In my opinion, target a second tier school that are happy to have a teaching couple come along, and are ready to give you some IB experience. If I remember rightly, the international school Azerbaijan might be such a place, though it's a while since I last looked at it. In reality, a British school would be hard as UK national curriculum experience is almost always expected, but the IB usually doesn't have such nationalistic preference. Being a couple is a big strength.

I was given the impression by my Search guy that London was a very international fair that had schools from all over the world. There are more schools from Europe at that fair than others, but there would be. There are still A LOT of other schools from outside Europe.

It is a reality of the job that most (and I mean a VERY high percentage) of people will have to give inform their school that they won't be returning before hey have another job. It goes far against the golden rule of "don't quit until you already have another job somewhere else" but that's the job. Don't let it get to you as most others will be in the same boat, unless of course they come from a European school that says they don't have to give notice until April or something. Be cool about it. Seriously.

Good luck to you

If you transfer from one school in Thailand to another then many will put you as local hires and take a lot of the benefits of an international hire away. For me, if I was looking at being in Bangkok long term then I'd hold out for something I really wanted rather than accept something and expect to move up later.

Moving up in Thailand is very hard. The better schools there hire almost entirely from overseas. The second tier schools often have a mix of local and overseas hires, and the lower schools will be mostly local hires. I think you can move from a low end school to a high end school easily when crossing borders, but it's much harder if you're staying in the same country, especially in a country like Thailand that has so many low end schools.

Horizon Abu Dhabi is outside of Abu Dhabi city centre but in close proximity to quite a few other schools. I understand that the basic salary is quite average for the area, but I don't know more about the package or admin. For me, when I was living in that area, Horizon was the school I was happy to have avoided. It had a very high percentage of local students compared to the other schools and apparently quite a few discipline issues (based on comments from parents of students who had transferred from Horizon to where I worked). It was a couple of years ago since I lived in the area, but if you are having an interview then I'd certainly ask their approach to behaviour management.

Horizon Abu Dhabi is outside of Abu Dhabi city centre but in close proximity to quite a few other schools. I understand that the basic salary is quite average for the area, but I don't know more about the package or admin. For me, when I was living in that area, Horizon was the school I was happy to have avoided. It had a very high percentage of local students compared to the other schools and apparently quite a few discipline issues (based on comments from parents of students who had transferred from Horizon to where I worked). It was a couple of years ago since I lived in the area, but if you are having an interview then I'd certainly ask their approach to behaviour management.

For me, my own apartment is one of the most basic parts of the package that any school should provide now. When I first moved overseas I had an open mind to sharing, but that was a few years ago. Some schools won't provide any housing at all, and those that offer shared accommodation are clearly making an effort, but my room mate days were over at about 28 so I interpret shared accommodation to mean "this place is maybe better for younger teachers/new graduates. We clearly don't have a lot of money so don't expect too much". Forgive me if that's a generalization or if there are elite schools out there offering shared housing, but that's not my experience and I haven't been offered shared housing for a VERY long time. Maybe it's a regional thing? I've always been in the Middle East and S.E. Asia/

To make that kind of money you'll either be VERY experienced and start high up on the scale, work for a VERY good school, or work for ADEC.

As for salary negotiation, I've only worked for places that have shown me clearly where I am on their scale, and had it explained to me why. Perhaps other members can offer more advice about that.

Fantastic news Shadowjack. Really happy for you. After all the effort you've put into the updates that is the happy ending I was hoping to read about. The tension sounds painful though.

Thanks again for your hard work and good luck to you.

I heard really good things about this place. I know someone who works there now and someone else who worked there 2 years ago and was gutted to leave. I've also visited the campus myself and I have to say the facilities are amazing, and in an absolutely beautiful location. There is a load of money pumped into the place and they do a lot of work in the community, including offering scholarships to some less fortunate locals.

As with any new school they have had some teething problems and a change in management, but that's nothing surprising. They do ask you to work hard but that's what you have to do if you want to live in one of the worlds top tourist destinations and have a great life. The packages aren't the best in the world but closely follow the better Bangkok schools. Unfortunately, a common complaint of Phuket expats is that Phuket is expensive compared to other parts of Thailand. I'm sure you can live cheaply Thailand takes a few months to learn where you can fid the best cheap food, and it takes equally long to learn how to order it. the school might not be an elite place to work, but in my opinion it's still one of the better places to work in Thaland.

