Staff Interview with Nick Wood

Get to know English Wizards' staff!

Nick Wood
Nick WoodInterviewed in 2023

Nick Wood is originally from New York City and first came to Poland to teach English in 2018. Seeing a hole in the market and utilizing his experience working for similar companies in the US, Nick co-founded English Wizards in 2018 and has been working as the Operations Director ever since.

What inspired you to work for English Wizards?

When I came to Poland as an ESL teacher, there was nothing like English Wizards. I had to go through the "trial and error" of figuring it all out myself. Being good at this type of stuff, I quickly figured it out, and was excited to harness my wisdom and help others do the same. I thought it was absolutely crazy that local schools expected foreign teachers to deal with the massively complex bureaucracy and relocation process by themselves, and I was determined to offer my help.

Describe a typical day at work.

I usually start my day by going through emails and messages from our current and future program participants, and doing what I can to help resolve their situation. The rest of my day consists of a lot of calls and meetings with our program participants and our internal team, as well as quite a bit of administrative and technical work. Being Director of Operations has its boring technical parts as well!

Group photo traveling.

Group photo time! I always have fun traveling with the English Wizards team.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job is hands-down when I get to speak with and meet our program participants who have arrived in Poland. Of course they always have a lot of questions and ask for my help, which is work for me of course, but it's what I love to do. I really love everything about living here in Krakow, Poland and it is incredibly rewarding to share it with others on our program.

How do you use your education and international background in your current role?

My degree in intercultural communication and linguistics has helped me immensely in navigating language and cultural barriers, and helping to explain them to both our program participants and local suppliers who aren't used to working with Americans. My background in language and communication has also helped with my writing skills, which I do a lot of at work, being the primary writer of English Wizards' website, program listings, and guides, company emails.

What challenges do you often face and how do you overcome them?

My work involves dealing with a lot of bureaucracy, and bureaucracy can really be a nightmare, especially when language barriers and cultural barriers are factored in. But this is something I've gotten used to over the years. Things work differently in Poland, and as a guest in this country, it's something I've learned to be accustomed to.

Group at dinner.

We had a great time at our group dinner that we had during orientation week!

What are some current projects you are working on?

I am currently working on expanding our program offers to include more options for non-teachers, such as digital nomads and other working professionals. I am also actively working to expand our brand and services into other nearby EU countries like Hungary and Czech Republic. I've done a lot of great stuff for teachers in Poland with English Wizards, but I see no reason why I can't help non-teachers outside of Poland as well!

What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?

That's hard to say because I've always been a traveler, LOL! In my lifetime of traveling, I've made a lot of mistakes, but I can't say I have any big regrets. The preventable mistakes that I have made have all been due to poorly researching and not preparing enough. So do your research thoroughly on where you're going because you want to know the place like inside out before you get on the plane, so you can be best prepared.

Why should someone choose English Wizards over competitors?

Truthfully, we are very unique in doing what we do! Most TEFL programs out there don't give teachers the variety of options that we do. In our program, teachers can work at preschools, primary schools, language centers for kids, teens, and adults of all ages, and even business English teachers for adults. Teachers can use our placements with affiliated schools, or find their own work with our assistance.

We also pride ourselves on inclusivity. Our program is currently open to all nationalities, and our community of over 300 teachers represents 35 different countries of origin. Finally, we are a human company that puts the experiences of our teachers first. We deliver individual service for each of our program participants. Our staff are all current and former TEFL teachers and relocation experts, we all know exactly what it feels like to be in your situation!

Group photo in the snow.

We really enjoyed hitting the slopes and seeing the snow during our English Wizards ski trip!

How is English Wizards handling Covid protocols? What should participants know about your Covid readiness? How are you assisting participants with navigating the new travel landscape?

We were proud to be one of the few in-person TEFL programs and relocation programs in the world that continued operating throughout the pandemic, and were for a while were one of the few companies that could provide visas to access the EU. Even during the height of the pandemic, we were still operating. We made this possible by always staying on top of the travel landscape and actively following the restrictions implemented by our government, by airlines, and by other nearby governments in order to properly advise our program participants and make traveling possible in a time where most of us were stuck at home.

What is English Wizard’s mission and how do you continue to work toward it?

Our main mission is to provide a doorway into Poland (and increasingly, other Central European countries as well) for expats from all over the world who are interested in moving here. We firmly believe that no case is too complicated; if you want to come here, we'll find a way to make it happen! This has led us to recently expand our program offerings to non-teachers as well, and retain our firm policy of being inclusive to all nationalities.

What do you hope participants take away from your programs?

We hope that participants leave not only with an open mind to living in a new country and a better understanding of what life is like outside of their home country, but hopefully with a desire to keep living abroad! We have a very high retention rate on our program; over 70% of our program participants stay beyond the initial duration of the program.

Poland is just one of those countries that most people don't know much about, but once you try living here, you just can't get enough! Trust me from experience; I've been here over 5 years and have no desire to leave.

Polish highlander dancers.

We attended a traditional Polish highlander dance and while enjoying some delicious Polish food.

What questions do participants often ask you, and how do you typically respond?

We take great pride in answering every question from program participants very thoroughly, with a policy of always providing too much, and not too little, information. Surprises are never good, and we believe the best way to remove future surprises is to make sure everyone has all the information right away.

We of course get a lot of general questions about visa matters, finances, jobs, and the logistics of travel, but I never respond generically. Before answering a question, I always ask myself what it is that our program participant really needs to know, and then explain things accordingly.

Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?

In order to formulate well-rounded opinions and consider yourself educated on the world, you need to see and feel things first-hand. Watching news reels will never show you everything, not even close. You need to go actually meet people and experience life the way that locals live it.

I think this is especially true for Americans, like myself, who have a knack of doing things differently than the rest of the world. It's really good for us to see how the rest of the world lives, and just maybe, we can take the positive parts of life overseas and bring that back to our country.

What does meaningful travel mean to you?

Meaningful travel means that you should learn something about yourself, as well as of course the place you are going. Travelers should be okay with figuring things out on the fly, and not relying on guided tours and packaged holidays. Then you not only get to experience more local on-the-ground sites and interact with locals, but you also get experience in solving problems on the fly, and dealing with day-to-day matters in a new country, just like the locals do!

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