Tips: choosing an EFL language school to work at

When I apply for jobs, these are some things I consider - questions I ask of myself, of the ad and on the phone/ in an interview and obviously vary according to the job and location.

General advice:

If you want to work abroad, start looking at job adverts even before you get qualified or you finish your current contract – where do you want to work? Which schools are advertising? What do they offer? Having this in mind will help you later.

General questions to ask yourself – they’ll help you to think about why you want the job, which is good for you and the application process

• Why do I want this job?
• What does it offer?
• What will I gain from it?
• What is the city like and what can I do there?

Pay

• How much?
• How is it paid? [in hand or into a bank account... you could draw some conclusions from that as to how legitimate they are]
• Are you paid if students don’t turn up?
• Are you paid in a foreign currency? How stable is that currency? [Rouble :( ] Is your pay contractually fixed to an exchange rate or will it match any rises and falls?
• Rate of pay for overtime?
• What holidays are there? Paid?
• How long is the contract for?
• Are there any perks? Health insurance? [and sick pay?] Do they offer cultural trips?
• If you’re going somewhere where you have specific needs, e.g. a laptop for teaching or winter clothes because you’re in Siberia, are these extras paid for/ supplied?
• What language is your contract in? Is the English translation also legally valid?

Getting there

• Is there visa support? Is the visa refunded? When is it refunded?
• Do they pay for flights? When do they pay for flights? [half at the beginning and half on completing the contract is reasonable]
• How do I get from the airport? Will someone meet me?

Accommodation

• Is it included as a part of the package?
• Yes... what facilities does it have? [it really should have Internet nowadays] Is it far from the school? Are you sharing? How many are you sharing with? Will you have your own separate bedroom? [note that in Russia in real life, a living room often doubles up as a bedroom as schools may view the living room that way]
• No... what does it cost locally? What help will you get between arriving and finding a place to live?
• No, but we have a flat that you can rent... what do alternatives cost locally? Is it ok to use/ rent that place temporarily while finding your own? What help will you get between arriving and finding a place to live?

The Teaching?

• How many hours per week? [you probably don’t want much more than 21 hours per week (clock hours) = 28 ‘teaching hours’
• Is overtime possible? Is overtime compulsory or optional?
• How are the hours organised? Times of the day? How many teaching days a week? Spilt shifts?
• Where are you based? In one location? Across branches? In-house, i.e. trudging across Moscow for 2 hours? [if so, are you paid for travelling time?]
• Are there extra, non-teaching responsibilities? What is included? Is it paid for?
• Ages?
• Levels? Any English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or exam English?
• What facilities are available? What materials/ course books do you use?
• Do you operate a system whereby local teachers share groups with native speakers?
• Do you follow a specific syllabus/ scheme of work? Are the lesson plans prescriptive or is there flexibility providing you’re meeting course aims/ student needs?

Reputation

• Is there anything negative online about the school? [look for balanced views and consistency in those views - remember that there may be two sides to the story... ‘I was fired for no reason’ may be ‘I was drunk in lessons’]
• Can they get a present/ former employee to contact you to answer questions?
• Are they always advertising for staff? [i.e. do they have a high turnover?... bad]

Career development

• Do they offer methodology sessions?
• Are you observed? How often? Do they give constructive feedback from them?
• Do they offer or (partly) sponsor training courses?

Random questions

• Dress code?
• Can I take private students? [subject to no conflicting interests etc]