With no IB experience, you might still have a chance at some of the 2nd Tier IB Diploma schools like KIS, Regent's, or Pan-Asia Int'l School. Good luck!

Last January, I had a Skype interview for a school located in a country where I would be passing through on holiday the following week. The principal invited me in for a second, on-site interview where I also gave a demo class, and soon after I was offered a position. So on-site interviews certainly do happen. Perhaps you could mention that you have already made travel plans to visit Country X and you are available should they decide to interview you in person, and if the school is interested in you they will surely let you know!

Your story is very similar to mine - Psyguy's advice is pretty spot on, but here are a few more things to consider -

Try to separate the decision to pursue teaching as a career with the decision of where to live. If you really enjoy teaching, than go for it! You may or may not end up in Thailand, but at least you'll be doing something you love for a living. That's more than most people can say. And there are lots of fascinating places to live and work abroad besides Thailand.

If you do decide you want to be a teacher, the next major decision is certification. This is a tough decision, because you'll either have to get certified in your home country or get US/UK certification through an online program....or both. There are a number of threads on this site that go into detail regarding online certification options.

If you absolutely NEED to go back to Thailand asap, I would still get certified. Then, you'll be in a decent position to apply for Bilingual schools in Thailand. These don't pay as well as top international schools, but considerably more than ESL. With experience in Thailand and teacher certification, I think you'll have a decent shot.

My hunch is that you are probably going through reverse culture shock right now. If you haven't heard of it before, Google yet. You just spent a year in a foreign culture, and got used to the way things are in Thailand. Now that you're back home, you will need to re-adjust all over again. Feeling like a stranger in your "own" country is a tough experience, I've been there and it sucks. Give yourself a few months to readjust. Re-discover some of the things you like about home. It DOES get much better.

From what I've seen, Tier 3 schools are especially [b]unlikely[/b] to hire a teacher with several dependents. The primary reason for this is that many Tier 3 schools are run like businesses. The schools don't particularly care about hiring the very best teachers; they do want teachers who are cheap, won't complain, won't cause complaints, and who will make the school look good to parents. That's why a chirpy, blonde single American in her 20's fresh out of teacher's college is every Tier 3 school's dream hire.

Another factor to consider is tuition for your children. In New York City, most people who can afford it send their kids to private school, which costs in the neighbordhood of $30,000 per year. I don't know too many details regarding the public school system in NYC, but I'd wager its far below the quality of a top-tier international school. So, if you have two kids, and don't trust the public school system in NYC, you'll end up paying half your salary just for your childrens' education.

A single athlete can create millions of dollars worth of profit for a sports organization. It is difficult to imagine any particular international school teacher having anywhere near the same effect on a school's bottom line. Sure, top schools do hire selectively, hiring only well qualified teachers with strong track records. However, within that pool of excellent teachers, I don't see how any one teacher would make a great financial impact on the school than another.

I like the idea of living with just a few material possessions. After two years of living in Shanghai, I've accumulated so much junk - clothes I hardly ever wear, books I will likely never read again, aging electronics I would love to replace.

I actually look forward to giving away/throwing away all the useless things I don't really need now that I'm moving again - its a great incentive to keep my life simple and fresh :)

Loved reading your post, Panda! Its very encouraging to hear that teachers with families benefit from the int'l school experience just as much as single teachers (such as myself) do.

For some, international school teaching is a wonderful 2-3 year adventure away from home. Others make a career out of teaching abroad, spending the bulk of their years overseas. How much time do you envision teaching overseas?

I am currently in my first overseas teaching posting (have never taught at home), and I will likely teach abroad for the rest of my life. A few of my reasons are...

(1) Thrill and adventure of living in a different culture. Feeling more 'alive' when living abroad than I do in my home country.

(2) Amazing travel oppurtunities. The ability to travel internationally several times a year is amazing.

(3) More dynamic teaching environment. I feel that there is more motivation to continuously improve as a teacher when abroad, as there is always a "better" school to aspire to.

(4) Oppurtunity to make approximately the same teaching salary while living in a country with 1/2 the cost of living.

(5) Lack of teaching jobs in my home country (Canada).

