COVID
“Wanna play 52-card pickup?”
So small, so powerful, so disruptive.
Let’s start with the obvious - a worldwide pandemic has brought ordinary life to its knees and only a halting return to normal seems likely anytime soon. Since the international schools depend entirely on the global economy, recruiting is in an uproar, the equivalent of 52-card pickup.
What does this mean for your job search? Nobody knows for sure, of course. But keep checking the COVID News Links In Resources for updates. However, several things seem certain:
The global economy supporting these schools is seriously diminished.
It will eventually recover, but how much and how soon is a mystery.
International schools will still need staff, perhaps not nearly as many.
Recruiting will move online without in-person job fairs during the 2020-21 season and beyond.
A Cautionary Tale
This story from the American School of Bombay is an example of the worldwide fallout. Honestly, this might not be the best time to recruit. But no matter what happens in 2021-22, candidates still must follow the same process, preparation and paperwork as before. How about a pre-test?
True/False
Regardless of the situation, if you are still excited about the prospect of teaching overseas, take this quick reality check quiz:
1. Educators will never get a job without using a recruiting agency.
2. Over 75% of hiring takes place in the spring.
3. AP experience is preferred over IB.
4. The best strategy is to pick a region of the world, then hunt for vacancies
5. School websites are the best sources of reliable information.
No surprise here, but they are all false:
1. Things are changing. A large and growing percentage of candidates find jobs DIY and skip agencies and fairs altogether.
2. Nope. That’s way too late.
3. If you never even heard of IB, reread this section on Curriculum.
4. Being picky unnecessarily cuts down on your chances.
5. School websites are marketing tools as well as useful portals. Be wary.
Recruiting and Hiring Process Overview
Candidates will need to be interviewed by directors from all over the world, and the process is fraught and intense for recruiters as well as candidates. Nobody wants to make a mistake. Plus there is a lot to get done.
Tasks In Order
Prepare a good CV.
Make an honest assessment of your desirability as a candidate.
Search recruiting agency vacancies and job-listing sites.
Target vacancies and approach schools.
Survive a virtual job fair OR use an alternate approach.
Interview successfully.
Analyze and accept the contract.
The process is complicated but certainly not impossible. Thousands of educators have successfully gotten hired and had wonderful overseas teaching experiences.
You can too, but you need to do your homework. The other posts in Hiring walk you through each step in more detail, with plenty of stories and links for further information. But first let’s do a flyover of the route.
Choose Your Hiring Path
“Two roads in the woods and the one I took made all the difference. ”
There are three choices. Which path will you take?
Pay for a recruiting service and attend their virtual fair.
DIY 100% and assemble a home-made job search.
Rely on the recruiting services only for vacancy listings and CV hosting, then approach schools directly.
Whichever route you take, the hiring process begins much earlier than you’re used to, so keep an eye on these deadlines.
International Schools Recruiting Calendar
“It’s a long road to Tipperary.”
Accelerated Hiring Timeline
When? Typically, public school teachers sign contract renewals or resign by April. In the international school hiring world, this is 6 months too late. Dates in the international school calendar are wildly accelerated from your home country.
Why? Think about it: at home you see a job posting, go down to the school or district office to interview, start work in August. By contrast, transporting yourself halfway around the world is a much more complicated and time-intensive.
Advice? Start a full year in advance, meaning August. Listen to Stephen Dexter, longtime head of school, quoted in the TIEonline Blog (TIE: The International Educator.) Note: he assumes candidates actually attend a fair, which won’t happen this year or perhaps even next.
“The fairs are done before they start. I think you know this by now, but most jobs are filled by January and the top schools are done by Oct./Nov. You should have built a relationship with a school prior to the fair. By the time the fair rolls around, meeting people is usually a formality.”
Three-Year Cycle Is The Minimum
Don’t dawdle! Timelines are much earlier than public school deadlines.
Generally contracts are for two years minimum. The hiring and relocation season takes a full year (Y1), then it takes the length of the two year contract (Y2 Y3) for new teachers to plant their feet firmly on the ground and for the school to recoup the expense of recruiting.
Do the math. This means at least three years in total for that first job.
Year One (You Are At Home)
August – Decision to teach overseas. DIY or use a recruiting agency.
