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Demonstrating Competencies
These days it is no longer enough to claim you have the skills and experience necessary to do a
job; you need to provide evidence as proof. Once you have identified the competencies
(knowledge, skills and behaviour) required for a specific job it is essential that you provide
examples of how you acted in real situations in the past which demonstrate these competencies.
It is important to tailor your CV and cover letter to highlight the competencies essential for the
specific position applied for. Similarly, before interviews, you should prepare short
memorable stories which demonstrate how you employed these competencies in action.
In all of these stories, you should say what actions you took, what skills you used and
what results you achieved. Make sure these three elements are very clear so that the
interviewer will be impress by your actions.
Exercise Stages
Practice
Writing, editing and practicing your stories will make them concise and powerful and
help you feel confident telling them.
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Researching yourself is the key to finding, and getting, the job that is right for you. Draw a
mind map of your strengths and weaknesses, your character traits, what you enjoy doing
as well the things you dont, etc. The process of analysing yourself will help you identify
the skills, experience and knowledge you have that employers are looking for. More
importantly, understanding yourself better will help you make employment decisions more
likely to lead to a successful, satisfying career. Writing a personal professional
development plan will help you to identify the specific tasks and goals you need to
complete to achieve progress in your career. Aim to identify both short-term and long-term
goals with time scales included. This will focus your planning and enable you to monitor
and assess your professional progress, as well as enhancing your personal motivation.
2. Get involved
English teaching can be a very solitary, independent, profession. Once you are in the
classroom it is just you and your students. It is often possible to plan lessons at home;
sweep into school, deliver classes, and sweep back out again. Indeed, the autonomy the
teaching profession affords is without doubt one of its greatest attractions. However, in my
experience, positive student feedback alone is unlikely to lead to real career satisfaction
or further career opportunities. No matter how experienced or naturally gifted the teacher,
fresh ideas have to come from somewhere. Ask to observe while others teach, and invite
feedback from others observing you. Investigate and take advantage of any training
opportunities. Volunteer to give in-service teacher training sessions and support those
delivered by your peers. Spend more time in the teachers room and get to know your
colleagues. By getting involved, you are demonstrating essential team working skills and a
desire to continue your professional development. Remember, your teaching skills,
however amazing, are likely to go relatively unnoticed unless you get more involved, and
share your experience.
3. Diversify
Teaching twenty plus hours a week of general English is hard work and highly admirable.
However, it is unlikely to help you stand out from the crowd, or to enable you to
demonstrate a wide range of skills and abilities. I strongly encourage English teachers to
take on as many varied classes as possible. You may only spend a week or two delivering
a legal English course, or preparing a group for a business English exam, but afterwards
you will legitimately be able to claim professional experience in these areas. If a specific
area of English teaching interests you, volunteer to take on more work in this area. Once
you have more experience, apply for the co-ordinator position responsible for the area if
one exists. If it does not, then it might be worth trying to convince your boss of the value of
creating such a post.