Gary and Sally

We have just attended a job of the dreaded “job fairs”. For those teachers who are new to this process, I will post some tips here.

There are several main organisations who run job fairs and most good quality international schools are using these more and more. The main ones are CIS, Search Associates and ISS (USA based). If you are thinking of applying to these organisations, you need to get your paperwork done very early ie around October, November if you are not registered with them. Once you have done all the paperwork (or online registration) , you will need to provide usually 3 references, and these are followed up and contacted.

You then apply to go to one of the job fairs (more about those later) and will get an invitation to attend but be warned, not everyone gets an invite. Here is a rough timeline to give you an idea about application dates – please check the websites of the organisation you are applying with for exact dates – these are rough guidelines, and should be used for reference only! When I was attending the fairs recently I was surprised that some teachers had been taken by surprise by the early start they have to make on applying.

Example timeline to start teaching in August 2007:

September 2006 You make the decision to leave your present school (officially many schools will let you have until December and maybe even January to decide), but if you are applying to fairs, it is better to know asap.
Approx October 2006 Start the application for registration with a recruitment agency
December 2006 Receive invitation to job fair
end of January/start to mid February 2007 Job fairs
Feb-May 2007 Start the (seemingly never ending) process of visa applications, attestations, packing up, arrange shipping etc etc in preparation for leaving and moving on
June 2007 Have a well deserved summer break
August 2007 Arrival at new school