Teaching English can be a life-time career

Joe Hallwood

"Shouldn’t you get a proper job?"

That’s what my parents told me back in 1993. The truth is that’s exactly what I did!

Still a proper job

Just like David Jennings of "TEFL in Greece" fame, I also went to teach in Greece but unlike him, I stayed for six years!

I left Uni with debts, but wanted to travel. So I decided to pay off my overdraft from Greece. I didn’t think of it as a career at the time, just somewhere other than the UK to work and earn money.

Just like any other 'proper' jobs, I started out with a minimum qualification (a weekend TEFL course) and no experience. After a few years, my qualifications grew (a 4-week CELTA) and my responsibility grew in the school.

I earned money, spent money and was a respected (mostly!) part of the community in Greece, how much more of a proper job do you want?

Plus I learnt another language, got a half decent tan and gained a thorough appreciation of a very different culture.

Being professional

Like any profession, as an English teacher you have take responsibility. You need to know that you are doing your very best for your students. You can’t turn up for work hung-over, wearing last night’s Metallica t-shirt and watching the clock. Your students depend on you to learn English for their futures.

I’ll get off my high horse now...

Building a career

I have been in the TEFL game for 13 years now.

Lots of people build careers in TEFL. Some are serial-teachers, roaming the planet for their next school and next culture to immerse themselves in, others increase their qualifications become Director of Studies and boss other teachers about! Some get into the TEFL business, working for publishers or even writing, some even start their own schools. Some return to their native country and get full-time TEFL work at language schools for foreign students.

I did a bit of all of that.

I spent 6 years teaching in Greece. First I was a teacher and then Director of Studies. I then went to France and taught Business English and applied for publishing work in Paris. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized the interview was going to be entirely in French and bang went that idea. A couple of years, two kids and a wife later, I returned to the UK to work at TEFL school in Bath. I was Centre Manager, meaning I had to organize accommodation, activities and the social lives of hundreds of young learners from all over the world.

After a few months of that, I found work with i-to-i as a course tutor teaching the i-to-i weekend courses and am now TEFL Manager/E-commerce Manager some five years later.

I’m still in the world of TEFL now and that won’t be changing any time soon!

Unusual career path

It is a proper job, just more exciting than most. It is hard to get excited about accounts, even harder to get a job in the sun as one (Sorry Finance team).

It rarely gets dull (well, maybe with the odd ultra quiet private student) unlike most other careers.

It might not make you rich, though I have friends who have bought houses abroad and some who have set up schools.

But the fact is that working as a TEFL tutor is just like any other career - it is what you make of it!