Showing posts with label cover letter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cover letter. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Applying for Jobs Before You Have Your Diploma In Hand

From New Republic
Congrats! You graduated! Many TEFL employers want copies of your degree and not being able to prove that you've graduated can hurt your chances of getting an interview. Here are some things that you can do to show that you've earned your degree. These ideas were taken from the Foreign Professors and University English Teachers in Korea Facebook group
  • Ask the registrar for digital copy 
  • Ask for transcripts either in PDF or hard copies
  • Just state that you've graduated but are waiting for your diploma in your cover letter 
  • Get an official letter stating you graduated

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Saturday, 20 June 2015

Tips for Applying to Jobs Via Email

From Pop Sugar
Once you've got your CV and cover letter ready, it's time to shoot off an email, cross your fingers, and hope you get an interview. There are things you can do to better your chances to get an interview. Try these the next time you apply for jobs. Reddit also has some more tips.

Put all your docs into a PDF
There's nothing like having to attach 10+ docs to an email. It's not fun for you or the person getting the email. They have to download everything and it's easy to lose docs. Create one PDF and attach that to your email. Your cover letter, CV, and anything else they ask for should be in it. If you have a Mac it's pretty easy to do through Preview. If you have a PC you'll have to either buy software that allows you to create PDFs or try any one of the numerous websites out there that will do it for you. It looks much more professional to have a PDF doc and you don't have to worry about the other person not being able to open it or the formatting getting messed up.

Make a list of your documents you are attaching
I always, always list out exactly what docs are in the PDF that I attach. Having a list makes it easy for the person reading the email to make sure that you sent everything they asked for.

Limit the size of the attachments
Read the advert carefully. Many places won't accept files bigger than a certain size. Stay within that limit.

Follow directions
Again, read the advert carefully. Many times they will tell you to email one person if you have questions and email another if you want to apply. Don't email your app to the person you're supposed to email if you only have questions. Watch the deadline. Make sure to include all the docs. Be sure you fulfill the reqs, or almost fulfill them. Not following directions is a good way for your app to be deleted.

Put your info in the subject line
I always write my name, how many years of experience I have (either total or at that particular level, depending on the advert), my qualifications, and my visa status. It helps your email stand out and makes it easier to find if they need to.

Address the email to a specific person
Forget sir or madam or hiring committee. Find out who's hiring. Only use a generic greeting if the school you're applying to refuses to tell you who's in charge of hiring, which is always a possibility.

If you're not job searching you should still be networking. Check out how to write a networking email that gets results for more info.

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Thursday, 23 April 2015

Giveaway Grammarly Premium Test Account

Last updated: 8 May 2015

Yesterday's guest post about 3 reasons for learning English was written by Nickola Baron at Grammarly.

The people at Grammarly have sponsored a giveaway for a premium test account. There will be a raffle to choose the winner. The raffle will end at midnight GMT+9 on Thursday, May 7th. A winner will be chosen randomly on Friday, May 8th.

Click here to enter the giveaway.

Edited to add: the winner is John. Congrats!

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Wednesday, 22 April 2015

A Feather in the Hat for English Teachers

The following post is from a guest blogger from Grammarly. They have sponsored a giveaway for a premium test account. There will be a raffle to choose the winner. The raffle will end at midnight GMT+9 on Thursday, May 7th. A winner will be chosen randomly on Friday, May 8th.

A Feather in the Hat for English Teachers
Have you heard students complaining that they will never use what they are learning in class? Regardless of the subject matter, it seems that the future engineers and pastry chefs of America think that they do not need a well-rounded education. Would students be better off restricting their studies to subjects directly related to their future careers? If you teach English, here are three reasons why your curriculum should be a part of every student’s plan of study.

What Would Human Resources Say? 
Often, professionals responsible for hiring evaluate grammar to narrow down the pool of applicants. If they have several candidates that seem equally qualified, they will eliminate the candidates who have glaring grammar mistakes in their cover letters or applications. In a Harvard Business Review article, Kyle Wiens states this about applicants who use bad grammar: “I just think they deserve to be passed over for a job — even if they are otherwise qualified for the position.” If you apply for a sales or operations position at one of his two companies, you will take a mandatory grammar test. If you fail, your application will be discarded.

