Teaching Abroad for Long Periods of Time

An overview of things you should be thinking about while overseas

Think networking, at home and overseas, and think about continuing or improving your credentials. Think about all the things you would do if you were still back home.

Networking

Networking is even more important overseas. You can, at times, line up good jobs via friends, often with only cursory interviews. Contacts and networking work for you even better overseas than back home.

Keep in touch with people you work with. They will move on to other, often better jobs, and so will you. You never know when your paths may meet again. Or, when you might be able to help each other.

Back Home

Don’t forget to keep in touch with your contacts and friends back home. You never know when you might want to head back. Invite them to visit you, be a great host, give them the vacation of a life time!

It could well pay dividends if you were to need a job back home on short notice. But, also, just do it for fun, not just to create an obligation.

Visit your Friends, Bosses and Coworkers

When you go back home, make sure you visit your old coworker, bosses, and friends. Nothing is worse than coming back home “cold” – having lost all your old contacts.

The work/job hunt environment back home, to me, is much more difficult than it is overseas. Much more impersonal, much more dehumanizing. Do your best to keep it personal, with a good list of personal contacts.

Improve your Credentials

Take another training course, get another degree. Some jobs overseas are only four days a week and you may get long vacations if you are lucky. Use that time to improve your credentials – so you can continue to move up the ladder and improve your wages, benefits, and free time.

Double Check Validity

Any course you take via distance learning, online, or even partial residence, may or not be considered valid where you want to go/teach next. Double check. Ask on the boards, ask potential employers what they accept and don’t accept.

Some countries and employers are very strict and some accept almost anything. Some countries will have liberal acceptance policies that hiring authorities don’t always follow and aren’t legally required to follow. Double check the reality on the ground.

TED’s Tips™ #1: Just because you are abroad doesn’t mean you don’t need to network, improve your credentials and maintain contact with old friends and employers. It is even more important.

TED’s Tips™ #2: Networking abroad is critical if you are to stay overseas a long time. Networking will especially help smooth out any rough spots caused by bad economies, bum employers or miscalculations on your part. And it is always good karma to help a friend in need find a new job. I’ve done it a few times and I know those friends, especially, would help me out if I needed it.

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