September-January – Recruiting season.
February – Hiring largely complete.
April – Resign job in your home country.
February-August – Prepare to move overseas. Start school.
Year Two (You Are Overseas)
August-June – Get settled, first year teaching.
Year Three or Four or Five (You Are Still Overseas)
August-June - second year teaching.
Autumn – Decide whether to stay or go. Resign.
October-January – Recruiting season (again).
Recruitment Season Timing Y1
“The early bird gets the worm.”
August - Since you hope to be starting work at your new school next August (Y2), start a full twelve months in advance. If you are DIY, sign yourself up for notification of vacancies.
If you want to register with one of the recruiting agencies, apply now. Assuming you are accepted (Search Associates is by invitation only, for instance) start using their database to line up schools you are interested in.
September – Make the firm decision to attend/not attend an online recruiting fair. Make sure your CV is perfect. Line up your recommendations and think about a portfolio.
September/October/November/December – Notices of vacancies will be arriving daily, and if DIY, you need to jump on any that interest you and arrange online interviews. Also search out vacancies on your own.
Keep track and keep pursuing. If you are attending a virtual fair, register and test drive your online interview setup.
January – If there were to be in-person fairs, this is when you would attend, depending on which one you judge best and most cost-effective.
Write a Readable Resume
“Hard writing makes easy reading. ”
It goes without saying that your CV must be lively, error-free, and tailored to the particular school. And this means you’ll need to do the work.
Lively
Your CV cannot be boring. Do you have any idea how many hundreds of these things recruiters will be forcing themselves through each recruiting season?
Can you even imagine how painful it must be to plow through stacks of educational jargon and frankly boring resumes? So tell your story and do not be afraid to let your personality shine through.
Be specific, not general. Avoid jargon. Be concise. Less is more. Omit needless words.
Error-Free
It has to be perfect. Do you have a friend who is a grammar Nazi? Encourage them to pick your paperwork to pieces for errors and to supply helpful criticism. Principle?? It’s principal, moron.
Tailored
Personalize your cover letter to the actual school and actual opening. To whom it may concern. Are you kidding? If you really want to work at a particular school, study the job description and mission statement; then align your CV with their goals. Call the school if necessary to confirm name and title.
Post Your CV Online
Job-listing sites like TIEonline, Joyjobs and the recruiting agencies will host your resume. Or you can do it on your own. Your paperwork just needs to have a reliable home in the cloud.
Unsolicited Plug For JoyJobs.com
I recommend you consider availing yourself of the help of JoyJobs, a Portland-based outfit which specializes in CV/resume support, as well as hosting and vacancy listings. They helped us get that first job in Russia with their advice and web-hosting.
For $39.95 their help is priceless and the advice well-informed. Pam and Igor have seen thousands of international school CVs and they know the ropes. Particularly valuable if this is your first rodeo.
Pre-Season Hiring Dance
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
”
Research
The recruiter will already know a fair amount about you from your emailed cover letter and CV + webpage. You had better be equally well informed.
If you are signed up with a recruiting agency, their databases contain school data, plus the big agencies have already vetted the schools they represent. Otherwise, do your own digging. This post (How To Evaluate School Quality) explains what to look for and how to access it.
No matter which path you choose, prepare. The better you take care of the front end of the business, the likelier you’ll score a good job at a good school.
Background Work
Before you even begin to approach schools, put your ducks in order.
“You can’t fix stupid.”
No, you can’t fix stupid, but you can sure avoid stupid mistakes. Look over this checklist to get an idea of how much advanced planning is required and check off items as you run through the list.
___ Commit firmly to teaching overseas.
___ Create your CV and post it online; assemble a portfolio.
___ Line up recommendations and yes, you must inform your administration way early. Prepare referees for an overseas phone call.
Note: do not let your teaching certification or your passport expire or get close to expiration. Renewing from afar or scrambling to take classes in the summer can be a royal pain.
___ If you are not already active in extracurricular activities, get started.
___ Start saving money and build liquidity.
___ Start rounding up documents: passport, transcripts, marriage and birth certificates, teaching certifications.
Ready, Set, Go
So now you are dressed in your suit of armor and ready for the joust. But first, do you know how good a candidate are you?