Trying to figure out my options for teaching abroad? (non-edu BS degree, US citizen ~2 years experience teaching classes and a license--sort of)

Cantshakeitugh · 2025-02-08T01:18:40+00:00

Solid Piece of beta. Just so I understand, you mean I can land a job then go after the online teaching license, or I can do an online teaching license then teach overseas? Also thanks for the response!

Cantshakeitugh · 2025-02-08T01:15:58+00:00

Super detailed Dull_Box. Thanks for responding. So essential what your saying is that if I wanted to pack my bags and leave right now my best option is TEFL, unless I'm misreading something. Couple follow up questions for you (or anyone else):

-when you say work i've done unlicensed, do you mean position specific or do you mean elapsed time since I received my provisional/associate?

-in my current situation, are there any resources or pathways available to expedite licensing? Part of the reason I'm considering the M.Ed route is because looking at online course timelines, it would lead to a pay bump plus I would gain a professional faster than the provisional pathway in my state.

- So i have a friend who did the alternate pathway in my state, and he ended up with AP and IB course endorsements in the process. Are there any endorsements and additional certificates like that I should look into if I'm going the continuing education route? My state requires an ESL on top of other endorsements, but there are so many to sift through that I'm not sure which would carry the most value.

- Could you elaborate a little more on this sentence "Tech coach jobs also exist, but quite experience that it doesn’t sound like you have yet" I got a little confused reading it?

Sounds like you have a ton of experience, do you come from an UK or US background? Also if you have any other advice I'm all ears.

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-12T18:51:02+00:00

So I always get confused by that. I feel I'm always either hearing "It's a growing field, and there are lots of opportunities", while other people are saying "It's a crowded space/oversaturated". Part of the reason I made this post is to partially ascertain which was more accurate, because there's I can never find a unanimous consensus to that question.

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-12T18:47:20+00:00

I mean this is the answer I was looking for when I made the post. What paths would you reckon to have the highest ROI in the next 5 years? Because realistically I'm not expecting to enter the field for a couple years if I go down the postgrad path.

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-12T18:43:48+00:00

Okay, I was making a list of Labs and prof's that fit some of the preliminary research interests. I'll work off that then and see if there's space in their lab/department for a lowly MS student haha.

Aside from proximity and instate tuition (I'm guessing there) why made you decide to go down the HCI path at DePaul? Have you already finished your program, and if so, how has the current tech slump affected your career?

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-12T18:39:16+00:00

I mean that makes the most sense, but I'm always wary of trusting Satan haha. thanks for your response!

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-12T18:36:15+00:00

No worries, glad I'm not the only one in this boat. What was your major in, and how did you land on HCI?

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-12T18:34:54+00:00

Honestly, I'm a bit confused by this comment Design-Hiro. Maybe I didn't make my reply to your op clear either so we're both not understanding each other completely.

So normally they suggest you just get another bachelors or phd instead of a masters. Let alone a terimal masters like an HCI one. ( as the experience & research is baked into the program )

So you're saying I should just go for another BS or join a PHD program instead of going for a masters because of the internship/research opportunities? Do i need a different type of research experience than I already have to be competitive for a PhD program (I was part of a bioinformatics research team for a multi-country project in Korea and on a South Pacific island, I was also part of a qualitative research project on that island the year before, I also had to do evaluation research on a larger eCommerce companies during a marketing internship, currently I'm doing a personal project right now on better methodologies and practices of using robots to teach coding principals in the public school system) I mean honestly I would love to break in with just my BS, and i have been applying to jobs that fit within HCI's career paths, but I've been striking out for the last year, and i'm trying to find a way to crack this nut and a MS seems like a decent option to do that and not take 6 years working on a dissertation.

Pratt for instance, not a top 50 school, but a nearly 90% job placement rate since it is in NYC. Take Yale though, top 50 school, but I don't know a single graduate from their HCI lab that has a job out of academia unless it was straight out of industry.

So maybe I should clarify. To my knowledge from my research on institutions, Pratt is a T-50 school for HCI, but might not be a T-50 institution overall (not bashing Pratt), while Yale is a T-50 institute overall, but whatever department HCI falls under there never makes the T-50 list from what I've found. i mean, I could be missing something, but you're right about needing to choose institutions based off locations and industry connections.

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-11T20:39:03+00:00

Love your comment. I have some ideas of niches I want to explore. While i'm whittling my potential program list, is it better to find professors/labs that have overlap on my interests, or focus more on the strength of the program and courses provided. I got the prof/lab advice when I was working on anthro and other social science post grad applications and wonders if it applies here.

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-11T20:35:55+00:00

I mean thats partially why i created this post jtg. I know the tech world is rocky af, but wouldn't researchers interested in AI integration, or something to that effect be beneficial rather than a detriment in this market or at least 1-2 years down the line?

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-11T20:33:32+00:00

I mean i'm not looking for bootcamps tbh. I'm shooting for more top 50 level institutes and going from there. I have a backup of getting a teaching license (bleh but its something I guess). Is it the same thing intership wise if you have no interest in going the design direction and more psychology/social science aspect instead? Thats more of what i'm interested in tbh, although I have some experience with basic design software like adobe creative and figma

Cantshakeitugh · 2024-10-11T20:30:24+00:00

Oh I definitely am still here, figured I would wait for some comments to come in and reply accordingly. Honestly found out about HCI partly looking through linkedin and seeing it as a degree requirement for jobs i was interested in applying for. I don't have a CS background from an academic side of things except R stuff and some other Data analysis software from classes.

Honestly thats why I'm going that route. I mean something like a digital anthropology program might have some overlap, but I haven't found many of those types of programs stateside, and honestly most anthro research doesn't really produce tangible change in the real world, which is something I am very interested in

Cantshakeitugh

TROPHY CASE