Strongly disagree with Shadowjack regarding the likelihood of being invited to a Search fair. I was invited to the Toronto Search fair while midway through my B.Ed degree, with no "real" teaching experience (I had taught ESL for a few years, but that doesn't count for much). I had three interviews, and was offered (and accepted) a teaching position from a 3rd tier (but well paying) school in Shanghai

I knew a teaching couple who attended the fair, both of whom were also midway through their B.Ed degree, with no classroom experience. They were interviewing with pretty much every school at the fair - schools from Egypt, Sudan, etc - and ended up receiving SIX job offers! They ended up in a fairly good school in Bangkok.

What's more, Ray Sparks, the Toronto associate, had a special deal where B.Ed students could attend the fair for only $50 (vs. $200) for a "partial" Search membership. I don't know if this deal is still available or not, but it was pretty sweet at the time.

Bottom line - if you present yourself well, and are flexible about location, you WILL find a international school teaching job, whether through Search or otherwise.

I'm from Toronto too! The standard advice to teach for 2+ years in one's home country before going overseas is almost impossible in Canada. There simply isn't the need for more teachers in Toronto - enrollment is going down, schools are closing, and there is a massive backlog of Education graduates who are still waiting for their first full-time teaching position.

I got hired straight out of teacher's college to teach in a Chinese run British-curriculum school in Shanghai. It was the right decision for me, but do understand that many 3rd tier international schools are run like businesses, rather than places of education. The owners will often have no experience in education, and view Western teachers as simply overpaid foreign faces whose only purpose is to boost enrollment and profits for the school.

I've always found it amusing when Brits (and it always tends to be Brits) get really heated over the British vs. American English debate. Probably a sign of underlying resentment at no longer being the world's premier English-speaking power. Personally, I couldn't care less, but you might want to be careful when working in a British school - after all, its your ass on the line.

The best international schools usually have quite low turnover, which means that teachers can (and do) stay at the same school for an extended period of time. I'm new to international teaching as well, but I would guess that so long as you are doing your job well (and not pissing anybody off) you can usually remain at your current school for as long as you please.

I say *usually* because in life (and especially in - schools) there are no certainties. There is no guarunteed job security in an international school - once your contract is up, its entirely up to the school whether or not they want to renew it. That said, recruiting new teachers is expensive and time-consuming. Most admin would rather hire a teacher who will remain put at the school for 5+ years rather than someone who will just complete the minimum 2 years and take off.

I am near the end of a 2-year contract in Shanghai (one month to go!). I don't love Shanghai and occasionally hate it, but the city does have its charms.

The former French Concession is a dazzling place to go for a stroll - tree lined streets and old European architecture - and its popping with tapas bars, cafes, and wine lounges. If you like to eat and drink in glitzy surroundings (and don't mind the exhorbitant prices), than Shanghai is a brilliant city. Then again, you can just as easily pop into a hole-in-the-wall noodle or dumpings joint and eat fairly well for next to nothing.


There are loads of jobs here, and its possible to both save and travel around North or South-East Asia during the holidays. In two years, I've been able to visit Japan, the Phillipines, Taiwan, Thailand, Myanmmar, and Mongolia!

The pollution does get very bad, but only on certain days. Some people react really badly to it, luckily I seem to tolerate it fairly well. Food-related scandals get a huge amount of press, but honestly I've been in good health during my entire stay here (knock on wood).

The day-to-day aspects of life that wear me down are the constant, incessant crowds, the "me first" attitude, pushing and shoving on the subway, the obscene materialsm, and the general coldness.

I don't regret coming to China for one second. It was my first teaching job, and everyone needs to start somewhere - and I think Shanghai is far better than many of the true "undesirable" teaching locations. Then again, I am VERY happy I am leaving China, and frankly have no plans to be back anytime in the near or distant future.

I went to the Hong Kong fair this year, as a Math teacher with 2 years of international (non-IB) teaching experience. Schools at the fair broke down into three roughly even groups - HK schools, Mainland China schools, and everything else.

Competition for jobs in HK schools was fierce. Seemed that all of the candidates were aiming for the same top-tier HK schools. I went into the fair primarily interested in finding work in HK, and wasn't even able to get a single interview.

If you are very open about location and don't mind going to an undesirable location or a bottom tier school, you might find something in HK. However, HK is a smaller fair, and also relatively early in the recruiting season. Since I don't think you would be competitive (at this point) for a top-tier HK school, I don't know how worthwhile the fair would be to you. You might have a better shot waiting till later in the season and interviewing on skype.