Is it all just a numbers game?

When I was collecting essays for More Than a Gap Year Adventure, I had a chance to have Zoom chats with many amazing ELT professionals from all over the world. Even though their career stories are quite different, there is a personal trait that all of them have in common, and that is being proactive. If you want to succeed in ELT, things are unlikely to fall into your lap. You need to be ready to work your way up and overcome all kinds of obstacles. The following quote from the book really sticks out and demonstrates what I am referring to:

Fatime Losonci in More Than a Gap Year Adventure

When I read this passage from Fatime’s text for the first time, it all felt really familiar. I have sent a huge number of emails and messages that never led to anything, so I know what it’s like. Tiago Bueno, another contributor to the book, told me about a similar experience when applying for jobs. I wonder if this is what everybody in ELT has to go through. Is it all just a numbers game? Do we have to rely on quantity and hope that one of our many emails will be replied to?

Since I’m a very organised person and keep a lot of spreadsheets documenting my activities in ELT, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back on my career and share some data with you. I’ve been in this profession for seven and a half years, so this is going to be a long post, but I hope it can help us reach some kind of conclusion.

My first attempt at finding a job in Medellín
I moved to Colombia in July 2017, a month after completing my CELTA. My objective was very simple: I wanted to find my first TEFL job in Medellín. Sounds simple, right? Well, it turned out to be a complete fail.

I don’t think my plan was too bad. I googled language institutes in the city, sent them my CV by email, and told them I was available for in-person interviews. As expected, most of them never even responded. A few of them told me that they would keep my CV on file. Three institutions replied quite quickly and invited me for an interview. The first one was with a university, but the position they were looking to fill was actually for their partner school and involved teaching kids, which was not what I was interested in.

The second interview took place at a language academy in the city centre. The initial chat with the director went well and I was asked to deliver a demo lesson and take an English test a few days later. I aced the lesson and was offered the job on the spot. We shook hands and I was supposed to get the documents needed for my visa applications in a few days’ time. And guess what I got next? Crickets. The school stopped responding to my emails and left me wondering what had happened. This was the first of many negative experiences with Colombian institutions that I’ve had here. I was not surprised to read about the school’s closure a few years later.

Anyway, after a month of pointless waiting for the documents, I decided to apply for a volunteer position in Villa de Leyva that provided a stipend of enough money to live on. The school in Medellín that had offered me the job eventually got back to me and wanted to resume the hiring process (still without producing the required documents), but it was too late and I left the city with a sense of disappointment. I also received an email with another interview invitation from a Medellín-based academy, though when I found out about the miserable hourly rate the school offered, I decided to give that ‘opportunity’ a pass. When I started blogging in 2020, this bad experience led me to write my very first blog post titled Everybody wants to live in Medellín.

Medellín-based institutions contacted: 63
No response at all: 86%
Rejections: 6
Interview invitations: 3
Contracts signed: 0

Landing my first full-time job
Things went quite smoothly with the volunteer assignment and I started working in Villa de Leyva in the middle of September. The workload wasn’t that heavy, so I had enough time to think about my next steps. I knew the project was going to end at the end of the year, so I quickly updated my CV and began sending emails to language centres in Colombia. My approach was a bit smarter because even though I wanted to go back to Medellín, I also decided to contact schools in a number of cities, namely Bogotá, Cartagena, Ibagué, Manizales, Armenia, Tunja, Pereira, Bucaramanga, and Cali.

Having some experience on my CV seemed to do the trick and I managed to land three interviews via Skype: with a language institute in Bogotá, a university in Cali, and Centro Colombo Americano Manizales. The last one allowed me to teach my demo lesson via Skype, after which I was offered a full-time contract that I happily accepted. Two universities in Bogotá invited me for an interview in January, but I had already made the decision to move to Manizales.

Institutions contacted: 108
No response at all: 92%
Rejections: 4
Interview invitations: 5
Contracts signed: 1

Speculative applications
My first year at the language academy was extremely useful in terms of gaining experience and becoming a better teacher. Even though I had no reasons to leave, I wanted to take a look at other options. I contacted local universities in Manizales, which would potentially be an upwards move. I thought that having a CELTA and some relevant experience with teaching in the city would be enough for them to be interested in having a chat with me. I was wrong.

Institutions contacted: 4
No response at all: 100%

Moving to Bucaramanga
The main reason I started looking for a new job at the end of my second contract in Manizales was money. After getting my Delta Module One certificate in 2019, I asked for a pay rise and was offered just a tiny increase that wouldn’t even cover the inflation rate. At that moment, I knew that staying at the institute would be a waste of time, so I contacted language schools in other cities: Pereira, Bucaramanga, Medellín (including the newly-opened International House branch), and Ibagué.

