Have you ever wondered how important your resume is in finding a job? Having a solid resume is absolutely essential to get past the first screening process and land you an interview with the school. Here are some important and useful reminders we’ve compiled when applying for teaching jobs abroad.

1. Make sure that your contact information is accurate

You may have an outstanding resume and impressive qualifications, but the employers have no way of reaching you if you put in the wrong information. Include your phone number, email address and Skype ID as most initial interviews are done over Skype video calls. If you still don’t have one, make sure to download and register right away. If your name is gender neutral like Toby or Alex, it would be better if you can include “Mr.” or “Ms.” to avoid confusion from the employers.

2. Include your time zone

Include the city you are currently located in and its time zone. Since your potential employers are often on the other side of the world, they can easily arrange a reasonable time to setup an interview for you. You should also include your nationality and place of birth.

3. Prioritize your resume content

Put important information first so that your most important and relevant experience is listed on top. Sometimes your previous experience may be more relevant to the job you are applying for so you want to make sure that the employer sees that first. If you have key accomplishments, they should also be listed at the top of your job position. If you are applying for a job teaching kids, be sure to include any type of work or activities you’ve done with kids. Be sure to include the exact start and finish dates for each position.

4. Relevant skills

Think about how your previous experiences match up with what the employer is looking for and list them as skills to let them know that you fit this position perfectly, giving concrete examples and descriptions. This will also show that you properly researched the company and the job you are applying for. Emphasize your strengths and capabilities and show the employers that you are compatible with their school. There’s no need to include irrelevant information to avoid wasting precious space on your resume.

5. Cultural diversity and foreign languages

Since you are applying for a position in a foreign country, your knowledge of at least one foreign language will be definitely worth including. Your knowledge of another language indicates that you are aware of the process of acquiring a foreign language and you can empathize with your future students inside the classroom. If you have worked in an environment with cultural diversity, this is also definitely worth mentioning. Being culturally aware and comfortable working with students and colleagues from various different countries who have different ways of doing things is a very important part of any teaching abroad job.

6. Write a customized cover letter

Using a standard resume and sending it to all available positions is a common mistake that people make. Surely, it is very convenient and can save time, but it also indicates that you didn’t do enough research about the job and what the company is really looking for. Your cover letter is a great opportunity for you to sell yourself and your skill set and to show that it is relevant to the job. It’s also a great way to inject your personality into the application process early on. If the school is based in Tianjin, China, explain why you’d like to work in that city in particular. If the school has interactive whiteboards in the classroom, articulate why you think they are useful tools for education.

7. Proofread twice and PDF

There are plenty of examples of bad resume fails that are sure to end up in the rejected pile. Be sure to proofread your resume not just once, but twice and even better, ask a friend to read it over too. Make sure you check your spelling, grammar and use the appropriate fonts, spacing and text sizes. Once you are certain that it’s typo-free, save it to PDF format so it can’t be easily altered. It also keeps your resume design intact since there are many different versions of Microsoft office out there which can alter the layout.

8. Setup privacy on social networks

With the popularity of social media, employers are now looking beyond the documents you provide when short-listing candidates. It is becoming common lately for employers to check candidates’ social networks. It’s best that you set your privacy settings higher. Keep those drunken photos private and hide your work rants and complaints about your previous employer.

9. Self-introduction video or a teaching demo

Here’s your opportunity to impress the school you are applying for. This will also give the employer an idea about your English ability, teaching style, classroom presence and the command of your voice. This is commonly asked from non-native English speaking candidates but native speakers can also find it very useful especially if you have no teaching experience. Make sure you make a proper script and rehearse before recording your video introduction. This will look more professional and can attract more employers. Even after you land that job, you can still use the same video introduction to get private tutors for some extra income. Including a short video clip of you inside the classroom actually teaching is also a great way to stand out from the crowd.

Looking for job is stressful. Flying to the other side of the world to start a new job in a new country where you don’t speak the language can be significantly more stressful. The stakes are much higher and you want to get it right, right?

These days a significant number of teachers are using recruiters to assist with their job hunt and there are a good number of reasons why, which we will look at in a minute.

What to watch out for

Of course there are bad recruiters, just as there are bad companies in every industry. There are good and bad schools, good and bad lawyers, good and bad hairdressers and good and bad comedians.

Some things to take into consideration are how long the recruitment company has been in business, are their emails professionally written, who are their clients, do they provide good testimonials from previously placed teachers (we do – written and video), are they active on social media (Facebook) and engaging positively with their teachers. Never, ever pay anything up front to a recruiter or to a school for that matter. Most of the good recruiters do not charge teachers anything at all, ever.

5 benefits of using a recruiter to find a teaching job

• • 1 – Daily contact with LOTS of schools

Recruiters have hundreds of schools on their books, from kindergartens to language schools, public schools, universities and adult and business English centers. We are in contact with them on a daily basis, know their requirements and who is hiring for when. All day, every day recruiters are talking to the schools they work with. Make the most of this free resource, it’s infinitely harder for you to make these connections on your own.

• • 2 – The hard work has been done for you

Recruiters have done the hard work for you. There are loads of bad schools out there and we’ve found out the hard way so you don’t have to. We’ve phoned countless schools, spoken to the academic managers, found out about their courses, their facilities, collected details about their compensation packages and spoken to their current teachers. We have sifted out the good ones from the bad ones so you don’t have to and guess what, when we find a good one we stick with them.

• • 3 – Schools are too busy to advertise

Previously I worked as a Director of Studies in Wenzhou, China so I know that often the guy in charge of recruitment is also the guy teaching, training teachers, scheduling, developing the curriculum and doing a million other things. Often schools simply don’t have the time to advertise their own jobs, which is why they turn to recruiters to assist them. A large chunk of the jobs out there are only available through recruiters for this very reason.

Additionally, a quick Google search for teaching jobs abroad will show you that it’s the ESL recruitment companies that are appearing on the search results these days, not the individual schools or even the job boards. So by not using recruiters you’re cutting out a lot of options.

• • 4 – Advice & Support

On top of helping you find suitable schools and setting up interviews, recruiters can offer lots of useful information and free advice. Anything from questions you can expect to get in the interview, visa information, cost of living information, what to take with you, cultural advice. A lot of recruiters started off as English teachers so they know their stuff.

Gold Star have weekly articles written by some of their teachers on life inside and outside the classroom. Want to make sure you’re not eating chicken feet and pigs brain when you arrive in China for example? We have a Chinese food menu with English translation that you can print out and take with you.

• • 5 – It’s totally and completely free

Really! Gold Star and other good recruitment companies don’t charge their teachers anything. Ever. And we don’t deduct anything from your salary. Ever. You’re getting access to hundreds of jobs, personal help from a real life human who is fluent in English and Chinese, who has spent years filtering out the good schools from the bad and it’s all completely free for you.

We make our money from a fee from the school. And here’s the best part, we only get paid after you, the teacher, finish your first 3 months of teaching. What does that mean? That means it is in our interest to find you good jobs with good schools that you will be happy with because if you’re not and you decide to leave we don’t get paid! Plus, I hope it’s not too hard to believe that we are motivated to find you a job with a good school that you are suited to and will enjoy working at just for the simple reason that if it makes you happy it makes us happy.

So that’s about it

Sure, you can apply directly to schools, but where’s the harm in enlisting the help of a good recruiter to really get things going. Put in an application today, tell us what you’re looking for, where you want to teach, what age students you’d prefer and we’ll take care of the rest.