Flipping Burgers or Seeing the World – Which Would You Prefer?

Imagine the scene – you’ve just graduated from university, saddled with piles of student debt, full of ambition, and the only job available? Flipping burgers at your local fast food joint. Sounds awful, but it’s a reality that many in the class of 2010 are facing up to, with over 70 applicants for every decent graduate job out there.

But wait… there’s another way!

While the smell of grease and broken dreams is a tempting option, have you thought about working abroad? Due to the massive numbers of people wanting to learn English around the world, bright, educated native English speakers (that’s you by the way) are like gold dust to language schools in amazing places all over the globe.

Your future... it's calling you (photo: Yumiang)

The good news is that you don’t need to have any teaching experience, the ability to speak another language or word-perfect grammar. In fact, you usually just need to do a short TEFL course, which costs around £200-£300 ($250-$400) and can be done in as little as 12 days, or up to 3 months part-time if you’re fitting it around work.  Download a free copy of the Graduate’s Guide to Teaching and Travelling Abroad with TEFL to discover what exactly you need and where you could end up: http://www.onlinetefl.com/graduates.html.

How about teaching in South America instead?

So, it’ll be more exciting than flipping burgers right?

Well, it depends on your idea of excitement. If you’re after a job where no two days are the same, where you’re constantly challenging yourself (navigating a foreign culture can be pretty tricky!) and where new adventures and friends are waiting around every corner, welcome aboard. However, if your idea of excitement is getting the next star on your name badge, I think you’d better stay at home.

But I haven’t got any money!

So, you spent all your cash celebrating your graduation – so what? TEFL is an opportunity to get paid work abroad, not to burn through the remaining credit on your Mastercard. While you’ll need to spend a bit of cash on getting TEFL qualified, you can actually start teaching overseas without a TEFL certificate (although that can get a little hairy – you do risk unscrupulous employers and being eaten alive by your students).

There’s also the issue of flights – some employers will expect you to fund travel yourself, some will reimburse the cost of your flights once you finish your contract and some (the nice ones) will pay for your flights up front. If this is what you’re after, check out this opportunity in Georgia (it’s next door to Russia, not war-torn, promise): http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-jobs-abroad/georgia.html.

So, where do I get my hands on these magical jobs?

There are a few ways – you can either do a teaching internship, which includes the cost of your course and a paid internship with 24-hour support. Alternatively, do your TEFL course with a provider like i-to-i, who have a free job placement service. Or, if you want to go it alone, there are literally thousands of TEFL jobs advertised online every month, which you can apply for just like any other job.

To find out more and learn how to tailor your CV/resume to TEFL, download a free copy of the Graduate’s Guide to Teaching and Travelling Abroad with TEFL: http://www.onlinetefl.com/graduates.html.

So, flipping burgers or seeing the world – which would you choose? 

• TEFL
• teach abroad
• TEFL course
• TEFL certificate
• graduate
• graduate jobs
• teaching overseas
• teach overseas
• i-to-i