I felt that I was making steady career progress and adding the first Delta module to my CV made me stand out a bit, and my success rate did indeed improve. I got one interview invitation from Ibagué and two from Bucaramanga. I opted to fly to Bucaramanga where I attended both interviews. The one at the local branch of Centro Colombo Americano was more impressive, and even though it seemed like a sideways move, I switched to being hourly paid with a much better rate, which meant working fewer hours. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world just three months after my move to Bucaramanga and in the following year and a half I completed my Delta, started this blog, and learned how to teach online.

Institutions contacted: 12
No response at all: 67%
Rejections: 1
Interview invitations: 3
Contracts signed: 1

Returning to Medellín
My time in Bucaramanga came to an end when I found out that having a full Delta and excellent feedback from students did not merit a pay rise. I started looking for positions that were more aligned with my professional profile and sent my CV to five institutions. As expected, the results were pretty good and just one place (a university in Ibagué) never responded to my email. The British Council in Bogotá didn’t have a suitable vacancy for me, but my priority was moving back to Medellín anyway.

I attended three online interviews (with International House plus two universities) and all of them resulted in a job offer. In the end, I chose IH since they offered me a chance to work on a freelance basis, deliver online classes with IH Bogotá and do some in-person non-teaching work with IH Medellín as well. Four and a half years after starting teaching, I finally began making real progress in terms of money and professional reputation.

Institutions contacted: 5
No response at all: 20%
Rejections: 1
Interview invitations: 3
Contracts signed: 2

Looking for private students
Of course, one of the most important principles of freelancing is having multiple streams of income, so I decided to set up my own teaching business shortly after moving to Medellín. I knew I was good at teaching but the problem was I didn’t have any private students. What I had was: (a) the experience of teaching hundreds of people during my time in Manizales and Bucaramanga and (b) access to their emails and phone numbers. I made a list of those who had already finished all levels at the language institute and contacted them with an offer to attend an advanced course (either one-to-one or in a group).

I knew that most people probably wouldn’t be interested, and that proved to be the case: more than half of my emails / WhatsApp messages were left without a response, and 65% of those who replied didn’t take the advanced course with me. There were quite a few cases of people accepting my offer and then completely ghosting me, which was a bit discouraging. Fortunately, I still managed to get enough students to get my business started without having to use third-party services. Some of the students also recommended me to their friends or relatives, which helped me a lot at the very beginning.

Running my own courses has been a very rewarding experience and I’m proud of being able to make this work. I still teach a steady number of lessons per week, and I haven’t had to look for new students since 2022. In fact, I have to keep saying no to those who have heard about my classes through word-of-mouth recommendations.

Potential students contacted: 158
No response at all: 56%
Rejections: 30
Instances of being ghosted: 16
Students who accepted my offer: 24
New students gained through recommendations: 6

Freelance opportunities
In 2023, I finally stopped relying on speculative emails and actually applied for two non-teaching freelance positions that were advertised online. One was with Oxford University Press and the other one with another big name ELT organisation. I felt that I was a strong candidate for the former role, and after a lengthy recruitment process I started working for OUP as an independent contractor in May 2023, almost six years after becoming an English teacher. I work on an assessment-related project and it has been a brilliant experience so far thanks to the amazing people from OUP who I am in touch with.

The other organisation sent me a polite rejection, which was a bit disappointing, but when I saw who eventually got the role, I immediately understood why I wasn’t considered. The person was much more qualified for the job and completely deserved it. I don’t want to digress too much, but I have to say that I don’t think it’s helpful to take every rejection personally and make baseless claims of discrimination on social media, which is something I have seen happen lately. Sometimes you just have to say fair play and accept that you are not the most important ELT professional that has ever lived and there are actually more suitable candidates for the role you applied for.

Positions applied for: 2
Contracts signed: 1

Looking for book contributors
Thanks to the fact that my freelancing work started producing decent income, I suddenly found myself with more free time than when I was an employee. This blog helped me in terms of visibility in the online ELT community, and I’m sure it was the main reason why I managed to collect 23 essays for More Than a Gap Year Adventure. There were a few complications and even one instance of being completely ghosted after what I thought was a positive Zoom meeting about the person’s essay topic – by the way, this is why there aren’t any guest essays written by professionals working for Colombian institutions in the book; I did try hard, but it wasn’t meant to be. That said, my overall experience with inviting people to contribute to the book was very good, and I’m really happy with the final result.