As for getting in, you'll do well to get an interview without any IB experience. I was advised (as people so often are in S.E Asia) that they really want at least 2 years IB experience. It doesn't hurt to give it a shot though. I don't think they're on the list to be at the London fair so if they aren't full after the Bangkok fair then it's worth a try.

P.S, For anyone living there or visiting, as you come away from the campus and have come on the main road towards Phuket town, there is a coffee shop called Doi Chang on the left hand side of the road opposite a massive temple and by a lake. It has the awesome coffee and some really nice food. Worth a peek if you're in the area.

My understanding of this place from 3 years ago is that you can do better but you can a lot worse too. Certainly not a bad place to start your international school teaching career. The good thing in the UAE is that although the standards may not always be really high, they are also not allowed to be really low. There are standards, and you do have some rights in the UAE. Deira is a decent part of Dubai to be in. It's busy with plenty to do nearby. However, when I last looked at the school the salary was quite low. Anything less that 12,000 AED and you've got to think about it hard in my opinion. It's doable and you can live happily with a bit of saving, but if moving to the Middle East and saving loads of cash is your goal then less than 12,000 isn't really going to give you that unless you're really making an effort. That's my opinion anyway. If they've improved their package and are now paying more than that then it'd be worth a shot for sure.

I agree, a fly on the wall documentary would be very good, especially showing all the highs and lows people go through. The scenes of the hotel bar on the third night or the coffee shop when people have just got the job they wanted, or of course haven't got anything but already quit their current jobs would make for good watching.

For anyone that's had the pleasure of following Shadowjack's day by day, blow by blow account of the Bangkok job fair I'm sure you'll agree that it has provided quality reading. I have even found myself logging in this evening especially looking forward to reading the post and seeing the updates/progress, hoping for a happy ending just like in a story. I have no idea who this guy is, but I think of this site as being there to support the community of international school teachers and the account provided of the Bangkok fair has been a great example of how that can be achieved. In fact, I think ISR should even consider keeping the posts accessible on the main site page just so people don't have to go searching for advice of exactly what fairs are like and can go straight to the thread. So much the information is in his posts.

Anyway, Shadowjack, thank you for your extremely informative posts and I really do hope you and Mrs. Shadowjack find what you're looking for.

Good luck and all the best,

Inman.

The best advice I've had is to not pin your hopes on 1 job. It sounds perfectly normal and logical, I know, but even after quite a few years of experience I still fall into the trap of stopping and waiting to see what happens if I've had an interview with somewhere I really wanted, and I've let other jobs go before getting rejected. I guess that only applies to when applying independently and not to the job fairs, but good advice nonetheless.

I don't really want to say too much about other posters on this forum as it has been discussed to death, and usually focusing on the reliability of information presented by Psyguy. In general though, I find the forum a very informative place and I feel that most people generally only comment on things that they have genuine experience about. The amount of detail gone into a post often gives some indication of the authenticity of the experience/knowledge source. But, that's why it's great when you get 2 or 3 posters chippng in with information.

Just as when you read the ISR reviews you have to work out who has a problem, and who is the problem, with the forum too you work out what's right and what seems a bit far fetched. As I said though, I've found a lot of the responses on here to be seemingly well founded. I just don't see his being a forum with a lot people are motivate to post a load of false information (though they clearly do exist).

The recent post from Shadowjack about the Bangkok fair was one of the most informative posts I've read.

Keep the updates comin Shadowjack. It makes for good reading. Really hope you get what you're looking for. Good luck.

ADEC are having a massive push to get teachers in local schools are as an employer are apperntly very good. However, it is highly unlikely that you will have any expat kids in these schools. Some people like it as it is good money with not so much responsibility. The flip side of that though is that a VERY big part of the job is classroom management. Also, if you know you will be overseas for just 2 years and then going home then ADEC might not be bad, but if you're looking at moving into an international school afterwards then ADEC won't have the same impact in future applications as an international school would. ADEC is not a bad short term move, but if you've been offered the same deal in an international school then the international school would be better for the long term in my opinion. In addition, an international school offering that will be at the higher end of the scale, so you'd probably have quite a positive experience.

From responses to a post I put asking about Spring fairs last week, it sounds like the Bangkok spring fair could be for you. Take a look at the schools attending.