Grammarly’s Research on Elance Profiles
Do you remember learning about indirect object pronouns and subordinate clauses? Did you take notes in English class? If so, you may earn more than your peers! In a recent poll, a writing software company named Grammarly discovered that good grammar significantly influences the likelihood that you will be hired, as well as how much you earn and how highly you are ranked on Elance. Elance is a staffing platform for online freelance work. Contractors are rated using a system of stars. Grammarly examined the profiles of about 450 professional freelancers working in various categories and found that the highest scorers also had the fewest errors in their profiles.

More Time for Lunch 
According to the article, “The Advantages of Good Grammar in the Workplace”, writing accurately is practical for a number of reasons. First, it saves time. If you communicate well, you will spend less time answering questions from your colleagues. You also avoid giving misleading information that could result in costly mistakes. People perceive you as caring and professional if you communicate well. This may translate to promotions and positive evaluations later in your career. The research speaks volumes about the importance of communication and writing. Students belong in English class so they can learn how to express themselves to others. Even after graduating from high school or university, they need to continue to develop their writing skills. Applicants for jobs or professionals in their careers should make it a regular practice to use an automated grammar checker on their emails, memos, reports, and other communication. Doing so will save you time and effort. It may also affect how much you earn and how people view you. With this information in mind, is it not a good time to thank your English teacher for introducing you to commas?

By Nikolas Baron ------------------------------------------------------//------------------------------------------------------------- Bio: Nikolas discovered his love for the written word in elementary school, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children’s novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at Internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.

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Tuesday, 10 September 2013

5 Tips for Snail Mailing a Job Application

In this day and age emailing a job application has become the norm. However, there are still employers out there who would rather get a snail mail job application. Maybe it's because it takes more time and effort or maybe it's because they're fighting technology. Whatever the reason, there are certain things to keep in mind when you're sending a job application by mail.

If you're going to be posting a job application remember these 5 tips.
  1. Don't fold the paper. Buy a big A4 (8.5 x 11) envelope and stick all the papers in.
  2. Use nice paper. Get thick, good quality paper to use for your CV and cover letter. Copies can be on regular paper.
  3. Use good penmanship. If you're going to write the address on the envelope write nicely. If you can't, find someone who can or make a label, print it out and stick it on.
  4. Use a real photo. Many countries require a photo on your CV. When you're applying by email you usually have one on your CV. If you're applying by snail mail, delete that and glue a real photo on the top.
  5. Make nice copies. Many places require copies of your documents, be sure they turn out nice and don't have ink spots, black lines, or any other funny things on them.

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Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Tips to Make Your Scholarship Stand Out So You Get More Free Money for College

Updated 17 September 2015

The following is a guest post.

Not everyone is able to go to college straightaway and due to this many people ask if a degree is necessary to teach English abroad. Some places require degrees and others don't. The article I wrote, Is a Degree Necessary? has more info. Many people complain about high fees and if that's the case then scholarships are the way to go.

If you’re getting ready to attend college, applying for scholarships is the smart way to go. Hopefully you’re applying to as many as you can, as the more free money you get the better. It’s likely that hundreds, if not thousands, of other students are applying for the same scholarships that you are, so in order to be successful and get the most amount of scholarships possible you need to stand out. Applying for scholarships can be a long and time consuming process, so in order to be successful you must stay motivated and keep yourself shining. After you’ve got all your college applications in to schools like bryantstratton.edu, you need to immediately get working on your scholarships. Check out these tips on how to make your scholarship stand out to prospective scholarship providers and be more successful with getting some free money.

Toot Your Horn
When writing TEFL cover letters for jobs, personal essays, or any other thing that requires you to write about yourself, it’s easy to become bashful and not want to write about how great you are. The same goes for many people who are applying for scholarships. While you of course don’t want to sound cocky, you need to make yourself shine to scholarship providers. Make sure you’re honest, but be wary of being too modest. Provide certain examples of your successes, and try and back them up with facts whenever possible. Many scholarship providers, just like job interviewers, will ask you what your weaknesses are. Stay away from a cocky or obnoxious answer like “my only weakness is working too hard”. Instead, provide your weaknesses but also include how you are successful in addressing your weaknesses. Your honestly will shine through to the scholarship provider and you’ll have a much greater shot at some free money.


