Top tier schools are less likely to look at the two of you if one partner is inexperienced unless one of you is a physics or calculus teacher or some such other hard to find position. (Typically schools do not recognize TEFL experience.)

Second tier schools tend to overlook the inexperience if your education is solid (which the Canadian teacher education system is). I know of a school in Monterrey, Mexico that tends to hire first year teachers so the school can train them how it wants. There are most likely others out there like that.

Good Luck!

I believe the school is an ISS school.

I once worked at a hiccup of a school 60 km outside of Pekanbaru. When I first arrived, I flew over from Singapore with a group of Caltex teachers (all in their 30's and 40's with kids). They said they loved working there. I was too inexperienced at the time to ask why though. I did find out however, that all three families were starting their 5th year at the school.

Pekanbaru is not a tourist destination. The Lonely Planet says something like "The only reason to spend the night in Pekanbaru is if you arrive from Singapore too late to catch transport out that day." I don't believe there is much to do around Pekanbaru either. (I know for certain there is nothing to do north of Pekanbaru.)

I have heard, but I can't remember from where, that the package at Caltex is quite good. Extremely high.

JISAlum, I respectfully disagree with you about earlier being better. This year, I was asked if I wanted to stay another year in OCTOBER. It was not even 3 months into the school year and I was being asked to decide what my plans were for the following August. In the past, the decision month has been January, a much more respectable time of the year for deciding to stay or go. January is early enough. October is just silly.

Respectfully,
Mexteacher

My partner and I have spent the last two years agonizing over which fair to attend because our top 10 list includes schools in Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. I remember the old days of ISS/SA Boston when the mantra was "Don't limit yourself geographically." Now it seems the placement companies are doing that for us by regionalizing the fairs. The East Coast fairs, which use to be THE fairs to attend, were almost dead last in the line up this past year. This coming year WILL be our last at our current school, so we ARE going to have to make a decision. I think the Bangkok ISS fair is going to win out for these two reasons--
1. It is one of the first fairs which means
a. better job pickings and
b. if we don't get jobs there, we still have the rest of the season.
2. The majority of our top ten schools are in Asia.

There was speculation this past year that some of the bigger schools would reappear at UNI because it was earlier than Boston, but that didn't seem to happen. Maybe this year? I think all of us teachers are getting caught in the placement companies' fight to one up each other for a bigger piece of the dwindling pie (dwindling due to video conferencing, etc.). We can only hope that the schools will one day soon declare that enough is enough. I know my administrators are getting frustrated with the season being pushed earlier and earlier AND the large number of fairs to choose from (for them, the questions are--which will have the best pool of candidates? which will have the dregs?).

Instead of asking for such a steep increase, perhaps you can ask to see a copy of the pay scale and package for foreign hire and local hire. Then, go from there. If the school is in the habit of hiring locally, it is possible they won't have a foreign hire package. If they have a foreign hire package, but are refusing to offer it to you, that is a red flag. Your minimal or lack of experience shouldn't be what qualifies you for foreign hire status. Good luck.

PS. The nearly 140,000 NTD I mentioned in the last posting included all benefits--housing, COLA, salary, etc.

I lived in Taiwan in the early 2000's. I worked for an international school in the northern part of Taipei. I can give you some cost of living numbers (for Taipei, Taiwan) for you to work with, but please keep in mind that they are a few years out of date.

(I've just checked and the exchange rate now is about what it was when I was there.)

I was paid nearly twice what you have been offered (foreign hire packages are usually MUCH better than local hire and I was at one of the best paying schools in Asia). (Also, I had more than 5 years of teaching experience and a masters.) When I coached a team, I was paid extra.

Rent was about 25,000 NTD for a one-bedroom smallish apartment in Tien Mu. Some people paid about 40,000 NTD for a two bedroom. However, I seem to remember something about rents being cheaper in other parts of the city (Tien Mu is a bit upscale). I spent another 17,000 NTD per month on food, restaurants, entertainment, a little shopping, and transportation. I wasn't being extravagant, but I also wasn't trying to pinch pennies. While cost of living in Taiwan isn't nearly as expensive as Japan, it is also not nearly as cheap as Thailand.

Leaving the island is costly. Tickets to most places in Asia will run you about 400-600 USD, the the states about 800+ USD. Public transportation is good and relatively inexpensive. I bought a scooter for 25,000 NTD. Utilities aren't horribly expensive. My electricity bill averaged about 50 USD a month.

I can't think of anything else right now. Feel free to post other questions if you have them.

The country for me wasn't Cambodia; it was Indonesia. Sorry you had a bad experience too.

Aasoudesuka makes some very good points. The road is not always smooth, SA is a business, and it is not SA place to sort out he said/she said.

On the other hand, when teachers enter into a representation agreement with a SA, we expect the company to deliver what they promise--"It is our personalized approach to the schools and candidates we serve which we would most like to emphasize. We offer highly personalized attention to the candidates and schools accepted into our program. We strive to maintain high standards, to provide timely information and to exceed our candidates' and schools' expectations in every respect." (Quote courtesy of the SA website)

My SA was everything but helpful. Who knows why. Although I had taught for 6 years and had glowing references, I was single and did not have overseas experience. Additionally, I had my sights set on top schools in Asia. Perhaphs he didn't feel I was worth his time since I wouldn't be an easy fee. In April, when it became apparent that I wouldn't be going to a top school in Asia, I began corresponding with my associate concerning other options. Though I can't prove it, I suspect he was less than honorable in his dealings with me at this time. See, I was about ready to commit (but had not agreed just yet) to a small, hard to place at school for one year (to get that experience) when I got an email from a well-known Asian school saying they were interested in me, but couldn't access my information on the SA website (there is no reason my info should have been taken off since I was still available). After emailing my associate about the problem, I never heard from the school again. Not even a polite thanks, but no thanks. Not even a the-postition's-been-filled response when I emailed about the progress of their search. It is perfectly possible that I am being paranoid, but I believe my associate conviced the school in Asia to take another one of his candidates since he knew I would take the hard to place job. Two fees are better than one!

I have heard that the fee schedule has changed at SA. That you pay an upfront fee instead of a placement fee. If this is true, perhaps it will help.

I don't think it is that easy to change your search associate. When I was with them and was very unhappy with my associate Jim Ambrose, all the feedback I got from John Magana (sp?) was not encouraging for switching. It was more along the lines of "You can leave SA if you aren't happy with your associate." But that was just my experience.

I had a pretty bad experience with Search Associates. Seven years ago, I got screwed over pretty royally by Jim Ambrose. I was a new-to-the-international-sceen teacher at the time, and near as I can figure it, he slandered me to a higher profile school that was interested in me in order to steer me into taking a position at a small company school in a southeast Asian country. Then, he completely lied about almost every single aspect concerning the school and the principal. Two months into the school year when I broke contract and left the country due to safety reasons (and at the encouragement of the US Embassy), he had the balls to send me a letter requesting reimbursement for the fee he had to return to the school. Needless to say, I did not pay him. Search Associates and ISS are a necessary evil if you want to teach overseas. Just don't expect anyone at either organization to have YOUR best intrest at heart. We teachers bring in a pittance compared to the schools, so of course, the schools will be who the companies serve.