TEFL Correspondence Tips

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Make sure your email exchanges are professional

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The following are some great tips for using email correspondence to your advantage in getting a job:

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• Once you’ve sent your cover letter and résumé, do not just sit back and wait for the job offers to come. Once the application has been sent, you need to follow it up with an email. Directors of Studies (language school principles) are busy people. They may think your résumé is impressive but end up putting it aside for a few days while they deal with other matters. During this time, your résumé might get lost or simply be forgotten, or an applicant who chose to follow up immediately with an email may get the job instead.

• Use a respectable-looking email address. While your friends and family might not mind getting messages from elevatorinspector@girlsaloud.com or loveu@wishfulthinking.net, it will hardly look professional on your résumé. So even if you don’t keep it for life, go to one of the free email companies (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc.) and get an email address which links to your name. For example, jdoe@gmail.com.

• Don’t try to get too chummy with potential employers. There will be plenty of time to get to know your boss more once you start your job, but throughout the application process you need to be as professional as possible.

• Avoid replying to important emails late at night. Wait to reply the next day when you’re fresh and well-rested. If you reply to emails when you are tired, you are bound to make careless mistakes, which can make you look less competent than you are.

• Also, don’t leave an email from a potential employer unanswered for too long. A day or two is fine, but if a week goes by without reply, an employer will mostly likely look elsewhere to hire a teacher and the job will be gone by the time you have gotten around to replying.

• Keep all your job-related email correspondence short, professional and polite.

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