Make Sure You’re Qualified
There’s no use wasting your time on scholarships that you aren’t qualified for when you could be spending time applying for ones that you are qualified for. Make sure that you actually have a shot at winning the scholarship that you apply for before you apply. Research what scholarships fit your qualifications. It could be your major, your ethnicity, your high school GPA, or any other targeted scholarship. You won’t be rewarded with a scholarship that you don’t qualify for, so don’t even waste your time writing an essay that is just going to be thrown out.

Proofread
You’ve heard it from just about every teacher you’ve ever had in high school: proofread. The importance of reviewing your work is important in every scenario, and that includes scholarship applications. Here's a quick guide about the differences between editing and proofreading. One small typo could put you at risk for having your scholarship application stamped with an automatic denial. Spend five minutes reading over your application, and then do it again. And again. Then have a friend, teacher, or parent read it too. The more pairs of eyes the better, so make sure every scholarship application you complete is polished and completely free of errors.

Image credit: http://www.ufcw770.org/

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Friday, 24 February 2012

My Favourite TEFL Tips Posts

Over the years I've written a lot of articles about teaching but I have my favourites which I update the most often. Here are my favorite posts in no particular order.
  • Is a degree necessary to teach English abroad?: This question comes up so often on TEFL forums. While it would be ideal that everyone had a degree, university is so expensive nowadays that not everyone does. This article tells you which countries you can legally teach in without a degree and also lists some specific employers that will hire you. It also tells you how you can get your degree online from legit universities as well as explains ways to fast-track your college career via testing out of classes, using work experience, and more.
  • Choosing a TEFL course: There are tons of TEFL courses out there it's hard for a newbie to know which ones are worth the money. This article will compare and contrast the advantages of doing an online TEFL course vs. an on-site TEFL course. It also tells you about the top 3 TEFL courses, what good TEFL courses should have, as well as provides resources (such as the Peace Corps) for you to find out about TEFLing for free if you can't afford a course at the moment. 
  • How to write a TEFL CV: Having gotten hundreds of CVs over the years I'm always surprised at how many people can't write a good CV. Your CV is how you sell yourself to an employer and you should put a decent amount of time and effort into writing it. CVs for teaching jobs overseas are a lot different from those back home, for example, you'd probably include a photo as well as your birthday and other personal information. This article will tell you what you should include and gives you tips on how to write a good CV (such as looking at teaching job adverts to find out about key phrases).
  • How to write a TEFL cover letter: Just like CVs, it's amazing how many people don't put a lot of effort into their cover letters. This article will tell you what you should and shouldn't include in a cover letter as well as provide a cover letter template. Most people know that they should be personalised, but few actually do it. Some people are even guilty of emailing a cover letter addressed to the wrong person. 
  • What's the best country to teach English in?: This article will tell you which countries are the best for saving money, for living well, a mix of both, teaching in Europe, and teaching in international schools. You'll find out about the most popular countries for TEFLing and why people go there.
  • Europe without an EU passport: Some people wrongly believe that they can't legally live, work, or teach in Europe without an EU passport, but there are programmes that will allow you to do so. For example, France and Spain's Ministries of Education have special  teaching assistant programmes for native speakers that provide them with a visa, stipend, and on occasion: housing. This article also discusses citizenship, residency, has country specific info for Europe, and a whole lot more. At 3,000 words this is one of the longest articles I've written.
  • TEFL job sites: Not so much an article as a list of places to look for teaching jobs, this post breaks job sites down into categories such as chain schools and recruiters, higher education job sites, international school job sites, general TEFL job sites, and a whole lot more.
  • TEFL interview and demo lesson: Interviews can be stressful and demo lessons can be especially nerve-wracking. This article gives you interview tips, suggested answers, tips for asking the interviewer questions, as well as links to other teaching job interview sites. The demo lesson section will tell you how to prepare, what to expect, and more. This article will provide you with tips so that you can ace your next teaching interview and demo lesson.
  • Sites for lesson planning: tons of links that will help you plan your lessons and make them fun and exciting. From beginners to advanced as well as specialised classes, you'll find tons of links here.  
  • Furthering your education: TEFL certificates, diplomas, master degrees, and PhDs: This article explains about some of the most popular TEFL certificates and diplomas. You'll also find a comprehensive list of master degree programmes related to teaching, TEFL, and linguistics around the world that can be done entirely online or only require a minimum amount of time on campus.
  • Working holiday visas and short-term jobs: While most jobs last for a year, this article will discuss WHV (working holiday visas) and short-term jobs. You'll find out what type of jobs offer short term contracts, how to get a WHV, specific employers that offer shorter contracts, and which countries often have short-term teaching contracts.
  • FAQ for Latin America: This article has FAQ for many countries in Latin America. Find out about visas, salaries, how to get work, border hopping, and who the best employers are. I've complied info from teachers who have lived in this counties and put them into one easy-to-read article. At 5,000 words this is one of the longest articles I've put together.
  • International schools: Some of the better jobs are at international schools. Find out what the requirements to teach at international schools are, recruiting fairs, how to get a good job, how to become a licensed teacher, and more. You'll also learn where to look for jobs, about international school recruiters, as well as where to look to find out if an international school is good or bad.
  • Saving for retirement and where to retire: Many TEFL teachers spend so much time abroad that it's only logical that they retire overseas. This article will list some of the most popular countries around the world, tell you what their requirements are, and explain where you can get more information about their retirement visas.

