What are the chances I'll be able to do that next hiring season? By a "real" job and school, I mean anything where future hiring directors at tier 2 and tier 3 schools will look at my resume and say "okay, he has two years of international teaching experience." It can be a bad school, it can be poorly run, it can be at a location most people consider undesirable. It just has to count as real experience. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the main ways we determine what is a "real" school is curriculum and accreditation? If that's the case then yeah, what are the chances I'll be able to get a job offer from an accredited school or from a school with an IB or British curriculum?

Basically, I'm looking to circumvent the two years teaching at home guideline, and I'm wondering what the odds are that I'll be successful. It doesn't have to look quite as good on the resume as the two years of teaching experience in the US, it just has to be an acceptable substitute.

So about me... I'm 27 and male. I'm a Math and Econ double major through a decent state university in the US. I'm planning to get the provisional license in Math through the state of Massachusetts this July. I worked 5 years in the business world as an actuary. I'm bilingual (Portuguese) and an expert on MS Excel, but I'm assuming these things don't matter much as far as getting a job offer. I have two years of experience tutoring Math in college, and two years of experience teaching private English classes in Brazil.

Not sure how much references matter, but mine are pretty medium. Not good, but hopefully not too bad. I can ask my former manager at my actuary job here in Brazil. Then I can ask two of my former students (1-on-1 private ESL classes here in Brazil). And lastly, I could get one of my coworkers-turned-friends who I stayed in touch with from my actuary job in the US. I suppose I could reach out to my former manager at my actuary job in the US to substitute one of the references listed above, but that would be supremely awkward. I haven't talked to her in years.

As far as locations, I'm willing to go anywhere in Asia and anywhere in Latin America. I am not willing to go to the Middle East or Africa, and I'm assuming I don't stand a chance in Europe with no experience.

The main reason I ask this question is to know if I should have a backup plan. Specifically, I'm considering doing an in-country CELTA in September, and should I whiff on the IT hiring season (Sep through Dec I'm assuming?) and not land any job offers at a real school, I can at least do TEFL for a while. But of course, if I do land a job at an international school, the CELTA will be practically worthless.

What do you think? How is it looking for me?

Thank you for the answer!! That was incredibly helpful.

Looks like MA is the way to go for me then. I'm sure international schools discriminate against MA provisionals, since they know it's such an easy license that doesn't require renewal? But hopefully after a few years of international school experience they will start to overlook that.

Doesn't matter, still seems like the way to go. I can always do TeachNow or TeacherReady in a few years if getting a "real" certificate turns out to be important. But for the time being, studying for the MA exams in June-July and applying for low/mid-tier international schools in September-November as a Math teacher seems like a good plan. Better than my original plan of getting a CELTA and doing TEFL anyway.

Thanks!

@PsyGuy or anyone else

1) I don't live in the US but I'm a US citizen with a Bachelor in Math+Econ. If I step off the plane tomorrow, how long would it take me to get the Utah license from start to finish? And what does the renewal process entail, is it easy to do when you live abroad? I've tried googling but I can't figure out what you meant by the process requiring a CRB.

2) I've read that they're making some changes to the Massachusetts license. The changes seem to imply this will no longer be a valid option for international teachers who get their license after July 1, is that correct? On their website under provisional license it says: "Valid for five years of employment; however, starting on July 1, 2019, an educator who holds one or more provisional licenses may be employed under said license(s) for no more than five years in total."

3) Besides the TeachNow and TeacherReady programs, there's also a year-long Global Program from The College of New Jersey that you finish with a Master's in Education and an NJ teaching license that you never need to renew. I don't entirely understand this program, but from what I can tell it seems to cost around $12000 (whereas the two programs in the thread are around $6000) and you have to do it in-person not online. Could the extra benefits possibly be worth the much higher cost?

4) Besides UT and MA, I've also heard Arizona and Washington being talked about as easy states to get licensed from. Any comments on those, or they're not really good ideas for prospective international teachers?