¿Cuántos cuentos cuento…?

Well, I heard back from Alison, my Oxford Seminars job placement person. Apparently, my résumé and cover letter are not in the proper format. She attached an example of another résumé and cover letter. Personally, I think my résume is much more professional looking and my cover letter is SO much more impressive than her example.

I was very underwhelmed by the sample résumé. The girl in question hadn’t accomplished anything with her life. The sample résumé also provided some overly personal information, like year of birth, marital status, and health.

Similarly, I was underwhelmed by the cover letter. For example, here is a couple of paragraphs from it:

I believe an effective teacher must provide and maintain a positive and supportive learning environment to facilitate second language learning and individual student growth. As a teacher, I will aim to create a supportive yet dynamic environment that addresses the learning styles of all students and encourages them to participate. I am committed to helping students reach their full potential!

Teaching is a career change for me from my background in accounting. Although I do not have any formal ESL teaching experience, my diverse educational and employment background has prepared me with the skills and flexibility to teach English overseas. I adapt easily and am open to new challenges and opportunities. I pride myself on my optimistic outlook, self-motivation and attention to detail. These characteristics will enable me to succeed in teaching ESL within your school.

And here’s a couple of paragraphs from mine:

In addition to the initial certification course, I wanted to further hone my skills to become the best teacher possible, so I specialized in teaching English grammar and teaching English to children. In the English grammar specialization, I perfected the grammar skills and rules that we native speakers take for granted. Furthermore, I learned common grammatical errors for EFL students and strategies to communicate proper techniques in an integrated and enjoyable manner. In the teaching English to children specialization, I gained a theoretical and practical overview of how to teach EFL to children and examined the work of child development theorists Jean Piaget and Abraham Maslow and language acquisition theorist Stephen Krashen. I also investigated ways of incorporating a children’s EFL textbook, ideas, and methodologies within a school curriculum and have a better understanding of how to teach phonics.

In addition to my TESOL/TEFL certification, I have experience teaching and working with children and adults. At Illinois Wesleyan University, I was a teaching assistant in the Human Biology: Anatomy and Physiology class. I provided information regarding course content related to lab work, instructed students in appropriate lab techniques, tutored students as requested on a weekly basis, and graded 70+ bi-weekly lecture exams. Furthermore, I have ten years of experience working with children aged five and under at my church’s nursery. I engage the children using stories, activities, and biblical lessons and provide medical and nutritional care as instructed by the parents. I have also worked as a direct service professional in a residence for developmentally disabled children and adults. I aided the residents with the activities and goals in their Individual Program Plans, and assisted with the adult residents’ Developmental Training program, in additional to being one of their primary caretakers.

Maybe I’m just more attached to my cover letter because I wrote it, but I think mine actually tells you why I’d be good for the job, whereas her example just shows a lot of fluff. Like, “I’m open to new challenges,” “I will help students reach their full potential.” If I were trying to hire someone and read that, I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s nice, but what have you actually done?”

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Tags: TESOL, WTF is this?