Power Resumes

Many TEFL providers advertise job placement services. How does Vantage help in TEFL graduates get teaching jobs?

Our biggest contribution is in the area of resume preparation and interview coaching. Many of our younger TEFL trainees are really just starting out in the employment world.  So they really don’t have any idea on how to market themselves.

You typically have just a few seconds where your resume is scanned by the hiring authority. We started out by crafting what we call a “Power Resume.”    Power resumes that work are effective because, as marketing brochures, they spark an interest in a particular product—you.

Think of all this in terms of a joust—where your resume is a battleground for a ritual skirmish. If you stay on your horse through the first scan, you get to the second round—an attentive reading. Survive all this, and you get to go to the castle and meet the princess.

And that’s the object of the Power Resume—to get an interview. Not to get a job. That’s a big distinction.

For our older TEFL trainees, they tend to come from other industries and they’re worried that they don’t have any teaching experience to get a good job. The experience section in our Power Resume talks skills—and the specific results those skills have brought.

It’s been particularly rewarding to teach how skills—which are transferable between industries—are a powerful component in a successful resume. They speak to how you will perform in a new future position. 

We had a physiotherapist doing her TEFL training at Vantage.  We highlighted her experience of running the physical training programs for the men’s basketball team—highlighting her result of having the first injury-free season—to get her a job offer as both a language teacher and PE instructor.

The typical resume is just a laundry list of what-someone-did. That’s not only boring, it doesn’t help the hiring authority reduce their purchasing decision process in hiring you. 

So what happened because of what you did? If you don’t have any successful results, you don’t have a Power Resume. People that have success somewhere tend to repeat it elsewhere.

We also had a lot of success placing non-native speakers into teaching positions that advertised for native speakers only. 

Non-native speakers have advantages over native English speakers.  We use video testimonials—typically linked in the cover letter email—so the hiring authority can 1.) hear how proficient they are as they 2.) talk about their teaching advantages.

This candidate was a non-native speaker applying for a job advertising “native speakers only.” It was particularly gratifying to learn she was invited in to interview based on the strength of her application materials.

Can you give us an example of transferring industry skills?

Sure.  Let me tell you about the ‘magic story.’

One of our TEFL grads ran the Magic Department—essentially the concierge service—of Hilton’s luxury service apartments in Colombo. Before he came, they had a problem. The Hilton was getting negative customer experience surveys, resulting in a decline in repeat sales.  Ouch!

Previously the hotel spent a considerable sum training staff in an offsite, fully equipped, training center. However, these actions were ineffective.

Our graduate changed this by taking his customer service team directly into the apartments and focusing training right there. He quizzed them on where everything was located as well as the full parameters of each unit, so they could quickly figure out the rest.

The bottom line was they could immediately answer almost all customer queries and provide the level of service that the Hilton advertises. The surveys quickly turned positive and Hilton’s GM cited him as going “over and beyond” in exemplary service.

What makes your company special and unique?

Vantage is involved in many aspects of the English Language Teaching (ELT) industry in Thailand besides its TEFL program. We stand out in our role as a Cambridge English Exam Centre. We deliver world-class tests to Thai schools, universities and Thailand’s blue-chip corporations. 

We teach our TEFL trainees student assessment to a deeper level. They will know how to measure a student’s language level and what computer-adaptive testing can bring to the table and in the preparation of the teaching materials. 

We believe that assessment is a key skill that every teacher should know. Governments worldwide are increasingly using tools like the CEFR—the industry standard for measuring language proficiency—as a key resource for educational policy.

I was particularly proud when Vantage secured one of the first global sales of Cambridge’s new Linguaskill test.  We are providing this proficiency level exam for a major 2016-17 research project related to English teaching in all Thailand's secondary schools.