Fulbrighter Transitioning to a Language Institue

Hi All:

I recently finished on year as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant at a Gymnasium in Hannover. I have been back in the USA for a few months now, and I will be finishing up my TEFL Certification in mid November. I will be flying back to Germany to interview and look for jobs at language institutes for 3 weeks in Wiesbaden, Mainz and Frankfurt. As a young native speaker with 1 year teaching experience, a German College degree and TEFL Certification, what sort of advice would you have for me? Mainly in the realm of places to avoid and places to absolutely interview. Does anyone have some tips for me concerning this process?

On another note, does anyone have suggestions as to other jobs/industries to look into? I am open to suggestions (I have Political Science and Business minors in addition to my German major).

Any advice would be gladly appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Scott

Bum around teaching for a year, and think about what you want to do for a career. In teaching etc you will meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and that should help you decide where you want to go. Once you've had your year of hedonism go off and do something constructive.

Try to go to the schools in person (and do it in German as well as English, the dual language thing tends to help). A key barrier you will probably have to overcome is you lack of automatic right to work in Germany. You will be in a queue behind the Germans and EU citizens who can do that - no need for employers to bother with work permits if they don't have to. A lot of the schools make it clear they prefer people who don't need paperwork (and some won't bother if you do).

The field here is often the more experienced, integrated people, often with business experience on top. That's your competition. While it's not really a "starting out" place for TEFL youngster, I know one or two fantastic young non-EU teachers, although they tend to be earning money on top of studying here. Although some may appear "American", they have a nice German passport to smooth their path!

More generally, the Rhein Main area is financial, industrial, technology, pharma and science, as well as a selection of other businesses (food, beauty products etc).