@gccoach

Misinformation from SighGuy is a forum hazard. It really should be part of the forum's user agreement.

"Users must be aware that SighGuy has no direct knowledge of the schools he claims to have information about. Taking advice from him is likely to damage to one's job search and possibly their career in international education.

Furthermore, while he doesn't intend to offend you. He does this more or less automatically without trying."

Thanks for providing useful information on the forum.

SighGuy,

Do spelling mistakes bother you too? What about grammatical errors? It seems like they probably wouldn't. What about people who claim knowledge that they don't really have?

I had two interviews before being offered a job with a school in Asia. The first was with the head of the upper school/high school principal and the second was with the director/superintendent.

I'd say both interviews went between 1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours.

I was looking for a school counselor position and I had a job offer by late October.

My friends who are experienced international school counselors started interviewing for positions in October and November. Some have accepted job offers already and some are still looking.

Clearly SA and ISS are missing out on a market here. They could have a pre-job fair opportunity to have a match.com meet-up.

"Tired of losing out on jobs to 'couples'. Meet your soul-mate and make yourself more competitive in the international school job market."

Actually, I just saw a friend a few days ago who came back to North America after working many years at a top tier international school. She said a lack of eligible bachelors was the main factor. I've known others to make the same choice.

I've had friends work at Hangzhou International School and Shanghai Community International School. They were generally happy at both places. However, it's been a good 8 years since I knew people at SCIS.

SCIS' payscale is lower than most of the other legitimate international schools in Shanghai. And Shanghai is a fun city, but it's easy to burn through money there too. Their payscale would go a lot further in Hangzhou.

Glad to hear you received the invite.

Are you hoping to do high school, middle school, or elementary school counseling? Depending on the type of counseling role you want, I'd think the schools would be looking for slightly different skills.

I think a lot of it comes down to your ability to work well with a wide variety of individuals. Being comfortable discussing your cross cultural skills and working with parents would be important at just about any school and any level. I think helping kids transition in and out is another common theme with schools with a lot of Third Culture Kids.

Good luck.

I was hired for next year through Skype interviews. I also have a number of friends who have been hired or are being interviewed right now through Skype interviews at tier 1 and tier 2 institutions. My friends are high school counselors, which is probably a high demand area, and a number of them are using personal contacts made at conferences or people they worked with at previous schools so this may also make a big difference.

You say you have overseas experience, do you mean teaching at an international school or having lived overseas? If you've worked overseas already is there a way you could reach out to friends who are working at international schools to see if there are openings at their schools? I figure this is the way to go outside the fair system once you have a few schools under your belt.

A number of schools mention Skype interviews on their website outright. However, I think it would be difficult to compile a list of schools that absolutely wouldn't hire outside a fair.

Good luck.

There are one two reviews for Chengdu schools on the members section. Neither is positive and both are recent. They're typical for 3rd tier reviews from Chinese schools. One is for Chengdu Meishi International School and the other is for Leman International School. There is nothing on the QSI campus, Eton House International, Chengdu International School, or Oxford International.

Chengdu never gets talked about on this forum. It's in the hinterlands of China, so few people go there. I've visited Chengdu many years ago (8 years) and I liked it, though I'm sure like all of China it is radically different now. Back then it was lagging significantly behind east coast cities in terms of development.. The quality and resources of the schools out there are going to be lower than the best that you find in the eastern parts of China.

Good luck.

In relation to the teaching licensure, I heard from one on their counselors that Singapore recently changed (perhaps a year or two ago?) their visa requirements. All foreign teachers need to have current licensure to work there. In fact, some very experienced teachers were told they would have to be laid off if they didn't get valid teaching licenses as some had let their licenses expire.

Good reason to make sure one keeps their licensure/credential up-to-date.

I haven't heard of it. Lots of schools like it are popping up in China though.

I would say the estimate difference is because one of them is probably better at estimating how much a typical foreigner would spend in Guangzhou versus a local Chinese person.

As you know China can be quite inexpensive or expensive depending a lot on your lifestyle. Foreign food, drinking in bars, and travel can dig into your savings a lot. Being Chinese and even speaking Chinese can help a lot in terms of finding less expensive options, but unless you live like a local Chinese person then the savings potential that Alcanta cites looks unusually high to me. Most of the folks working for a place like AISG are going to expect a more international lifestyle.

Alcanta looks to be a private Chinese school using IB curriculum, which is different than a place like AISG that cannot enroll Chinese nationals. The management approach is likley to be more Chinese than international at Alcanta too, which would give me pause.

I know some folks in their late 50's and 60's. As they near that age they have to pay close attention to government regulations for each country and whether they can get an initial visa and how long they can renew their visas.

If you use Search Associates, they have a section on age limits (if they exist) on acquiring visas.

American School Bombay? The school looked solid to me and the information on SA makes them look solid in terms of benefits/compensation. Reviews look okay even if there are not a whole lot.

Still not likely to be a great fit for someone with British training.

Part of the issue is that there are a lot of very good private high schools that serve the Indian elite, so those families may not send their kids to international schools as frequently. I know this is true in Pakistan (granted it is a different country, but some trends seem to originate from British Colonial times). Otherwise, living in India (pollution, chaos, noise, poverty, etc) is probably a tough sell for business folks to live with family who don't have an Indian background themselves (non-Indian Americans/Canadians/Australians/etc). I bet those "returners" are more likely to consider good private national schools as well. Now ASD and ASB are probably the schools serving more of the embassy/consulate crowd, so there is a big drop off afterwards. This may account for the relative lack of Tier 1 schools in India. Again, this may be totally wrong and my direct experience with India is not extensive.

I was there several years back for a college fair (4 or 5 years). Their facilities looked okay, but not great. It's interesting that their photo gallery of the campus is not working (hmm?).

It may have been a ways to downtown Mumbai, but I wouldn't call it rural by any means. Suburban perhaps. By comparison, we also visited Pathways (Aravali?) outside of Dehli, and that felt very rural.

Unfortunately, I don't have knowledge about working there or live there.

Good luck.

Newcounsel,

I cannot offer advice about the fair since I've not gone to one, but make sure you are sending out letters of interest to places now. Some interviews are being conducted and offers are being made to some counselors already for jobs posted on Search and TIEonline. I only know of it happening anecdotally, so it may not be widespread.

Be aware that other counseling jobs are likely to appear, so don't lose hope. I know a number of folks who are likely leaving their counseling jobs at tier 1 and tier 2 schools, but whose schools have not yet posted tentative openings.

Cheryl, who vettievette mentioned, was the woman whom I was speaking about. She moved on from Shanghai American School to Europe a year or two back.

Good luck.