Employment & Professional Development

Hi Dr. Mavrides,

Firstly, I’d like to personally thank you and your colleague, Ken Hayes, for your tremendous efforts in diligently writing a comprehensive guide such as Middle Kingdom Life for prospective foreign English teachers like myself. I recently finished reading the entire guide, and I found it to be very insightful and enlightening. While the guide provided a wealth of information, it also engendered some questions, especially with regard to my own objectives for potentially going abroad to teach.

To give you a bit of background information about myself, I recently graduated in June with my master's in business, with an emphasis in marketing. My bachelor's degree is in sociology. I don’t have any formal teaching experience, nor have I had any experience as a teaching assistant. However, the vast majority of my friends from graduate school were international students (mostly from Taiwan): thus, I have some limited experience helping others with pronunciation, as well as editing papers for proper grammar, punctuation and syntax. I don’t have any intentions of teaching as a career--my main objective is using it as a platform for gaining international work experience, immersing myself in a new culture, and satisfying my insatiable passion for travel.

Given my background information, I’d like to get your opinion about the viability of using teaching experience abroad (especially in China or Taiwan) as a resume enhancer, especially with the absence of plans to actually teach as a career. I recall you mentioning in one chapter of your guide, that international teaching experience on a resume is somewhat of a “black hole” (correct me if I’m wrong). However, it would seem that any experience working abroad, especially in something as challenging as teaching, could be leveraged later on in one’s career if they have plans to go abroad as an expatriate on a work assignment in their respective field of interest. This is certainly the case with me. Despite not having any long-term plans to go into teaching, I would like to eventually go abroad as an expat in my area of interest, thus, I’m hoping that doing something such as teaching abroad could help enhance my resume by giving it somewhat of an international dimension. What are your thoughts on this?

My other question involves Taiwan, because this is where I’m strongly considering going if I decide to teach abroad. With your best estimation, how much of your guide could be applied to Taiwan? Are there certain chapters you’d consider to be especially applicable? If not, can you recommend any good comprehensive guides or sources that are as thorough as yours, for teaching in Taiwan?

Once again, thanks for your efforts in writing this comprehensive guide. I found it to be most helpful!

Sincerely,

Brian

Quite frankly, your best bet is to actively seek employment in your field with a Western company that has a strong presence in Asia, especially Taiwan, as this is where you would like to be. Make it clear from the onset that you would welcome the opportunity to work abroad when the time is right. That alone should make you more competitive, as most Westerners would not be interested in such an assignment. Whatever competitive edge you might gain from actually having lived in China will be negated by the fact that you did so as an oral English teacher because that position isn't applicable to the kind of work you would be seeking after you return.

As we suggest in the chapter on Outside Work and Other Careers that you alluded to above, one option you have is to seek work as an intern in Asia with a Western company, consulate, or chamber of commerce. These positions are low-paying, but that would be one way to acquire experience in China without derailing your long-term career goals. Teaching English in China really will create a “black hole” on your résumé.

The Guide is very applicable to living and working in Taiwan except, as noted, salaries will be generally higher as too will the cost of living. Aside from those two exceptions, everything else should be entirely relevant.

Thanks for the positive feedback and best of luck to you.