How not to write a TEFL cover letter

Writing a TEFL cover letter can be an art form. Executed well, it can be the difference between having your job application ignored and getting an interview. It’s a fantastic medium to express yourself, highlight the finer points of your career, and explain what you’d bring to a specific job role. 

We’ve written all about good cover letters before and, hopefully, our guides have helped you to secure rewarding TEFL work. However, it’s easy for cover letters to go wrong, and there are plenty of mistakes you can make along the way.

Pretending these errors don’t exist isn’t the way we like to do things. If you don’t know how something can go wrong, how are you meant to know what to avoid? It’s a very good question. You’re welcome. 

So, let’s take a look at how not to write a TEFL cover letter, so you know exactly what employers don’t want to see from your next job application. 

Tip 1: Don’t tell your life story

So, let’s be real - you’re likely working with one, maybe two pages of A4 paper when you’re writing a cover letter . That means you’ve got ample time to discuss your strengths, your career experience, and all the other components of a good cover letter .

In the spirit of being real, we bet you’re very interesting. However, beyond your career and your relevance to the job, employers don’t really need additional information. They don’t need to know that much more about you. Keep your cover letter relevant to the job you’re applying for, talk about the skills that make you qualified, and where possible, talk about recent, relevant experience.

Don’t write an awards acceptance speech or the first chapter of your biography. The character you played in the school nativity has no bearing on your problem-solving skills. The bake sale you did when you were 11 has no real impact on what you’re like as a TEFL teacher. Sorry. Again, these could be great anecdotes but they’ve no place in a cover letter.

A (bad) example:

“From the moment I left the womb, I knew teaching was in my blood. When I was 5, I taught my little brother how to write the letter ‘a’. As I tread the boards as a Wise Man in the school nativity, it felt like destiny - for I knew later I could be a ‘wise man’ who children could learn from, as a teacher. You see, my life has been full of these moments (continued on pages 2,3, 4 and 5)...”

Tip 2: Don’t test out stand-up material

Nobody likes a boring cover letter, sure, but there’s a balance. An exciting cover letter, from an employer’s point of view, is one that uses language from the job description, ticks the boxes in terms of desired traits, and gives the impression of a candidate who fits the role well.

Everyone likes a laugh, but punching up your cover letter with material from your “tight five” is not to be advised. If you were a professional comedian, you wouldn’t be writing a cover letter. Jokes on a cover letter imply you aren’t taking the job particularly seriously, or you don’t take yourself seriously. Don’t let employers decide which is worse.

We’re not saying you can’t use humour in the workplace, at all, ever. That’d make working life incredibly dull, and cracking a well-timed joke can help you gel well with colleagues. It’s just that when you’re applying for TEFL jobs , it’s best to leave the one-liners out. Interviews , too - unless the atmosphere lends itself to a witty remark or two - aren’t ideal for testing out material.

A (bad) example:

“I heard teaching abroad was like a holiday, but you had to work now and then! I thought “sign me up”!! But when I wasn’t hungover, I had a really good time working with all sorts of English learners. Their English was better than mine by the end!”

Tip 3: Don’t get abstract

Again, we’re not trying to stifle your creativity - you need to stand out, by all means. However, when it comes to the style of writing you use, it isn’t the time to get experimental or florid.

Maybe you see yourself as the next Gertrude Stein , Ali Smith or Gabriel Garcia Marquez , and teaching English is a means to achieving your literary ambitions down the line. However, your cover letter doesn’t need to reflect this. A cover letter should be concise. Like Polonius in Hamlet says, “Brevity is the soul of wit”. There you go, a literary reference!

Brevity is the soul of wit, but it also gets jobs. If you can communicate concisely on a cover letter, you’ll impress an employer. Good communication skills are, after all, a big plus for a teacher. If you’re writing in a needlessly poetic or erudite manner, however, it’s offputting.

So, we’re sorry. Your poetry, magic realism or prose will have to be expressed through other forms of writing. Leave the cover letters out of it.

A (bad) example:

“With a cornucopia of talents at my disposal, I deem myself an exquisite match for the esteemed vacancy you presently offer. Emboldened by a veritable chronicle of erudition accrued over myriad cycles of the sun, my credentials surely present themselves as a fine testament to my pedagogical acumen. Couple this with an unwavering ardour for your pedagogical ethos, and the confluence of our efforts portends an auspicious and prodigious alliance, wherein mutual enrichment and edification shall surely ensue.”

Tip 4: Don’t be too modest

Now we go from being over the top to not saying enough. We hope you’ll agree that modest is a good thing. If you’ve ever spent an evening with someone telling you how amazing they are, you’ll have noticed time going much, much slower. It’s not so fun.

There is a happy medium, though. Ideally, you’ll find it when you’re writing your cover letter. Being self-effacing is not a bad thing but on a cover letter, you’ve got to advocate for yourself. There’s no point in writing a cover letter if you’re going to use qualifying language (“probably”, “may or not have contributed to…”, etc) or diminish your achievements.

To an employer, it’ll make you seem unconfident and less credible. If you weren’t a decent TEFL teacher, you wouldn’t have a TEFL certificate or a degree or any of the teaching experience that’s on your CV. It wouldn’t be worth applying for jobs at all. Believe in your abilities, and write a cover letter with the mindset that you’re doing it to impress someone by doing nothing but telling them the truth.

It doesn’t benefit anyone to be modest about what you’ve achieved in your career. Don’t do your achievements a disservice.

A (bad) example:

“We were able to do some good work, helping to build an English teaching curriculum where there wasn’t one before. Though I wasn’t the most talented member of the team, I did put in a lot of effort. I think I can probably do well in this role, as I have some qualifications, though I might have less than other candidates.”

Now you know what to avoid

Maybe these tips are obvious to you. Speaking to employers, though, we’ve found that cover letters can be a real hazard for otherwise talented job applicants. Whether they write inappropriately, they’re too casual, their writing is just a bit much , or they’re not writing about themselves with the right level of confidence, good teachers can let themselves down at this stage of a job application.

Well, now you know what to avoid. Yes, this blog post has given us a license to be a little bit daft in parts, but if you don’t ask silly questions, you experience even sillier outcomes. These outcomes can - in extreme cases - include using the phrase “cornucopia of talents”. If you hear that sound, it’s a million TEFL employers shuddering.

Looking for a perfect TEFL job opportunity? Head over to The TEFL Org Jobs Centre today, where countless opportunities await!