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The ESL / EFL Job Interview
- By Mike Dunphy -

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If you were ever fortunate enough to travel to the coast of Slovenia in the summer time, and if you happened to be in the port town of Koper one afternoon in August of 2003, you might have found yourself enjoying a pizza at a seaside joint called “La Trattoria.” In addition to enjoying your meal, you may have also enjoyed watching the eclectic crowds that naturally fill the seaside resorts in the summertime. If you had looked carefully across the bar that afternoon, you would have seen yours truly conversing genially with a nervous looking woman. You would also have seen the nervous looking woman making little ticks in a pocket notebook while the young man was speaking. And if you could have discerned the content of our conversation through the clamor of the bar, you would have discovered the kind of interrogation commonly known as the job interview.

The interview was for a teaching position in a language school called NISTA situated on the coast of Slovenia. It was noteworthy for many reasons:

To begin with, it was a perfect example of how to pass a standard interview for an ESL job. The questions were typical and fluffy and were easily answered. In addition, I had appeared sufficiently charming, engaging and responsible for the nervous looking woman to hire me. It must have been the tie.

Secondly, it reinforced the three qualifications needed to teach in much of Eastern Europe:

1: I was there.

2: I was breathing.

3: I was a native speaker.

Lastly, in the woman’s trembling hands one can see the nervousness and uncertainty that manifest when an ESL employer must hire a new teacher.

For the ESL teacher and School Director, the hirings and firings probably represent the furthermost extent of work-related stress in the business of ESL. From the stand point of the interviewee, if you play your cards right, a hiring can open a door to La Dolce Vita, a sweet life at a status far above what you could get at home. Sure you might have to live in a neon green hotel in Prague, or be served fish heads for breakfast in Tartu, or have to bribe your way through Russia, but experienced teachers know that the most learning can be done in the worst of circumstances.

For the Employer, a hiring represents any number of things depending on the situation. It could be a move to increase school prestige or simply outright desperation. Underlying both of these, however, is the hope of not having to fire the same person.

The question now is how does one choose the right employee for the job?

I doubt you would get the same answer from any two people you asked, but at this particular moment, you’ve asked me, so here’s my answer.

The standard process consists of three basic movements.

The Resume (CV) Collecting

In my years teaching, I’ve noticed that resumes are often the last place an employer looks. Whenever my current boss needs a new teacher, she simply asks all of us if we know somebody, proving the old adage that is isn’t what you know, but who you know. She only goes to the resumes when there is no one available. More recently I’ve been directly involved in the hiring process itself and I can tell you firstly that no ESL school is going to take more than one look at a resume full of grammar and spelling mistakes or looks as if it doubled as a coaster or dishtowel. It’s got to look good.

  

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