    Disclaimer:

    Friday, 17 February 2012

    Quick Tip: Personalise Your Cover Letter

    It's easy to make a standard cover letter and copy and paste it into an email or attach it as a file.  The problem with this is that every job is different and every cover letter should be different as well.

    In addition, no one wants to get a cover letter that says "to whom it may concern" or "dear sir or madam". The least you should do is find out the name of the person you're sending it to. Cover letters are what an employer sees first and if your cover letter gets rejected, the employer will never look at your CV.

    Another thing you should do is read through the job advert and highlight the skills or qualifications they ask for.  If they're looking for someone with a masters degree and two years experience teaching at a university, then you should mention that in your cover letter.

    It doesn't take much time to personalise a cover letter and it's much better to send out 10 personalised cover letters than 20 generic ones.  The generic ones are likely to be chucked in the bin while at least the personalised ones will be read.

    Got an idea for a quick tip?
    Email me with your quick tip, name, and website (if you have one) and I'll post it ASAP.

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    Friday, 2 October 2009

    How to Get Good Teaching Jobs

    Updated 16 May 2014

    Some people don't think you can get a good job by teaching English but they're out there. Having the right qualifications, experience, connections and luck will help you. There's lots of information out there worth reading on how to get a great job.

    Korea's a good example. University jobs in Korea can pay very well and the long vacations (up to 5 months paid vacation!) are fantastic. Here are tips for how to get a university job in Korea. The Middle East is also nice since the salaries are tax free and there are lots of benefits. Find out which other countries have high salaries and good benefits by reading the best countries to teach in.
    • Apply to jobs you're under qualified for. Not jobs that you are seriously under qualified for. However, if they want you to have five years experience and you only have four, you might want to apply. Or if they require a masters degree, but you're a semestre away from graduating. If you don't apply there's a 0% chance that you'll get a job. If you do apply at least you have a chance.
    • Apply to religious schools. This is a touchy one as there are some schools that are super religious and there are some that are religious just in name. Some require a statement of faith or even a baptismal certificate. These places often get fewer applicants since people can be wary about mixing religion and work. Find out if you are required to participate in any functions, such as chapel. 
    • Apply to schools outside big cities. It seems like everyone wants to live in a major city, meaning that if you apply to places outside bigger cities, you may have a better chance of getting the job. 
    • Ignore start dates. If you find a school that you like, but you're not available now, send them your CV and let them know when you will be available.
    • Have a stellar CV and cover letter. Cover letters are what an employer sees first so if your cover letter gets rejected the employer will never look at your CV. You'd also be surprised how many people can't write a good CV. Spend time on your CV and update it often.
    • Nix chain schools. They usually have a high turnover and you will work long hours for little pay. The exception to this would be the British Council and perhaps International House.
    • Get teaching qualifications and experience. If you plan on making TEFL a career the more experience and qualifications (BEd, PGCE, PGDE, master degree, or diplomas) you can get the better chance you'll have of getting a high paying teaching positions. If you don't have a TEFL cert, you should look into getting one.
    • Share your knowledge. Getting articles published and giving workshops will help. They're nice to put on your CV and you can network at the same time.
    • Ask for more. If you've got the experience and qualifications ask for a better salary and more benefits. You have to be willing to negotiate, but most places are willing to help you if you will give their institute a good name and bring in students.Salary's not the only thing: more vacation, better teaching hours, gym membership, or language lessons are just a few benefits you could ask for.
    • Connections are key. Teachers leave good jobs and many of them aren't advertised. Instead, they're passed on to people within their network.
    • Find a niche. EAP, ESP, teaching young children, exam prep, curriculum design, curriculum review, materials development, language test construction, academic writing, teaching exams prep, medical English, business English, legal English, and English for tourism, are all some examples. 




