A First Look at Hiring Teachers
July 14th, 2008 by MarkRecently, I’ve found myself in a position to be hiring EFL teachers for the first time. While I did gain some management experience as the owner of a three crew house painting business back when I was trying to pay my way through college, this is mostly uncharted territory for me. With the house painting, training was brief, and I was only looking for short-term help throughout the summer months. Some degree of physical exertion was involved– carrying 30 gallon tubs of paint, climbing ladders, walking around on slanted rooftops and that sort of thing.
My current search for an EFL teacher, on the other hand, is nearly the opposite. I’m looking for a long-term hire, someone who will build up from part time into a full time position and stay at it for at least three years, there’s not much physical exertion involved at all, it’s far more intellectually demanding, and people skills are of primary importance.
The Applicants
I’ve started looking well in advance. We have some good teachers now, and they aren’t at a full schedule. It’s a good thing, too. This might be a lengthy search. I put up an ad both on this site and on a free Taiwan classifieds board, and the applications have been streaming in. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the people emailing me resumes have been woefully unqualified for the position. Of course, I’ll respect the privacy of all our applicants, but here are a few general examples:
People not even in the same country
It’s difficult for me to understand how someone living in Toronto who can’t speak Chinese at all, has no teaching experience and wants to “try Taiwan” could see himself as a good match for the following:
“Need a dedicated, professional Chinese-speaking N. American teacher. Long-term position.”
People unwilling to meet stated requirements
I can understand how someone who is a little weak in one area, but motivated would take a shot and hope for the best. An applicant with weaker Chinese skills could study intensively prior to opening classes and make it. Someone who only has 6 months of prior teaching experience rather than a year, might be able to make up for that inexperience through hard work. But if an ad says extensive training is involved and the applicants have to be willing to work Monday through Saturday, it’s a bit unreasonable to apply just for one class time slot and be unwilling to train first!
Short-term mercenaries
To an extent, I can understand why a prospective employee would want to get as much money as possible for as little work as possible from the very beginning. In general, everyone wants the best deal they can get. I suspect that the reason so many people looking for this job are looking for the best short-term deals they can get are due to the low-trust nature of the job market for teaching English in Asia. Local message boards are full of horror stories about bosses who promise the stars and renege once they’ve got leverage over their teachers. I’m sure that many of the stories are true, but it’s so bad that many foreigners I know living in Taiwan discount job bonuses completely when they evaluate potential schools. If people think the raise and bonus system is some sort of scam, they won’t be willing to put in the work necessary to get started. Maybe in a year or two, when I have a teacher making well in excess of 100k/month and telling his friends, then recruitment will be easier. For now, sadly, there isn’t much I can do to make applicants trust me.
The Interviews
So far, everyone who has actually come in for an interview has been a pretty good candidate. Obviously, no one has all the necessary skills before training begins, but I’m happy with the people I’ve seen so far. More than anything, they seem to have a genuine interest in education.
The difficult part will be finding someone looking for a long-term position. Most EFL teachers are understandably cautious about taking a multi-year position.
:
July 14th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
“multi-year position” means signing a contract for several years with some responsibility like paying some fine if employee wants to quit?
Well, I would be suspicious of such contracts. Employees don’t leave good companies. If company asks for your several years “commitment” then something might be wrong. And for sure if company dislikes the employee for whatever reason they’ll get rid of him in no time. So such contracts are one side commitment.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:21 am
The contract hasn’t even come up. FYI, it’s binding in both directions, as all those at my previous teaching jobs have been. I don’t know where you worked before, but it sounds bad.
The real reason it’s got to be a multi-year commitment is that one year wouldn’t be worth it for the teacher or the school. New teachers need months of training, and they can only build up their class schedule one at a time unless an old teacher leaves. During training, the school is spending money on the teacher while bringing in no tuition money. Since training pay is less than teaching pay, it’s an investment from the teacher’s perspective as well. Finally, the amount of time it takes a teacher to grade books and prepare for classes drops considerably during the first year or two of work.
Basically, the longer a teacher stays, the more income he or she can generate for a given amount of effort.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:01 am
If you still have this school in 10-15 years, you may get a resume from me!
July 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Hire based on intelligence and personality. You need to click with the interviewee. Qualifications and experience, while good, mean little in comparison.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Mark,
As you have noticed, most of the people looking at online job boards will not come close to what you are looking for. From the qualifications listed you may be better off going after a “local referral”. Have you tried the more targeted method of posting flyers near your school in places frequented by foreigners?
It takes more effort (or not, just take flyers with you and when you stop for a beer, paste one on the wall or light post), but the target market is closer to what you are looking for:
1- Teaching experience (probably already has a PT position),
2- Already in the area since the candidate will not travel very far for a PT position, and
3- Can speak at least a little Mandarin.
Also, it will help you build a database of locals to contact later when you need more teachers (next time you will not have to sift through hundreds and hundreds of resumes from unqualified candidates).
S
July 16th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Thanks for the idea, Steve. I may do that.
Back when I was working for First Step, I went to Shida and posted some ads on their bulletin board. That actually got us a decent response. Most of the students at Shida’s language center are Japanese, but the English speakers there were mostly working at places they didn’t like for low wages (650/hour or so), and under a restriction of not being allowed to speak any Chinese, even to the secretaries. For some of them, we were a good option. In the end, though, my boss recruited away one of Modawei’s teachers.