An excellent product without marketing is not good as much as a bad product with good marketing.

The title of this article is to say that IT doesn´t matter how good you are, if no one knows that you will not get hired easily, in fact the title is talking about a product, but it doesn´t matter too, because the concept can be applied in both situations. 

After one year in China when the time comes for me to renew my teaching contract I was wondering what if I could not renew the contract, could I be able to find a job anywhere else?

I realized that I still did have my job back in brazil, I was on my 2 years license, and because of that I wasn´t to much concerned about it, but I did not wanted to go back to Brazil yet. At that time if I had to look for another job, I did not knew how good my chances were to get another one.

I decide to chance that or improve my chances, even thou my students like me and thought I was a good teacher no one else knew that. I  start to do some marketing..... of  myself

1) I did start collecting from my best students some letter of reference (on the end of this article you can one of those)

2) I did a video of self introduction as many employers would ask that to have a first impression of you, I did not stop there,...  Now I have many videos on YouTube about my teaching experience, one of them are the recording of one of my extra lectures I did as a volunteer.

3) I started increasing my network among the students, not my own students, but from other courses at the university, my strategy was simple and effective. I never eat alone at the university canteen, that alone was responsible for many acquaintances. Now after 3 years in China, sometimes I have a job offer that came from the advertising of some students I meet at the canteen or English corner activity

4) I did published a paper on a Conference here in China. My paper was about improving someone's interpersonal skills and confidence, that has everything to do of what I am doing doing, not been shy, talking to everybody, never loose a chance to make a friend every where I go. Next year they invite me again to participate on another conference, I could not go but here is clip of me giving my blessing to the participants. 

5) Since I was already preparing a lot of material to teach at the university, I did a little extra work and convert those material on a online class at the Udemy platform.

I could stay teaching my classes at the university without bothering in doing anything of those things I just point out, I did not have to do any of those things. I must say trying out those new things as in a pretext of marketing myself I did not only increase my employability, but also make my experience in china so much more enjoyable 

Recommendation letter for Marcelo Gameiro:

Changsha / Hunan / China - February 23, 2020

 To Whom It May Concern:

As a student of Hunan University of Finance and Economics, I’m writing the recommendation letter with great sincerity to furnish you with my knowledge of my teacher Marcelo Gonçalves Gameiro in support of his application to work in your company/university. If this letter be of any assistant of your processing of his application, I will be much delighted.

At first, let me introduce myself briefly, I am a junior from HUFE (Changsha) and my major is accounting. In the second half of 2018, I worked as a foreign teacher assistant in the Office's International Exchange and Cooperation Office of the college, and was responsible for welcoming foreign teachers and familiarizing them with the campus environment, that’s why I first met Marcelo, therefore Marcelo is not only my teacher of securities investment, but also my foreign friend.

Next, I would like to elaborate my outlook of Marcelo from the perspective of a student and friend. I hope these will help you to know Mr. Gameiro better. Marcelo has all the requirements for a good teacher. He is tempting, patient, careful and responsible. I remember that in the first class, because the students were not used to teaching in English, and the subject of securities investment was quite difficult, some students did not give much concentrate in the class. Marcelo noticed that in time and communicated with me after class. After figured out the specific situation, he changed the teaching method. In the following courses, Marcelo inserted a lot of interesting pictures in the PPT and used his own personal experience as a case to analyze, the enthusiasm of the students has improved significantly

Marcelo not only devoted himself to teaching, but also helped students to establish the right values. He encouraged students to try more new things, study extensively and never stop learning. He said some words to me which impressed me so far, “Your education, your knowledge, is the only thing that anyone can’t take away from you.” His guidance helped me at that time, refreshing the perception of a freshman who was still in the ignorant stage. I studied harder and seized every opportunity to improve myself. At present I have received a national scholarship and got good performance in some competitions. After one year, I am going to the UK to get further study. None of these achievements can separate from Marcelo's guidance to me when I was in college. Every time I share some of my progress and achievements with him, he is sincerely congratulate and happy for me, because he not only treats students as the person of imparting knowledge, but also friends who can make progress together.

I sincerely hope my recommendation will receive your favorable consideration and please do not hesitate to inquire further if I can be of help to you.

Sincerely, Li Jing (Iris)