Hey..Thanks for sharing your insight and experiances...I realize (being a non-native) I cannot just do an online course and fly off to China or some Asian country, with a confirmed job, so I am researching my options with reputed language schools, which provide job guarantees. And there are quiet a few actually.
It is gonna cost me 10 times more than an online TEFL, but I guess it will be all worth it in the long run.
Cheers

Hi, most countries i.e south korea, japan, south east asian countries and china included, even middle east and latin america Europe too, most private schools, international, schools, universities, and goverment schools, tend to want Qualified teachers of native english speaking countries for obvious reasons. however it is not impossible during my stay in china i met some people from non native english speaking countries with amazing englihsh, and they were hired in various position at teaching institutes, so your credentials will matter, as well havng experience and your level of fluency and ability to manage a class room full of students. what i found was non native english speakers were in foregin countries of another language on different purposes not to initally teach it was something they picked up as source of income whilst studying at a international university on an exchange or scholarship program. these are just my experiences.