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Travel, Teach, Live in Asia

How to get a teaching job in Taiwan
By:Brian <info@buxiban.comm>

Applying for Teaching Work

April 24, 2005
The first thing to do is to research the background of any employer offering a teaching position. You are quite possibly going to be applying for positions from overseas, site unseen, and therefore researching schools is crucial. Once you find a position that is of interest to you search for information about that particular school. There is a lot of information from past teachers floating around on the Internet, and finding out that a particular employer should be avoided prior to actually signing up is obviously going save you a lot of unnecessary anguish. Don't reinvent the wheel!

Current Job Market
In recent months it has become apparent that finding teaching positions in Taiwan is becoming increasingly difficult. Although these effects haven't been felt so much in China at this stage, it is likely that China may follow suit in coming months. Is it a case of the teaching market shrinking? Are there less jobs available now? Or is it a case of flooded markets? Well it is likely that each of these considerations plays a part, but none of the above would be the sole reason for the current market situation.

According to population statistics in Taiwan, the number of children is dropping due to lower birth rates than ever before. As a result the pool of possible students for children's English schools is shrinking. Despite this statistic, the number of schools competing for these students has continued to grow such that the level of competition between schools is probably a lot higher than it has ever been before. It is not that there are not enough students to fill classrooms, it is just that these students and their parents have more choices of schools now, and these students are spread more evenly around the available schools. Gone are the days when a children's buxiban could just open a new class and expect to have no empty seats. Now schools need to offer something special to attract students, and one of the big considerations in this regard is the foreign teacher.

Couple this with the fact that there are more qualified foreign teachers competing for teaching positions that do come available, and it becomes apparent why it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure a quality position. Considering that each position may attract the interest of a large number of applicants, each applicant needs to do his or her best to ensure that the school can easily recognize why this person is the most suitable applicant. Applications sent to schools should be well written and professionally presented, as anything less than this is likely to end up in an email trash bin.

Schools are becoming increasingly, but not unreasonably, picky in their selection of teachers. Due to lower enrollments, each school may only have enough classes for one or two foreign teachers and therefore the employer is going to do their best to find the best possible applicant from the many applications that they may receive. They want the teacher to not only be able to retain the current enrollments, but be attractive enough as a teacher to encourage new students to sign up. Experience plays a big part in this, as does personality. Teaching qualifications are not generally as relevant to most buxibans, but can be a good platform from which to market oneself on.

The situation is not all doom and gloom however. The advantage to all of the above is that schools are becoming more competitive, which in many cases means that they are becoming more professional. There are good jobs out there just waiting for the right applicant, but the onus is now on teaching applicant to show schools that he or she is the best applicant for the position. Gone are the days of just shooting off an email along the lines of 'I'm a foreign teacher available for work. Call me.' Now more than ever before, teachers need to take their job search seriously and make professional applications for positions.

Job Applications
When applying for jobs you need to ensure that your application stands out as the teaching market is becoming very competitive.

Briefly Describe Yourself

When writing this information it is generally best to stick to the point and only state things relevant to the application that you are making. Don't write an essay about yourself, but do use bullet points, bold text, and sub-headings in order to provide potential employers with a lot of information without overwhelming them with text. Check your details for any spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors, as you are after all applying for a position as a teacher of English, and such errors are not likely to reflect very well upon you. Don't place too much emphasis on unrelated work experience.

Potential Problems

On occasion applicants may find that they are not getting the level of response from schools applied to as they would have hoped for. There may be many reasons for this. Unlike in many western countries, employers in Taiwan and China are less likely to notify applicants that their job application has been received. In most cases local employers only reply to applicants who are of interest to them and applications from individuals who are deemed less suitable are often deleted without reply. This is an unfortunate situation but is nevertheless a part of job hunting in Taiwan and China.

There are a number of ways that applicants can improve their chances of being considered an 'applicant of interest':

Email Address: Ensure to use an appropriately named email address. Email addresses that contain profanity or other undesirable subject matter are likely to end up where they belong - in the email trash can. Also take care to ensure that the email address that you choose couldn't be misunderstood by employers e.g. orientalluv, bigal, lovemoney etc. There may be nothing wrong with these particular nicknames but they may be considered inappropriate by some employers, particularly if the employer has somehow misunderstood the meaning of the nickname used. The nickname bigal could be read as either Big Al or Bi-gal, the second of which is probably not an appropriate nickname to be using when approaching employers for work. It is best to use your real name or some derivative thereof if at all possible.