Potential contributors contacted: 62
No response at all: 37%
Rejections: 13
Instances of dropping out of the project: 3
Essays collected: 23

More freelance opportunities
One of the best things about being your own boss is being able to choose how you’re going to spend your time. After finally publishing the book, I took a short breather and then started looking for something that would push me to learn something new. Thanks to LinkedIn, I found about two assessment-related positions with Cambridge University Press & Assessment and British Council Global Assessments. I received a positive response from the latter and signed a short-term probationary contract after a 6-week training process.

Positions applied for: 2
Contracts signed: 1

Main takeaways
To a certain extent, trying to get a TEFL job is a numbers game, and this is true especially at the beginning of your career. Not surprisingly, contacting institutions and people that have no idea who you are is tough. According to my experience, most of them will never reply and some of them will even let you down in a way that isn’t very pleasant. And you know what? I don’t care. Sending a hundred speculative applications and getting a job is a much better result than having no job after applying for just a few positions advertised on an online job board.

The good news is that your odds of succeeding significantly increase if you are willing to make your own luck. Once you get relevant experience, obtain advanced qualifications, and build up your reputation in the ELT profession, you will find it easier to achieve something meaningful. At that stage of your career, you can be more selective when it comes to doing what you like, and being able to stop relying on quantity is a realistic position to aim for.

► If you’d like to read more about career development in ELT, I recommend that you get a copy of More Than a Gap Year Adventure, a collaborative book featuring thought-provoking essays written by experienced professionals.

The rise of neobanks in Colombia

Bancolombia, which is the most used bank in Colombia, has recently been in the news for the wrong reasons. Its app isn’t very stable and some Bancolombia clients have found themselves without access to their account for a few days, seen all their money disappear, or even received some extra money in their account due to technical glitches that took the bank a while to resolve. Since I don’t enjoy worrying about my finances, I decided to look at some of the alternatives that are available in Colombia.

My story with Bancolombia started in 2017 when I opened my account with this institution. I didn’t know much about living in Colombia, so when the bank employee asked me if I wanted to sign up for an insurance policy that would protect me in case of getting robbed, I said yes. Some time later, I realised that this service wasn’t what I needed and tried to cancel it. Bancolombia informed me that they had nothing to do with the service and told me to contact BNP Paribas Cardif. I did so, but to my surprise, I received a letter telling me that I had never been their client and there was nothing to cancel. That was a bit weird since they were more than happy to keep deducting a fee for the insurance policy each month. In the end, I had to report BNP Paribas to Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, which did the trick and finally helped me to get the unwanted service cancelled.

Another interesting feature of being a Bancolombia client is that I keep receiving emails asking me to fill out this FATCA form to confirm that I am not a tax resident in another country. I must have submitted the form at least 10 times, yet the emails keep coming. They are getting more threatening in their wording, telling me that my account will be blocked if I don’t fill out the form. I have contacted Bancolombia’s customer services several times and even went to the bank in person once due to this issue, and the response has always been the same: I’m supposed to ignore these emails, which are apparently sent to me by mistake. Again, this isn’t a very comfortable situation to be in, is it?

Even if your account doesn’t suffer from these technical glitches or whatever causes all the problems, using Bancolombia’s so-called savings account actually means losing money due to handling fees and extremely low interest rates. There are quite a lot of unhappy customers like me, so it’s not surprising to see that other institutions are coming up with interesting offers in order to attract new clients.

Opening an account with another traditional bank would mean similar (or maybe even worse) issues, so I think it’s time to look at alternative options. Neobanks are essentially online banks (typically mobile applications) without any physical branches. They offer financial services that can make your life easier, and this blog post lists the most popular neobanks that are active in Colombia. Please note that the interest rates and products offered will most likely change in the future, so you definitely need to do your research and read the terms and conditions first.

Ualá (uala.com.co)
This company, which was originally set up in Argentina, offers a savings account with a 13% annual interest rate and a Mastercard debit card. Apart from paying in shops and online with the card, you can use the app to do bank transfers and pay for stuff via PSE without any hidden fees. You don’t even get charged for withdrawing money using other banks’ ATMs, which is amazing. I currently use Ualá for my daily transactions and the money that is generated in the account actually covers some of my expenses.

The registration process is very simple: to sign up, you need to take a selfie and a photo of your cédula de extranjería. What I really like is how transparent everything is and the fact that the interest is added to your account every single day. The best thing about the Ualá account is that if you spend less than 3 million pesos per month, the 4×1000 tax is not applied. As a result, Ualá is a great option for buying groceries, general shopping, paying utilities, and withdrawing cash.

