Like the title says, I graduated college in December with a degree in English (writing concentration). I worked at my school's writing center a tutor for a year and a half, mainly going over the written assignments of both native-speakers and ESL students. Beyond working as a tutor, I don't have any other experience teaching, but I'm thinking of getting some kind of certificate so that I can teach English, preferably in a 100% immersion classroom, in another country. I've been doing some research on the forum here, but I'm hoping to get some more information so I know how to proceed.

From what I've been reading up on, CELTA is the best and most widely recognized certification you can get, but is also incredibly advanced and better suited for people who already have experience teaching. As someone who is only considering this now, albeit seriously considering it, I'm a bit wary of sinking over $2000 into a program that may be too difficult for me to complete. I've heard that it may be better to get a less intense TEFL certification and get some experience actually teaching, but is this a viable option? From what I understand, TEFL isn't a well-known, and, to bring up the issue of money again, I don't want to spend $1100 on a program that could potentially be useless to me.

I'm just trying to figure out what could be the best course of action for my particular goals. Any help anyone could offer would be appreciated!