Today was spent recommitting myself to looking for work as an English teacher in Medellin, sans teaching experience and the ability to speak Spanish. Since I began paying attention, I´ve met quite a few travelers who are looking for work or already building up a few hours of classtime per week, however it seems to require months of patience and a healthy dose of luck.
A funny thing happens when you stop traveling. Boredom sets in. You´ve seen the main sights, and any locals you´ve met are at work, university, or both during the week. To stay focused and productive, I kicked myself into gear and spent some time in the morning drumming up potential advertisers for my already established travel site, GoBackpacking.com.
After a bagel and coffee lunch in Zona Rosa, I returned to the hostel and immersed myself in tutorials for writing resumes aimed at language institutes in foreign countries. Below are a few of the bookmarked sites I found useful:
- Joyjob.com´s No-nonsense Guide to Finding a Teaching Job Abroad
- TransitionsAbroad.com´s How to Create a Great Web Resume for Teaching English Abroad (I like this idea, and it seems like it can be done in a day)
- English International
- Dave’s ESL Cafe International Job Board
- Onestopenglish
- edufind
My briefest, most basic and simple resume ever developed was then forwarded to three contacts I made here so far, two of whom responded with great feedback within a few hours.
As I continue this process, I will build upon the Teach English page. Hopefully it will save future travelers a little time an effort, especially if they´re knew to the whole ¨teaching English abroad¨game.