The main disadvantage of Ualá is that you aren’t allowed to have more than 9.6 million pesos in your account, which means it can’t be used for moving large amounts of money. This service is better suited for making common daily transactions, both in-person and online, and thanks to Ualá I don’t really need to use my Bancolombia debit card anymore.

Nubank (nu.com.co)
This is by far the most successful neobank in Colombia. It was set up by David Vélez, a Medellín-born entrepreneur who originally wanted to simplify banking in Brazil. Nubank is very good at marketing and its mobile application is extremely easy to use. In addition to a savings account with a 13% interest rate, Nubank offers a no-fee credit card.

When I created my account with Nubank, I needed to take a selfie and upload a photo of my cédula de extranjería. I also had to provide my bank statements from the previous three months. Since Nubank offers a credit card, it doesn’t approve all applications, and your current income will determine how much you will be allowed to spend per month using the credit card. I think Nubank is an excellent option for those who want to build up their credit score in Colombia. Since there are no hidden fees, it makes sense to use your credit card in shops or online (you can generate a fully virtual card in the app, which is a brilliant feature) and pay everything in full so you don’t get charged any interest.

Nubank provides its clients with two kinds of accounts. One is linked to the debit card and can be used when you need to buy something; the other one is called Cajita, and this is the true savings account where you keep your money and see the interest added every day. You can freely transfer funds between the accounts at any moment, so you have full control of what happens with your money. There are no limits and you can have as much money as you wish in your savings account. However, each ATM withdrawal incurs a fee of 6,800 pesos.

I’m really interested in seeing how things go with Nubank. At the moment, the only thing that prevents me from marking the account exempt from the 4×1000 tax (you can choose only one of your Colombian bank accounts for that) is the fact that it doesn’t allow international bank transfers. If that changes in the future, I can imagine using Nubank as my primary bank account.

Lulo bank (lulobank.com)
Unfortunately, this bank requires you to be a Colombian citizen to be able to open an account. Its savings account with a 13% interest rate doesn’t seem to have any limits and can be used for PSE transactions, so I’d be happy to try it out, but it’s not meant to be at the moment.

Pibank (pibank.co)
If you have some extra money that you don’t plan to use in the near future, Pibank offers a savings account that is not linked to a debit card. You can send and withdraw your funds only using a bank transfer, which I suppose motivates clients to leave the money in the account. The interest rate of the savings account is the same as in the case of the previously mentioned banks, so this offer doesn’t look that attractive at the moment. Another product you could choose is a fixed term deposit (CDT Pibank), but it actually has just a 11% interest rate. In any case, this seems to be an interesting attempt of a traditional bank (Banco Pichincha) to get involved in the neobank market.

Rappipay (rappipay.co)
Rappi is a huge Colombian company known mainly for its delivery app. It currently offers financial services as well, namely its credit card RappiCard and savings account RappiPay. The latter’s 14% interest rate looks very appealing, but it’s very important to read the terms. If you have less than 2 million pesos in the account, the interest rate is actually just 1%. The standard rate is 10%, which is still good, but to achieve the 14% rate you need to mark your account exempt from the 4×1000 tax, which won’t suit everybody. In addition, Rappi has grown a lot in recent years and unfortunately it isn’t known for efficient customer service, which is something to consider before opening an account with this company.

Four things to bear in mind
While the current interest rates are very attractive, keeping them so high probably isn’t sustainable. These neobanks are currently trying to get as many new clients as possible, and I won’t be surprised to see the rates decrease in the near future. Even if that happens, I think a reliable neobank will provide you with better services than if you choose a traditional bank here in Colombia.

If you want to use a savings account in Colombia, make sure the institution is protected by Fogafín, a financial authority that will help you recover your money if your bank goes bankrupt. You can find a list of protected institutions here. Please note that the maximum amount covered by Fogafín is 50 million pesos, so you may need to split your savings and keep the money in different institutions.

Another important figure to take into account is 7.7 million pesos. The reason is that if you have more than that in your savings account with a 13% interest rate, a 7% tax applies to your earnings. To be specific, this deduction will take place if your account generates more than approximately 75,000 pesos per month. It’s not a big deal, but don’t be surprised to see a fraction of your money deducted from the account each month.

And finally, be careful! These apps are so easy to use, which means it’s very easy to get scammed. Don’t trust anybody, especially those random people who message you on WhatsApp or Facebook – remember that you can contact customer service directly through the banking application. The apps are safe, but if you use them to send money to fraudsters, you’ll probably never see it again. Use common sense to avoid phishing attacks and your experience with neobanks will most likely be positive.