Recruiting for a new International Teaching job
October brings in a new season – recruitment time. Most International Schools will begin to update the potential openings on their websites and hordes of teachers all over the World begin conversations about what they are intending to do after the current academic year ends.
If you are interested in a teaching or administrative job outside of your home country then this is the time to start getting ready. Recruitment is a highly contended time, with many schools preferring to offer contracts to people early to snap up the right people prior to the Job Fair season (Jan-Feb). If you have your eye on a particular region or school, it is definitely worth sending in your CV and checking the school website to make sure you know what is expected of you so you don’t miss out on the deadline.
Teachers usually have until late Dec/early Jan to give their current school a formal indication of their intentions for the following August but Administrators are required to do this much earlier – usually in October, and then the race is on to ensure you have found the right person to lead a school.
If you are new to this game, then it is worth contacting a professional body who’s job is to hold Job Fair’s and to organise recruiting. You will need to contact them by the start of November to ensure you have time to complete all the necessary paperwork (including CV’s, letters of reference from your current manager and from parents of your students) and it is worth doing some looking at the Fair’s that that group have run previously to ensure that schools that attend match up with the type of school you are interested in going to work in.
Image: Google Search of ‘International Teaching Recruitment’
If you type a search into Google you will be surprised by the number of companies out there that work to secure a job for you. It is worth looking into a few to make sure they have a history of doing this job, have lots of schools who attend and they have a Fair or two near you. Two examples would be Search Associates and International Schools Services (ISS). Search is a private company that makes its money from charging both the Teacher-Client and School-Client a flat fee and then if you get a job from one of their Recruiting Fair’s then there is another fee to be paid (some school’s pay both the School and Teacher part of this, other’s just pay the school’s fee). ISS is a free fair to attend and so is very heavily attended.
You can get all the Fair and procedural information from their websites. It is worth noting that International School’s generally want at least 2 year’s relevant teaching experience and the more popular ones will ask for 5 year’s and possibly a Master’s degree as well.
A job Fair can be very overwhelming and adrenalin pumping! You will arrive at the Hotel and the Fair will run over a number of days – with information sessions from schools and then hopefully lots of interviews with potential schools that are interested in you for the vacancies that they have. The private firms will screen candidates and schools carefully to ensure that there is a good match for as many people as they can, as this is how they make their money. Other Fair’s are not as well screened and there may be too many people for the actual number of jobs available. It is worth asking about this or reading about this on the company website.
There are lots of International #Physed people on Twitter, and I have no doubt that they would be happy to share their knowledge and experience on how they came to be overseas and information about why they love their jobs and I encourage you to reach out and find some mentors to make sure you are moving for the right reasons and will enjoy your journey to the fullest!