I am coming for a 2 tier school in Asia with a pretty good reputation and package. I am from North American and I have a trailing spouse and 2 kids. We own a rental property in Asia and have some savings.

I have 2 offers:
One is in another Asian country where savings is great but the reputation of the school is not spectacular.
pros- we could use the savings to buy a second property in Asia
cons- working at this school for a few years might make my resume/CV look worse compared to the school I am coming from now. This place is not known for being an exciting place to live.

The other one is in a Scandinavian country where we would have minimal savings, but great healthcare, retirement and free university for my kids when they get older.

pros- Great quality of life. Medical, University and retirement are less of a worry. Working in Scandinavia would look great on the resume.
cons- I doubt we will be able to afford to buy a house in Scandinavia on this salary. Will have minimal savings and not be able to travel for fun, or to visit family easily.

Additional thoughts:
Its hard to get a job in Europe if you are not from the Eurozone and especially difficult with a family. If I pass this opportunity up, it might be difficult to find the same opportunity again in the future. This job could also help me to get my foot in the door for other European schools if I want to leave after my first contract (however, I dont expect other European schools to pay much better). Without the income generated from a second rental property or the ability to own a home in Scandinavia I dont know how happy we could be. My wife is not a teacher and is currently taking care of our kids at home. When the kids are old enough for school she could work as a teacher's assistant in the Scandinavian school, but that wouldn't pay all that much.

In an ideal world I would like to do 2-3 years in Asia, buy a second property and then settle in Europe.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I am coming from a good tier 2 international school in South East Asia, with more than 8 years internationally, 3 degrees in my subject/education and I have some publications as well. I had 11 interviews for good schools at the Search fair in London and have had approximately 1 interview each week since then; yet no offers. One principal at the fair even literally said "oh wow" when he looked over my resume. I know my resume looks great (not to be arrogant or anything) and I did very well on almost all of my interviews (except for one whose educational philosophy conflicted with mine); however, it seems that schools only want to hire teaching couples with no dependents or a single teacher with no trailing spouse.

A few years back when I was still childless and single (and my resume was not half as good as it is now) I had lots of offers at great schools and I am still targeting the same schools and regions, but now I am not getting those same kinds of offers.

The annoying thing is that I had to give my current school notice in October and am nervous I might end up at a lower quality school.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Search has the salaries listed for most schools when you arrive at the job fairs (usually in a large binder). Why not just post them on the website as well?

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I am currently working at a second tier school and have more than 10 years of teaching experience (not just from this school). I like the atmosphere of my school, but I want to try a new continent. The problem is that my school requires that I give notice of contract renewal at the end of October (9 months prior to the start of that contract). If I say that I am staying the following year I am required to sign the contract before the end of October, otherwise the position will be offered to someone else. Obviously its too early for me to have a job lined up already. When I asked about this to the head of school he said that teachers who want to leave just give their notice and they usually find great jobs. I would do this if I were still single, but with a family I am a bit reluctant to take such a risk. If I sign and find a job later I will have to pay a huge fine for breaking contract. But I can't get to the Search fair easily since I would have to take off work for that (what reason could I give them without lying to them) and my principal would probably see me at the fair. Any suggestions?