Life as a teacher

Teaching English opens up a huge range of opportunities in life. Depending on your own personal goals and interests, you may find yourself following one of these common career paths:

Traveling Teacher

Also known as the TEFL nomad, the most common path for TEFL graduates is to travel around the world while teaching. Many teachers will spend a year or two in each country, indulging themselves in language and culture as they go.

This can be a great option to set yourself up with a new career path, to build up some savings, or just to see some of the world after completing university/college.

Expat Teacher

The teaching lifestyle can be hard to give up. Many teachers find a country which they truly feel comfortable in, and choose to call it home for good. This can be incredibly rewarding as you start to develop a deeper understanding of your new home, learn the local language, and adjust to life overseas.

As you gain experience, it’s also possible to find jobs at reputable schools or even universities that bring new challenges to your work as you get to focus on more academic teaching.

Homeland Teacher

It might surprise you to hear, but it’s also possible to find ESL jobs in many native English speaking countries. Foreign expats, overseas students, and even refugees can arrive in countries such as the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa with limited English skills. English language classes are a great way to help them better assimilate to the local environment, and improve their communication with the locals.

Online Tutor

Teaching English via the internet has become incredibly popular over the past 3-5 years. Thanks to increasingly widespread internet, it’s now possible to teach children and adults from around the world without needing to leave your home. Most online teaching positions just require you to be fluent in English, and have a computer with a webcam/microphone and stable internet connection.

Private Tutor

A great side job can be to teach English as a private tutor. Many teachers start private tutoring to earn some extra money, and eventually spin it into a full-time job of its own. Private tutoring can offer great flexibility, choosing your own hours (within reason) and earning a great rate of pay – in some regions you can earn up to $20-$30 per hour!

Non-teaching Career

Another great advantage of teaching overseas is that many foreign companies have a demand for people with strong English skills. This is especially important for companies that target native speaking customers, or those that want to give off an international image. It’s common to hear of people transitioning from teaching English to copy-writing, journalism, marketing, sales or other positions.

There truly are a lot of possibilities with teaching English. Whether you’re looking for an exciting experience, a long-term job, or a springboard to a new career, there are plenty of opportunities out there.