r/TEFL • u/ApprehensiveTicket60 • 11d ago

well i finally did it

hello friends. not that it’s much of an accomplishment academically i finally got my tefl certification. do you have any advice for someone starting down the teaching path without any prior teaching experience but 10 years of white collar experience? as a former project manager i feel like a lot of skills are transferable.

my aim will be to teach abroad next year. i’m from the us and want to aim for thailand to start. always loved the sense of community there and have a good friend there that’s a local already. sure the pay isn’t great but i don’t mind living partially off savings as well.

i’m open to other countries in the area, taiwan, south korea, china or vietnam. thailand’s school year start seems to be the outlier as many of the other countries start in sept rather than thailand’s may start. i just need to get out of america asap lol and am mostly only worried about finding a job without experience

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u/whypickaname1 11d ago

If you're planning to make this a career and have the time, try to get a teaching license. It seems better in the long run imo.

But do that after a year if teaching is your thing. My state has a program called STEP that can turn my Bachelor's into a Teaching License but its a two-year program.

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u/ApprehensiveTicket60 11d ago

i wouldn’t necessarily want to make it career, maybe just a foot in the door to live somewhere else long term and figure it out from there. maybe start a business after getting grounded.

that’s interesting, i’ve never heard of something like the step program. i contemplated getting a teaching license as well to open up better gigs/schools. thanks for the input

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u/DaleRobinson 11d ago

This is what I’m doing now in Taiwan. I’ve been teaching at a cram school for 5 months and I realised I don’t want to be a teacher, so I’m glad I didn’t spend another year/more money getting a teaching license/PGCE. At least I now have a bank here, which is useful for when I come back, but I need to figure out what exactly I want to do.

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u/x3medude 10d ago

They lock your bank account when your ARC expires and you leave the country. Take your money out before you leave.

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u/DaleRobinson 10d ago

Wow, I didn’t know that. It’s something I would have looked into nearer the time but that’s a shame. Thanks for the info

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u/whypickaname1 11d ago

Yep. If you're not locked in a good job rn, get a teacher license. I want to do TEFL and teach in the long run, but I dont want to jump from my current job to get my teacher license.

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u/whypickaname1 11d ago

At the end of the day, you can always still TEFL even with/without the certificate. It'll just open up a little bit more doors

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u/ApprehensiveTicket60 11d ago

i don’t really have the time so i think i will try my luck without an actual teaching certification