LIMA
When my circumstances changed (Ortega y Gasset was right), I wrote to my great friend Eddie asking whether, in his experience of more than twenty years in schools international thought it was possible that some school, somewhere in the world, hire me. Eddie, who is Argentine, he knows that Latin Americans (except them, the locals) are, at heart, timid and provincial, so he started for me that was enough to tempt studies and work experience, "you have to sell with confidence," and gave me the mail Sally, "remember?, she was the minister that I replaced it in school, type it and Contal of your new circumstances, send it your CV, I guess you have one, does not it. " And, of course, was an endless, very Latin, with excess data, dates and contacts. "Nobody is going to read that will, you have to make a simple, easy to read fast, I send you mine, use it as a basis", and so began the dance.
I wrote to Sally, of course I remembered it and, fortunately, she he remembered me, remembered well the productions I did with the English Theater Club and was delighted when he learned that Adrian (the first actor that I had and with whom she had been the minister) was today, ten years later, the new Club director. He encouraged me to enroll in the company and so I did.
Excited, but with more doubts than certainties, I enrolled in the enterprise where Sally works, something like "looking for partners, a partnership that was founded several years ago by John Magagna, who after many years working on the circuit decided to create this international institution dedicated to connecting hundreds of schools International around the world with thousands of teachers who encourage the nomadic life of the expatriate.
I entered the page and start the process gave so little by little, I was reinserted into the hallucinatory world of international schools, a fascinating world full of opportunities and sometimes alone. Although I had worked at one in Lima (the FDR, that in this world everything is an acronym, like ASAP, FYI, TGIF or delicious BTL, and many schools are recognized and identified by them), there was been "local" (Peruvian hired in Peru) and watched the "foreigners", and eternal lives of travelers, as something so strange to me ever I thought I would find some day in that situation. When I saw them remembered an old poem Chocano ("Ten years ago / I walk the world. / I have lived some! / I'm tired a lot!") And even in my dreams I was more blown away across the boundaries of within the old walls which protected the colonial conquerors "City of the Kings of Lima" by the pirates, rebels and rebels.
The truth is that I was filling out a form that would be a step towards emancipation, independence and the wandering life. In front of the computer screen, if you have some knowledge of management of these devices, the issue is simple but laborious, have to be a little obsessive to get things fast and walk happily on it, I have no major problems.
First you must complete the electronic form (which seems endless) where, more or less data, transcribe, box by box, all your work and academic life. Once the registration you are assigned an account and password and the gear starts to set in motion a vast and invisible machinery. Then you have to send two e to old heads and some parents of your former students and ask them to enter a website where they were asked to evaluate the teacher. Of course, how alarming the case (for the person requesting the favor) is that it is for a blind evaluation, ie, the system says "this email is to inform you that John Doe has just completed its assessment" but you have no idea what John said (of course, this is the time it should have been at least moderately effective, responsible and decent). Who knows
obtaining assessments is the process more stressful for two reasons: first, you have no idea who will respond to your request and the second, you never know what they will say that you evaluate (a Throw in that I, so my change of circumstances, I started the process late in January, when February is "the month" and many people come to develop the process from three or four months).
I must confess that I was lucky. The Association asks for three references from former employers and two parents of alumni, then, who knows the famous 30% positive response with the calls and invitations, sent fifteen emails asking the same number of people who made me the favor of entering Internet, complete the form, print it and send it signed, by fax or by airmail to the offices of the Association in Pennsylvania. To my surprise and delight, six people did so within twenty-four hours, a few days they had all responded! (As Sally wrote me an email and I said risked "overwhelming" to recruiters with my recommendations). As already stated, I do not know and always ignore what they told me that I tested, just know that I always appreciate your willingness and interest (and, apparently, for what came later, were more than generous with me.)
Once this part of the process, verified the identities, cross the information, having the certainty that I was me and my reviewers valid, I was given the green light, I made a payment of fees (at least for the possibilities that it opens ) and got access to a huge database where I could lie down to get (the program is simple and friendly) international schools those seeking a English teacher. In addition, I received an invitation from Sally to participate in one of the largest fairs taking place in Cambridge (Boston, USA).
The process then took two directions, one, the pilot of the trip (tickets, reservations, contact with former students of mine who are living in Boston, warm clothes, passport) and another, the very fact relating to job search. About forty schools, spread across five continents, need English teachers, but the issue is a bit complicated. Many of them asked teachers could teach English and French simultaneously or German or teachers who agree to work part time or simply chose not to attend the fair in Cambridge because they had planned to attend the other of the more than a dozen of the company organized around the globe. Discarded all the impossible (because neither Nietzsche's Baudelaire or I can read in their native languages, nor can survive alone abroad with a job "for hours" and had no time or budget to go to London, Istanbul and Sydney) I sent about two dozen emails saying who he was, what was my experience and asking for an interview in Boston. Few respondents ("do not be alarmed," said Sally, "at this time recruiters are traveling and doing contracts and very few have time to answer emails, this is only exploratory, the important thing happening in Cambridge "), is more in the daily bulletin of the Association who every morning came to my mail box I could see, with no little dismay, how some quotas were being closed and how, whether by fair preceding the Boston or because they were direct contacts between teachers and recruiters, many colleges were withdrawing their positions ("not to worry," insisted Sally with the patience of saint , answering all emails that I sent her neurosis, "necessarily the case, there are vacancies to be closed and others open up, be confident and do not be alarmed ...").
I was alarmed, waited. I waited and waited, waited like in the movies, and weeks were ferociously slow and the days were endless hatefully. Time passed, it inevitably happens, and only five or six schools responded by confirming its intention to see me or telling me I was not "within the profile" of the institution (and Sally there, "do not get discouraged, it is normal" and Eddie there, "you thought of the show, vendetta well, and you will see that you are going to attract more than one").
When I boarded the plane, carrying twenty copies of my resume with my new suit twenty Ironing and warm enough to survive a winter in Siberia, I had no idea what would happen in the coming days. Visit
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