![]() When I was living in China for a year trying to secure a teaching position, the more open recruiters or administrators told me racism is NOT illegal in China. I’ve stopped sending out my resume to the many companies that demand private information (passport…) before even divulging their company name. I keep seeing, on Dave’s and elsewhere, the same ads I’ve applied to but never heard back from. I’ve shelled out a pretty penny for professionals to help me rebrand myself, including hiring LinkedIn specialist photographers, TEFL resume experts… All to no avail. Once the session terminates, I never hear back from the team. These videoconferences never last more than ten minutes during which speakers perfunctorily press me with generic questions. I’m not exaggerating you have to see their facial expression–the snarled lips, the bulging eyes–to get it. Without fail, the people on the other end exhibit open shock and even revulsion. I wish I were brave enough to begin recording what happens when the videoconference begins. I dress professionally and check my home office (lighting, camera positioning, appropriate background…). I do my research on the company, the school, the local culture. They set up a videoconference with academic and administrative staff on their end. The laughing, sunny party on the other end of the voice communication details how much I’d enjoy working in their environment. When I send my CV without any photo, invariably I’m eagerly contacted within a day. Whenever a job ad asks for a “recent scanned photo” upfront, I NEVER (not a single time) hear back from them. Getting older (40s) and eager to work outside the US, I thought I’d try getting my foot in the door anywhere–Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, Thailand… They take one look at my mandatory photos and reject me. ![]() I first thought I’d be a good candidate for a university teaching position in Asia. I’ve volunteered widely and published in the US and internationally. I’ve lived abroad (China, Japan, Southeast Asia, North Africa, India, throughout Europe and South America). I have a MA TESOL from a reputable school, a PhD (in another discipline), and decades of very positive reviews from universities and state programs in the US. I’ve been teaching ESL/EFL for over 20 years. Even if it hadn’t been, the lockdown charade won’t go away, so there’s no telling how many teachers would stranded in various countries. I was about to have a virtual interview with TATI Oman and was just informed that as Oman went into lockdown today, for a mysterious two weeks, the interview is cancelled. I could say “don’t upload your passport”, but when they all require you to upload your passport, what then? You either do it or find another line of work.Īnyway, let’s face it, this fake pandemic has probably destroyed ESL as a “career”, with the rolling lockdowns, barriers to entry and so on. For the most part that’s going to be prejudice against men, especially men over thirty, but you never know what they’re really after. The comments here about agencies being invasive and discriminatory are absolutely correct: it is solidly a buyer’s market now, they will bring to bear the minutest prejudice against an applicant and move on to the next. Probably in many cases it isn’t the employer, but just an employee, who was told by management to run an ad to hedge against quitting and lay-offs, so there’s no real need on their part. At that point is isn’t even competition, it’s pure saturation from the employer’s standpoint. The biggest problem with Dave’s job ads is that hundreds of people look at and apply to those jobs.
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