Tag: Job Hunting

HiOffer – a new beginning?

Jemma Jones1 Comment

Hello everyone!

I am sorry that it has been two months since my last post – life has not been good to me. I have been trying to stay focused on my current job to save the funds I need to go abroad and teach. However, while I was on Facebook one day I saw an advert of an online teaching platform – HiOffer. It is very exciting as I can set my own hourly rate.

You may have noticed that I have also added some “services” to my Facebook page – [add link]. These services are not just for people who do not speak English as their first language, but also for any student who wishes to improve their spoken and written English.

Some job news…

Jemma Jones1 Comment

Every now and again I apply for some jobs on the i-to-i TEFL Jobs Board; sometimes I get an interview and sometimes (well, actually most of the time) I do not get a response.

However, recently I applied to three schools in China and one in Portugal. I thought that I would keep my options open just in case, I cannot save enough money for the Thailand Internship.

I have had emails from all four schools. How exciting? I have replied to all and two days ago I had an interview with Fun Language Viseu in Portugal. Sadly, I had been called into my current workplace, luckily the girls were fine for half and hour when I had my interview over Skype. I am now starting to find the Skype interviews easier and I am not as nervous when I am carrying them out. I try to be myself and answer the questions truthfully. I did not have to carry out a mock lesson like the last time I had a Skype interview. All that I was asked were the standard teaching experience questions. I have also replied to the three Chinese schools with some questions. Hopefully I will hear back from all four of them soon.

I am now an official Jamberry Nails Consultant. You may have seen the image appear upon the sidebar of the blog. It is very exciting. I am one of the first people to have this opportunity here in the UK; I hope that you all have a look at my website; just click the image and it will send you to my site. I may not be a ‘girly girl’ but the Jamberry nail wraps are amazing. I have never seen anything like them ever. I was introduced to them by my long-time friend, Amy, who I have known since 1999. She was in the Girl Scouts (the same area that I am going to camp with this summer) and she was my Host for the camp. She is a ‘sister from another mumma’! I am going to see her too this summer, can’t wait! Jamicures will be taking place when I am there for sure! Here are some examples of the wraps; they are cute right?

Didn’t get it, but there is a sliver lining…

Jemma Jones

On Wednesday morning via Skype I received confirmation that I didn’t get the position with the recruiter. I was not told why; I was wonder if they had read the post I wrote after the interview. However; there is a other position they think will be good for me. I need to think about it as I don’t know if I want to apply or not as it is just one interview with a person from HR. If it I’d like the first interview, I was not looking forward it! I However; I had the interview on Thursday morning. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Very relaxed and the conversation flowed better than my first (first!) interview. The position is for a Public School placement in a District of Beijing. I am going to see how much everything; as in Medical Report and Visas are before I decide.

The sliver lining is that after Claire and Anthony’s reply to “Interviewing for China” I headed over to New Life ESL and had a look around to see if its for me. I decided to send them my CV and they contracted me on Friday morning saying to give them call. It will be an early morning call; well it will be for me as Monica is only available at 8.30-10.30 CST – it will be 1am-3am for me. I am excited! I have contacted Monica stating that I am trying to find the time to contact her. I just hope that all will be okay!?

Interviewing For China…

Jemma Jones3 Comments

Well, today I have just conduced my second interview for a TEFL Teacher Recruitment company in China. I was nervous at first and worried that my second interview would be similar to my first. The first interview went okay; I had to be in the upper part of my house to get a better reception and I was only able to see part of my interviewers face. I am wondering if this is common practice when interviewing for jobs in China.

Both interviews took place in their Beijing offices; which were a little noisy at the start. There is a large time difference between here in the UK and in Beijing. Beijing is seven hours ahead of me and I had to conduct both my interviews in the morning. The first interview took place at 9am GMT; which made it 4pm CST (China Standard Time). It was also the end of the day for them. I must remember this whenever I call home when I start teaching in Asia. The second interview was supposed to start at 7am/2pm but on the confirmation email I was sent 8am/3pm – which I preferred. However; this was not passed on to the person who called me (on Skype) at around 7am. I think that there was a confusion of the Time Zone converting. I use the clock on my laptop; I have set it up to have Beijing as one of the Time Zones. I will change this depending on where I move to.

UntitledI was sent some material to use for my second interview; two eBooks and some information on what I was to do. I found tis rather difficult as I thought that on the information I would be given an age group or level to work with. The books I felt were aimed at Elementary level and for young children. I had to create at least one activity to do and it should last for about 20 minutes. I could only use three pages from the book – I would have preferred to use the whole book as that would have made the reading exercise easier. I decided that I was going to pretend that the second interviewer was one of my current four year old students. When it was time for the interview; she asked me ‘how old I wanted her to be?’ – Elementary and around 4 to 5 years old. I chose the book “Visiting Grandma and Grandpa”.

I found this interview very hard; as the interviewer took her role seriously. Only one word answers and not much facial expressions. Working with younger children you want to be able to get them to hold and see the book better or even reading it with them. Only using three pages was hard. I ended up using four – I had turned them into flash cards to help with the “having the book experience” . Fingers crossed it worked!

At this very moment in time; I have not received any information or details about if I was successful or not. After my first interview, the person who had organised the interview with me contacted me and told me that I had passed and would be moving onto the second interview. It has almost been an hour since I finished my interview and I have had nothing. I have this feeling I will not hear anything until tomorrow now. As the office in Beijing must be closed for the day. I’ll keep you all posted with this.

 

Welcome to 2015…

Jemma Jones

I have been back at work for four days and it feels like I have been back four weeks! I am still down in the dumps about not accepting the job in Poland. I know that I have the finances to get myself over there and I can gain extra money when I am there; as Forever Living is available in Poland.