    Disclaimer:

    Saturday, 29 November 2008

    How to Create a Teaching Portfolio

    Updated 28 November 2014

    Having a variety of material available is key to creating a good teaching portfolio. Try to collect material from each job. It’s better to have more items that allow you to pick and choose when going to a job interview, than have too little to show. Look for a professional binder that allows you to add or take out pages as needed. Rather than punch holes directly into papers, it’s better to buy plastic sheet protectors to put your papers inside.



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    Saturday, 2 February 2008

    How to Write a TEFL Cover Letter


    Updated 4 November 2014

    Dos
    • Realise their importance. Cover letters are just as important as your CV, if not more important. They're the first thing that an employer sees and have to make a good impression. 
    • Personalise it. You should address it to an actual person. Try not to use "Dear Sir or Madam" or "To Whom it May Concern". Call and ask who does the hiring then address your cover letter to that person.
    • Be careful of titles. Sometimes with foreign names you might not know if you're writing to a man or woman. In that case you could just put their full name followed by Director of Studies, Coordinator, Applications Officer, etc.
    • Be brief. Keep it short and simple. Your education and experience should be on your CV. Your teaching philosophy can be a different page as well. Your cover letter should tell the person why you want to work for them and why you're best suited for the job.
    • Write in English. Even if the job advertisement was written in another language your cover letter and CV should be in English. Using another language might work against you as the employer may think that you would use class time to learn the language rather than teach English.
    • Put some effort into it. If you're emailing your cover letter as an attachment one of the worst things you can do is just write "Please find my documents enclosed". Try to write a couple sentences about who you are and where you found their job advert.
    • Drop names. If you heard about the job from someone mention them name in your cover letter. Just make sure to get their permission first.
    • Explain why you want to work for them. Show the employer that you know something about them. Do a bit of research about the position and tell them why you think you're suited for it.
    • Say what you have to offer. Why should they hire you? This is your chance to sell yourself. If you have experience creating exams, placing students, or being a head teacher, let them know.
    • Be formal. There should be no contractions or informal language in your cover letter. Have someone else take a look at it and make sure it's ok.
    • Proofread it. Some people use similar cover letters and plug in the necessary information when it comes time to apply for a job. If you're going to do this highlight the sections you need to change. I've seen a cover letter that said "I think I'm suited for this position because of blah, blah." Needless to say they didn't get the job.
    • Contact info. Give your phone number and email so that they have a choice of how they would like to reach you.
    • Update it when necessary. Take out the old information and put in the new whil.


