I really thought that I had already wrote about this, but looking at my past post, I only wrote about getting the TEFL certification. So I got it, after completing my practicum hours, writing an 400 word essay about my experience and all the things I’ve learned from my co-teaching experience and emailed all the paperwork to my school. I think I mailed it the third week of July and received an email with my certification approval and mail tracking of my official certification mid-August. Once I received that email I started researching recruiting companies and programs to teach English as a Second Language overseas.
A quick google search later, I was filing in online applications and sending out inquiring emails to several companies/recruiters/programs. Majority of them were to Korean companies but I had sent over a couple to Japan and I believe I even sent one over to a program in Taiwan or Thailand. I want to say it was Taiwan since the teaching program was for Chinese elementary students.
So the places that I applied to are:
I’m pretty sure there was a couple other places, but I don’t have email correspondence with them. Out of the six above, only one is not truly what I believe is a recruiting company. I see recruiting companies as the go-between a company and potential employee where the company pays the recruiting company for their assistance in finding good, outstanding workers. Not a assured job placement in which the potential employee pays the company about $500 to help them with all the paperwork and job placement, then another $1,000 after said job placement and relocation. THAT is how Travelbud operates. I did the online application, then scheduled the interview and found out that all that was pretty much a sale call. If you have that kind of money to spend and willing want to, they sound like the route you should go. I, on the other hand, kind of feel that it’s not worth it. I knew I could do it a lot of the paperwork myself, which is what you have to do with all the other recruiters.
And, mind you, it’s not cheap, but in all, the costs to do the paperwork, mail them to the right government offices and have them authorized, I’m spent less than $300. For my application to the EPIK program, which I applied through Reach To Teach (RTT), I needed several documents. To have my recruiter at RTT to send my application to the EPIK office, I needed the 11 page application, which included 3 essays and 1 lesson plan, and 2 Letters of Recommendation ($0) emailed to him. While I waited for the EPIK office to approve the application and schedule an interview, I got some of the important paperwork started. I needed 1 Criminal Record Check ($10 to get fingerprinted at local police station & $68 to process CRC & $6.40 to mail) and 1 photo copy of my Bachelor’s ($0). Both which got mailed together to get apostilled ($100 to process both + $6.40 to mail). Two copies of any college transcript which for me was four: two from when I took community college class in high school and two from my University ($26 in total). So far, I only spent about $217 on just my documents to be prepped and ready. (Side note: I went through RTT services to get my CRC and then got it along with my copy of apostilled at a discounted price since I was using RTT as my recruiter)
Okay, that’s a lot for now, next time I write about trying to get a ESL teaching job overseas it will be about my interview (both mock & real skype interviews) and the process afterwards. Which hit a snag for a hot minute, but things worked out.
Bye for now! Jane
There Goes Jane 