Language graduate looking for work!

[neddrick98]

Hi all,

I'm moving to NZ at the end of November and am looking for work anywhere, on either of the two main islands.

I have a BA in Spanish and Arabic with Portuguese from Exeter university(UK) and graduated with a first class honours degree.
Ideally, I want to use my languages in my career, but I understand that there's not a lot of demand for my languages in NZ! Therefore, i'm also interested in travel/tourism, immigration, NGOs and refugees, as well as teaching English as a foreign language.

Please contact me for more details about my work experience and academic achievements or if you have some words of advice!!

Thanks!!

[JandM]

What is your visa situation?

[neddrick98]

Hi, JandM,

Fair point - should've mentioned that! I have a Working Holiday Visa valid for a year, but am looking to make a more permanent move.

[girlwithanewf]

Languages by themselves as I am sure you realise are not that helpful. After all there are millions of people who speak the same language but as their mother tongue. You really need to have a skill that goes with them, either teaching qualifications, translations, etc etc. Jobs in those fields can be found but are a) often not well paid (talking about language teaching here), often by the hour with no confirmed hours for a longer period of time. b) you could get work with a WHV in those fields but highly unlikely you would get residence based on that. To teach in a language school you would more than likely need a teaching qualification in that field. And to be honest they often like to have native speakers.
What I would suggest - and it is probably too late - is to do an English language teaching course such as CELTA if you are interested in EFL teaching. You can do them in NZ, for example in Wellington at the Campbell Institute.
Get as many qualifications as you can to complement your degree and show you have some skills! A good idea would be CELTA and if you are interested, a translation qualification.
Have a look at seek.co.nz for jobs.

Have you thought about the UK diplomatic service with those qualifications? Civil service?
All the best!

[neddrick98]

Hi, girlwithanewf,

Yeah, unfortunately there a lots of bilingual people out there! In terms of extra qualifications, I don't have anything relating to interpreting or translation, as they're always much harder to get. But I do have experience teaching English abroad (6 months in Mexico in a university, and then 2 months paid over one Summer), as well as online teaching (I currently teach around 10-15 hours a week online through a company called Education First) and have an online Master TEFL course.

I wouldn't really consider teaching a foreign language in a school, since, as you rightly pointed out, I don't have any kind of PGCE teaching qualification and am not a native speaker, but I would be interested in teaching English as a foreign language over there.
I do intend to continue my online teaching when I first arrive, just to have a bit of income while we find our feet.

I can't afford to do a proper teaching qualification (either here or there), I really just need to get straight into working - though I do plan on doing further qualifications in the future when we have more money.

And yes, i've considered places like GCHQ and the FCO but that would be in the distant future. The reason I can't do them now is because my boyfriend is foreign and doesn't have any means of coming to the UK visa-wise (we have spoken to lawyers and its nigh-on-impossible!). This is why we're moving to NZ: it's the best chance that either of us could have of living together. So, in the future, if we decide to come back to the UK, then the FCO is probably the first place i'll look! But for now, I can't, and any NZ equivalent usually requires citizenship.

[JandM]

an online Master TEFL course

Is this an actual Master's degree from a recognized university/college/similar? And does it qualify you to teach online, or did it consist of study ABOUT how people learn online?

[neddrick98]

No, it's not a Master's degree or any kind of university qualification. It's a TEFL course that you can do online - they have different titles depending on the hours you put into it, and since mine was the longest, it was a 'Master TEFL Certificate'. It was a course that taught how to teach in person (not teach online) and how to teach different age groups with different needs etc. It definitely helped me get this online teaching job, but i'm not sure how much people would value it for a face-to-face teaching role...?