[quote="KelBel"]We arrived home (USA) from the Bangkok fair last night. We are a teaching couple certified in high school econ, SS, history, geography, psychology, sociology and middle school sci, SS, lang arts, gifted. We taught ESL in Japan for 3 years. While our fair experience was good - we learned a great deal - we left without a job offer. We had 4 schools interview us. One school liked us and we had 3 different sessions with them. In the end, we were told repeatedly that we were "great candidates".

When we arrived there were 8 schools (that we were interested in) that had jobs to fit our subject areas. The crazy rush to get an interview proved to be extremely stressful. 5 of the 8 schools just told us that they only would consider IB (MYP) experienced teachers. Of the interviews that we had, things went well and we thought we had a good chance with all of them.

Would I do it again? Not so sure. The cost was extreme and so far I don't see any benefit. Now, if one of those schools that we interviewed with offers us something in the upcoming months, then I would be able to say that it was worth the trip.

Best of luck to everyone![/quote]

You are qualified in a lot of subjects - I can't believe that you left the fair without an offer.

Personally, I blame SEARCH for their lack of information about the schools' needs at the Bangkok fair. I live in Bangkok, so the expense to go to the fair is very minimal. But if I lived in the US and traveled to the fair only to find that most of the schools wanted IB teachers, I would be very angry. SEARCH needs to better inform candidates that in these early fairs, most schools are looking for IB teachers.

^Just email me. Same username but at gmail.

I spoke to NIST at the fair. Basically they were turning everyone away who did not have AT LEAST 6 years of IB teaching experience.

I went in yesterday with no expectations since last year I got zero interviews. I took an IB course online back in November; it definitely helped when I was talking to schools. Still, most want IB experienced teachers, not just IB trained teachers. I was able to get two interviews, and about 6 schools said that they would try to fit me in (although this could just be a lie). Had the first one yesterday with a school in Hong Kong which I thought went well, but so far no word on a follow-up.

A lot of teachers seem to be in the same boat as I was last year - having no luck with interviews because of the lack of IB. I even had some schools reject me because they were only looking for married teachers. Schools, for the most part, were nicer to me this year. Last year a few of them looked at me like I had the plague when I mentioned I had been teaching TEFL for the past 4 years.

A few schools told me that they had looked at my resume and while it looks impressive, they couldn't short-list me because there are just more qualifed candidates at the fair with IB experience. There are about 500 candidates at this fair and 117 schools. I'll post more info as I get it. Hope this helps!

I'm here as well - went last year and had ZERO interviews because of lack of IB experience. Took 1 training course on the DP program so hopefully will have more luck this year.

Dropped a few resumes - there must be over 200 in the NIST folder alone. Been studying my IB vernacular tonight; hopefully will get some interviews in the morning.

The school year for most of the schools in the SEARCH database is either late August or early September. Start dates for April are rare - you may be thinking of local schools (Thai gov't schools start in April).

If you go to a later fair (March) you may have a better chance - I found the Bangkok fair in January to be very competitive. Schools know they have time and can afford to wait for the perfect candidates. If you have IB experience you'll be a shoe-in. They also like teaching couples. However I did speak to a guy at the job fair last year who said he was hired at the fair in Cambridge with no IB experience.f

One more thing - they probably won't care about substitute teaching. My advice is to email some of the schools you're interested in and see if you can get interviews. Why not stay in your own country for a few years and get some teaching experience?

^Yep, did that too. I think what really did me in was the fact that I had been teaching EFL for the past 5 years or so. Lots of these schools looked at my CV and it was like I had the plague - they were not interested in a TEFLer. I've been teaching subject matter English this past year in an EP program here in Bangkok, so hopefully that will help some. But who really knows? The attitude I got from the schools at the fair was if you didn't have IB experience, or weren't a teaching couple, then you were not a viable candidate.

I am strongly considering taking the online DP course this month (English A1) for the same reasons mentioned in the OP. It's expensive, but it'll be worth it if I can snag a job at the SEARCH fair in January.

I went to the fair last year - spoke to about 20 schools but no one wanted to interview me because I didn't have any IB experience and hadn't taught subject-matter English for a few years because I've been teaching EFL. It was very disappointing to have all these schools reject me.

My stats:

B.A. English
M.A. English Literature
California Clear Credential (English, 7-12)
TEFL Certificate
Taught a few years in California, mostly substitute teaching.
Taught 6 months in England (English subject matter)
I've been teaching subject-matter English in Bangkok for the past 6 months at a private Thai school.

If I take this online course (or maybe 2), what are my chances? I'd like to stay in Asia, if possible, hopefully at an IB school that could train me.