Ensure that you meet the requirements for the job: Read the job advertisement carefully to ensure that you meet the employment requirements of each employer on an individual basis. For example, some employers may require a degree in education or even a master's qualification. In the absence of any details regarding specific requirements for a position, then applicants should expect that they need to meet the minimum requirements for employment as a foreign English teacher in Taiwan and China - a degree and a passport from a country designated as English speaking by the relevant governments. Any applicant that sends in an application that doesn't meet these minimum requirements is likely to be ignored. The school may quite reasonably consider that if the applicant can't read the job advertisement carefully, then they may be equally remiss in their work.

Pay attention to content: Applicants should ensure that the content of their contact with schools is error free and relevant to the positions applied for. For example, if you are applying to a position teaching children of kindergarten age then there is probably very little relevance in providing information about academic papers that you may have written (unless of course they are pertinent to education!). It would be more appropriate and more useful to provide information about experience with kids or talents that you may have with conducting performances or in the field of art etc. It may seem obvious but so many applicants seem to overlook the fact that you need to sell yourself to employers. Also don't provide too much or too little information in your application.

Remove inappropriate content from applications: At all stages in your application to employers it is advisable to be professional, respectful, and concise. The employer only knows you from the content of the information that you send, and therefore applicants should exercise care not to leave employers with a misunderstanding. The first consideration in writing a job application is to be professional. All the rules of professional writing should be adhered to, such as addressing the person you are writing to, using capitalization and punctuation appropriately, writing whole words and sentences, refraining from being too familiar or relaxed, and remember to sign off with your full name. If you have concerns about certain aspects of the position offered then it is often best to phrase these concerns as a question. It is far better to ask 'Does the position entail any overtime hours after 8pm?' rather than send a demand such as 'I will not work after 8pm at night.' This is all common sense of course, but it is surprising how many applicants fail to follow these simple rules. Also take care to word the content of your application so that it cannot be misconstrued by the school. Comments such as 'I want to find a school that won't rip me off, won't dodge taxes, and will honor it's contract' could be seen to be suggestive of bad behavior by schools. A school may be offended by the apparent suggestion that they may rip you off, when in fact that school may be totally above board. This could more suitably be re-phrased as 'It is important to me that I be employed legally in such aspects as contracts, taxes, and working conditions. I welcome interest from employers that are able to offer this in a position.'

Personalize your contact: Always personalize your application by making reference to the contact person and school by name. It can be a good idea to refer to aspects of the content of the ad you are applying to also, as this indicates that you have actually read the advertisement for the position, and are not just mindlessly sending off applications to every school that you can contact. It is very easy for employers to identify genuine applicants for a particular position, from those who are just casting a net over every job in the hope of landing one. By being specific in your applications and personalizing your correspondence you are making your application stand out from those who just send the same email to every school. Being noticed is half the battle, particularly now that the market is that much more competitive. An example of this would be when an employer who is offering a position for corporate classes receives an email from an applicant stating that he or she is willing to teach all levels from kindergarten to adults. While the corporate classes do fall within this broad net, it is highly likely that the employer will realize that this application is not specific for this particular job. This isn't likely to help your application be viewed in a positive light. Sometimes, taking the time to compose well thought out replies to individual ads, can pay better dividends than just sending bland applications to every employer in town.

Job availability: At times a job applied for may be found to be no longer available. It is probably in your best interests to respond to the prospective employer in a manner suggesting understanding should this be the case. There is after all no point burning bridges that you may otherwise need.

Take your job hunt seriously and you will likely find that the schools that you are applying to will treat you as a serious applicant. If you take a too casual approach to applying for jobs then you may find that employers are equally as casual in deciding whether or not to reply to your enquiry. The employer has obviously placed an ad as they have a position that needs filling. All you need do is show the employer that you are a suitable applicant and you will be given due consideration for the position. Good luck with your job search.

Remember:
Select an appropriate email address.
Check job criteria carefully to ensure suitability.
Provide employers with requested information and any other information that may be relevant.
Be respectful and professional in all correspondence that you send.
Take the time to write a specific application for the actual position you are applying for and make reference to the terms of the position to show that you have actually read the position information.
Check your correspondence for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors prior to sending it to an employer.

For more information about teaching work in China and Taiwan please check out www.buxiban.com The site maintains extensive lists of schools and comments from previous teachers at those schools.

Copyright: This article is owned by Buxiban.com but may be freely used on other sites provided that it is not altered in any way, and includes a clear reference and working link to www.buxiban.com






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