So... we went into this with low expectations, given that we don't have many years of experience. We had one interview set up in advance, so I went into thinking that if nothing else, at least we had the one interview.

We've had seven interviews so far. One school seemed very uninterested, another school seemed to have a fantastic head of school, but the school wasn't the best fit for us, so we turned it down. We have one offer in hand, and we're waiting to hear from three other schools.

It's the waiting that gets to me. Unless you've received twenty interview requests (the most I've heard so far is 10), there is a LOT of downtime. One nice thing about the downtime is the opportunity to talk to other candidates. I feel like there's a real camaraderie in the candidates' lounge. I've had a lot of fun talking to other candidates.

I sat with one woman who burst into tears after the head of NIST walked away. He offered her a dream position, she accepted, and then the stress and elation of it all got to her. A nice moment.

The waiting really is the worst part. All of our interviews are over. Now it's just a matter of seeing if there will be follow up interviews.

How's everyone else doing?

Two solid nibbles! A Skype interview with one school, with a follow up coming soon, and an interview tomorrow after registration at Search.

For everyone who is going to be at Search, good luck! I look forward to talking about everyone's nibbles... and hopefully offers that result from the nibbles.

DCgirl, we finally got two nibbles. Not necessarily in places we'd really want to go, but it's nice to get something, you know?

It sounds like a pain, but not a terrible one, not if you get to work at ISKL. I met a woman who had worked at ISKL at one of our PD workshops. She was there for ten years with her children. The only reason she left was for some family issues she had to take care of back home, but she said she would go back in a heartbeat.

ISKL is one of the those schools I would love to eventually work at.

Seems about right. The front of the building looks very much like a daycare/cram school, more than likely in a small, rented storefront of a building. I'd give it a pass.

It's tutoring center/cram school. Not sure if that's what you're after, but it's not an international school.

I'm sick of PsyGuy pushing Singapore as "one big shopping mall." Yes, there are a lot of shopping malls, but if you make even the SMALLEST effort to explore the area, there is a LOT more out there.

I have a small child and I would take a job in Singapore in a heartbeat. If you want culture, there are museums and orchestras and a lot of concerts and theater events, both local and international. There are a lot of things on offer for children, including an amazing zoo, a night safari, and a bird sanctuary. Sentosa Island is a fun diversion, but if you want something more low key, there are a lot of smaller, practically deserted islands with beautiful beaches that you can take day trips to. There are parks. If you want something "grittier," there is Chinatown.

It's not "Asian Disney," Teachermom. If you went to visit and made even the slightest bit of effort to get out of the major shopping area (which, yes, is a big tourist attraction), then you'd find there's a lot more to do. In other words, don't necessarily rule Singapore out, especially if you have children.

If we're making a list of decent, livable cities in China, then add Nanjing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, and possibly Qingdao (I was only there for a weekend as a Model UN chaperone, but I have some friends who have been there going on four years now and they love it).

@Senator:

I appreciate the bulk of your advice and I generally think you have a lot of good things to say. However, please don't mistake my unwillingness to endlessly argue with buffoonish trolls as my allowing myself to be bullied. In a moment of panic, I wondered if something was wrong with me. Then I remembered where the question was coming from and decided it wasn't worth pursuing any further. I'd rather converse with people who have actually worked at international schools.

After all, who is going to seriously take the advice of someone who apparently job hops every single year and "goes rogue" to job fairs to advertise for schools they have never worked at?

At this point, we've gotten one possible nibble (from a school in the Middle East, so... not sure about that), one "see ya at the fair," and today landed us our second rejection. At least they were quick about it. We applied last night, and today they responded. Better than throwing resumes into a void, I guess.

Trying very hard not to feel panicky.

I know several families with kids that have worked in Shanghai and absolutely loved it. Yeah, it's China, China's polluted, but I've found that Shanghai pollution isn't so terrible. Many blue sky days, and in the winter, the air feels quite crisp. I think being on the water helps.

@BookshelfAmy:

Okay, my turn to reassure you. With our first international school jobs, we had no contacts and we went to one of the job fairs in the US. We came away with no jobs. About a month later, one of the schools we had interviewed with at the fair contacted us with job offers. At the same time, we had been doing Skype interviews, and one of those interviews turned into an offer. There was a third possibility that seemed like it was going to turn into an offer (we had already interviewed twice), but we stopped the process once we accepted our current jobs.

So... I do think you'll get a job. You might not get a job at the job fair, but you will more than likely get a job.

ETA: One of the teachers here last year went to the job fair in Cambridge and came away with nothing. A few weeks later, one of the schools she interviewed with contacted her and offered her a job... in Italy. She's there now and loving it.

@Hallier:

Our experience in international education thus far isn't vast, but I will keep that excellent advice in mind for the future.

Luckily I have managed to avoid all of those egregious resume mistakes, but I really like the tip about a bullet pointed cover letter. I'm going to retool my cover letter using that idea and see how it looks.

Thanks for taking the time to write out something so thoughtful.

@Gereja:

What's going down at the Shenzhen and Shekou schools?

There are several positive, uplifting people in this thread. Thank you for helping me to calm down and look at things a bit more objectively.

@antitravolta:

I hear you on those alternative applications. A few of them haven't been so bad. AS Dubai's took all of five minutes. But one particular application took a ridiculous amount of time, something like 5+ hours (spread over a few days) for what they wanted. For a third tier school that doesn't pay all that way, it seemed... odd.