, these largely minimum wage jobs taught me a lot about the world and made me better able to related to people who work these jobs every day to support their families. As an administrator and teacher, this work experience made me more approachable to classified staff and families who live in poverty because I could appreciate the work they were doing.All of these experiences played a part in me easily landing my first job as a teacher. Despite having graduated in November, I started a full-time job on January 3rd.Admittedly, it is difficult to work and go to school at the same time, but it's not impossible. I worked up to 40 or more hours per week and went to school at the same time because I had to. If you can't do both at the same time, at least work during school breaks.Job experiences involving children are particularly valuable. Such jobs can be babysitting, summer camps, tutoring, daycare, music lessons and more. Volunteer experience is also helpful, particularly volunteer experience with children who have special needs, who are English Language Learners, are socio-economically disadvantaged or from an urban area. Here are some suggestions of places to volunteer to gain these experiences: a children's hospital, Special Olympics, an urban league, a church or synagogue, a food pantry, or a family homeless shelter or soup kitchen.Of particular importance to principals is your ability to manage groups of children so such jobs as summer camp counselor, daycare center worker, vacation bible school or Sunday school teacher look good on resumes.Again, work experience, particularly work experience in working with children, is valuable to obtaining a teaching job. Make certain you are an exceptional employee with good recommendations. It will pay dividends.