Work has been busy, so I have not been able to plan or post anything – I have not even been able to job search or contact IC Bilbao. That is my job for the weekend!

Idiom of the Week and Wordle Wednesday will start next week; is there anything else you think I should add to the site? I would love your feedback about these features or even about the entire blog. 2015 is a new year and I believe it is my year…do you agree?

First ever Phone interview!!

Jemma Jones

On Wednesday; last week, I had my first ever phone interview for a job in Poland as an ESL Intern with Speed School of English and I was terribly nervous about it. I have never had an interview over the phone before. I know that this will be how the schools or companies I apply for will conduct their interviews. However; we had some technical difficulties – using public WiFi is not a good idea (that is a thing to remember) but we ended up using my mobile number. It worked fine but it was a little noisy and I sat in my car. I am so glad that I was unable to be seen. I was interviewed by Andy.

The interview lasted for half an hour and I was surprised by the amount of questions he asked. I had the feeling that I did not do every well when it had finished. There were questions that I did not even think that he would ask about…for example – grammar! I was asked to give examples of Tenses – Past, Present and Future. I was asked to give an example – I could not believe it my mind went blank! It was horrid. This is where I think it all went down hill for me. However; Andy did ask my for the definitions of two words. The words were ‘Century’ and ‘Freedom’. Personally; I think that my answers were pretty lame,  but Andy seemed to like them. At the end of the half an hour, Andy said that he would pass my details etc. onto Natalie and she would call me again after the weekend to ask some more questions on Grammar. He would email me a “Pre-Arrival Study Pack” to read beforehand; which when it arrived I read front to back three times and highlighted the key points of Grammar.

It has been many months since I did my Grammar Awareness Course (and I feel that it is time that I refresh myself by doing the course again!) and I am very worried about the questions the Natalie would ask. Within the email; which to be honest I thought Andy was going to send by it was actually from Natalie, stated that I have a good personality for being a TEFL teacher and I would fit in with the rest of the team (paraphrasing a little). My jaw almost hit the floor when I read that part; I could not believe it. I must have been okay with the interview. I was a little relived. However; today was the second half of the interview. Again I feel that it did not go to plan. I was very nervous. I knew that she would ask me to give examples of all the tenses and what the parts of speech were. I focussed on these sections when I was waiting for Natalie to call me.

However; Natalie did say that she would contact my References by phone (I have had to change my Reference recently as one of them is no longer able to be contacted by the information I have for them) or by email (as one of my current References is Deaf) to discuss me and my ability to teach. At this time I became more nervous; as the Grammar questions she had asked I did not fully answer correctly. However; as an Intern you are being taught how to teach in theory so I would have to brush up pretty quickly! [Note to Self: write a post about Grammar].

 

She did ask me one thing…would I be able to start working with Speed School before the Summer 2015. “All I need to do is to give my current employers one months notice” was all I said; but I know that I would have to discuss the matter with my family.

So, what do you all think? Has she just said ‘maybe’ to me?

Sorry Again…

Jemma Jones

 

 

Hello everyone; I am very sorry again! I have not been well and unable to write anything. Also my internet access (which is currently my SmartPhone) as died a horrid death. I am unable to post anything; so luckily I have found a place where I can write a blog post…

Well, I took the plunge! I have applied to TWO TEFL teaching jobs – one in Spain with MEDDEAS and the second in Poland with Speed School of English. Both these companies I have been looking into for a while. I found the job listings on the Jobs Board at i-to-i. I am all excited now! I have also been contacted by Asia Teaching Agents via FB and I have also sent them CV.

For the next few weeks I am going to be all a bag of nerves waiting to hear back from all three. I need a change of scenery and I know that being a TEFL teacher will create this for me. I am glad that I have made this decision. The job in Spain would not start until September 2015; which would give me just under a year to learn some more Spanish and create MANY and MANY resources. I know that leaving the children that I currently work with will be hard and that the work load of the others within the schools I currently work at will increase; however that all depends on if we all have our jobs by next September. A harsh reality for most people at the moment; I am not going to go into a Political debate or a massive rant about the downsprial of the British system. I am just going to stop and smile and think of my life abroad!

 

Writing a Wicked Covering Letter…

Jemma Jones2 Comments

Hey everyone; I have found a few jobs that I want to apply for on the Jobs Board. However; they are all requiring a covering letter – I have done covering letters for my current job but I have never really written one for a TEFL position. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for me?

I have a lot of experience of working with people and I know that this is one of the many qualities that the schools that are in need of TEFL teachers want.

Do you think that I should have a generic covering letter and change the name of the “school/company” each time I send it or should I make each letter personal to the School/company?

I want to make it personal for each school/company but when that be truly productive when it comes to applying for TEFL jobs? I have also registered on other TEFL Job Boards that are scattered all over the internet.

IC Bilbao has been one of the places I have been very interested in going to in Spain. I ‘follow’ them on most of the Social Media platforms and I feel that I would fit with all the other members of staff. They have not requested a covering letter; just my CV – which before writing this post I sent my CV to them via their website.

 

On a bit of a hitatus?!

Jemma Jones

Hey everyone; sorry for the lack of the “themed” posts this week – I have been doing a lot of soul searching and researching about moving abroad. I have been leaving hints around my house to see what my family will say or do…I will post Idiom of the Week and Wordle Wednesday next week!

As of yet; nothing has been said! I have borrowed a book from the local library by Lonely Planet.

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As I have been thinking about the China Internship; it may only be about £700 (plus flights and visas) to go over to China and there is a deposit scheme to reserve a place. I just I do knowing paying that much money is a good thing to do.

I can work in Spain; a country I like very much. It is not too far to get back if anything happens. I REALLY need to send my CV off and add it to the i-to-i TEFL job board!

What do you all think?