    Don'ts
    • Be negative. Don't say that you don't have any teaching experience or that you only have taught for a short time. Your goal is to make employers hire you.
    • Get off topic. Don't discuss subjects that aren't related to the position. The fact that you like playing guitar or are only applying to the job because it pays well should not go in your cover letter.
    • Talk short term. Don't state that you only want to stay for a few months unless the position is a short term one.
    • Talk badly about past employers. One of the golden rules. Don't break it. Ever.
    • Talk about other people. That’s great that your mom’s a teacher, but how does that relate to you? Unless you helped her teach or observed her don’t mention it.
    • Rehash your entire CV. A cover letter is suppose to entice people to read your CV. If they both have the same information there’s no point in reading your CV.
    • Procrastinate. Don't wait until the last moment to update it. You should update it every time you have something pertinent to add.
    • Make stupid mistakes. Spelling, punctuation, dates, etc should all be double checked. You can find some more examples of stupid mistakes in post on Dave's ESL Cafe.
    Also published in
    This article has also been featured in the ELT Times.



    Disclaimer:

    Wednesday, 30 January 2008

    How to Write a TEFL CV

    Updated 23 June 2016

    You'll usually see CV and Resume used interchangeably in TEFL job adverts. In reality a CV is much longer and has just about everything you've ever done. CVs also contain personal information. A resume is usually more concise and has 1 or 2 pages. Here are some guides on how to write an amazing CV. You can also find some examples at CV Rite and Open Colleges.

    Watch out for too much jargon and too many buzz words. Here's a list of the best and worst resume phrases according to INC. The Muse has 41 of the best resume templates ever. Employers often want a cross between a CV and a resume because they want personal information and a maximum of 2 pages. Keep in mind that requirements vary country to country.

    You might also want to try searching online: I found Timothy Day's CV that way.I'd be happy to send you my CV if you'd like just email me at naturegirl321@yahoo.com

    Nowadays, there are plenty of online resume builders, such as Canva, My Perfect Resume, Super Resume, and Resumizer

    Fonts
    Although it will vary according to your career field, there are some basic dos and don'ts. Bloomberg has the best and worst fonts to use on your resume. Some people advocate having two different types of fonts on your CV, one for headings and one for everything else. I like to use a sanserif font for headings, such as Arial, Helvetic, Gills Sans, Futura, or Franklin Gothic. Everything else gets a serif font, such as Times New Roman, Palatino, Garamond, or Calson.

    New to Teaching?
    If you're getting into teaching from another career try reading this article about transferable skills. If you have little teaching experience you might want to consider a Functional Format like those in example 1 and example 2.

    At the Top of a Teaching CV
    • Photo (For many countries this is the norm)
    • Your name
    • Date of birth
    • Sex, nationality
    • Contact information: address, email, phone number with country code, Skype, etc.
    In the Middle of a Teaching CV
    In general, if you've just graduated then your education goes first. Otherwise your work experience should go first.
    • Work: dates, company, city and country, your responsibilities, and awards received.
    • Education: dates, title of your degree, GPA, honours received, name of the university, city and country, and any outstanding things such as a thesis, internship or study abroad.
    At the End of a Teaching CV
    The last sections can be separated if you have enough items or put together "Highlights and Achievements" or "Continuing Development"
    • Workshops given
    • Conferences / Workshops attended
    • Publications
    • Professional Affiliations
    • Other Skills (languages / computer). The Times wrote about why this is the most important section of your CV.
    Dos: Things to Remember When Writing Your Teaching CV
    • Update your CV often
    • Proof-read
    • Look at adverts to see what they require and using similar wording
    • Have a consistent layout
    • Use your DOB rather than your age
    • Include an updated professional picture
    • State that you’re a native speaker
    • Use reverse chronological order
    • No teaching experience? Think about how training employees, creating schedules, or chairing meetings could help you
    • Mention experience living in another country or working with people from other culture
    • Use specific words, like those mentioned in why your TEFL resume sucks
    • Talk about your own language learning experiences
    • Get experience working or volunteering with people from the country you want to teach in
    Don’ts: Things to Avoid When Writing Your Teaching CV
    • Include things they don't ask for such as your driver's license number
    • List too many jobs
    • Use informal language, bad punctuation and spelling, or contractions
    • Crowd the page

    Don't Forget Your Cover Letter!
    Once you have a great CV it's time to write your cover letter. Cover letters are what an employer sees first so if it gets rejected they will never look at your CV.


    This article has also been featured in the ELT Times and mentioned in The Guardian.


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