Hello all. I have a question about SA. I recently applied, and all of my references have been submitted. I was sent the info to pay the $200 fee to go into Active status. Before I pay I'd like to know some honest thoughts on them.
Is it worth it at this point? I'm not actively looking for SY 12-13, but am not opposed to switching positions. I'm really looking more for SY 13-14.
I am married, with 1 child and 1 on the way. Does this limit my chances? I'm not looking for a teaching position, rather to be a Coordinator, Manager, or Director of Instructional/Educational Technology.
We have no preference as to where we'll live, so do you recommend going to one of the SA's Fairs? My region fair would be in Hong Kong, and we like Asia and don't mind staying in the region but would like to check out other regions as well.
Thanks for any assistances and for answering my questions. All the best to all of you.
Search Associates and International Schools
-
anitahorton
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:31 pm
- Location: Dallas, TX
- Contact:
Educational Recruitment review via www.artteachtravel.com
I wanted to make mention that I keep a weekly blog at www.artteachtravel.com and I have published two articles (in a three-part article series) of some information and differences in educational recruitment companies. Two weeks ago I wrote about UNI; this past week I wrote about ISS and this next week I will write about SA. Please feel free to check out my blog and see if anything I wrote about pertains to you. Thank you.
OK
My usual advice is that if you have a very narrow or focused region you can do the work on your own. If you have a very broad search then an Agency like Search can cut down on the amount of work. A few thing to consider:
1) If you join search you will get a daily update of new positions and an update on school vacancies looking for your subject area. This can be VERY helpful and convenient, that said it does tend to make one lazy, as focusing on the search schools are just so easy. You get a notice, you log in, do a search, click on a school, click on an email link, copy and paste a cover letter and hit send. Compared to the work and routine of checking individual school sites, filling out an application or preparing an email it can get a bit routine, and tiring.
2) SEARCh has about 670 schools, thats more then the other big agencies, but is small compared to the over all number of schools. There are over 2000 IB schools alone outside the USA. You cant really do complete search without doing a signifigant amount of the work on your own. Which means visiting school HR sites over and over and over.
3) Even if you join Search i recommend one of the smaller agencies as well, such as TIE, Joy, etc. (Im a member of TIE). The costs are small about $40 a year, and get a lot of smaller schools.
4) The HK fair is a small time, regional fair and basically has local chinese schools, the reason is that the BIG fair in Bangkok, is the week before. Thats the one you want to go to. You want to be at a fair that has more schools, which will have a stronger likelihood of having your particular coordinator position available. Before going to any fair you should check to see what vacancies the attending schools have. It doesnt matter how big the fair is if there arent any (or only a few) positions in your field there.
Assuming your husband doesnt teach, you will be a very expensive hire. Basically, hiring you is paying for 4 people. Thats not an attractive option for any school, and will not put you at the top of the application pile. You will get a lot of "were waiting on other applicants" responses from schools.
I didnt notice you comment on your teaching qualifications? Except at really large schools, usuallly the tech position includes some teaching as well (especially at small schools), and not being certified/qualified would make that difficult (and make you less competitive). Pure tech managers are becoming increasingly uncommon.
1) If you join search you will get a daily update of new positions and an update on school vacancies looking for your subject area. This can be VERY helpful and convenient, that said it does tend to make one lazy, as focusing on the search schools are just so easy. You get a notice, you log in, do a search, click on a school, click on an email link, copy and paste a cover letter and hit send. Compared to the work and routine of checking individual school sites, filling out an application or preparing an email it can get a bit routine, and tiring.
2) SEARCh has about 670 schools, thats more then the other big agencies, but is small compared to the over all number of schools. There are over 2000 IB schools alone outside the USA. You cant really do complete search without doing a signifigant amount of the work on your own. Which means visiting school HR sites over and over and over.
3) Even if you join Search i recommend one of the smaller agencies as well, such as TIE, Joy, etc. (Im a member of TIE). The costs are small about $40 a year, and get a lot of smaller schools.
4) The HK fair is a small time, regional fair and basically has local chinese schools, the reason is that the BIG fair in Bangkok, is the week before. Thats the one you want to go to. You want to be at a fair that has more schools, which will have a stronger likelihood of having your particular coordinator position available. Before going to any fair you should check to see what vacancies the attending schools have. It doesnt matter how big the fair is if there arent any (or only a few) positions in your field there.
Assuming your husband doesnt teach, you will be a very expensive hire. Basically, hiring you is paying for 4 people. Thats not an attractive option for any school, and will not put you at the top of the application pile. You will get a lot of "were waiting on other applicants" responses from schools.
I didnt notice you comment on your teaching qualifications? Except at really large schools, usuallly the tech position includes some teaching as well (especially at small schools), and not being certified/qualified would make that difficult (and make you less competitive). Pure tech managers are becoming increasingly uncommon.
-
BobbyBamboo
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:13 pm
Just some info for you, they won't actually put you into active mode until the next school year starts.
I have just finished everything and paid the $200 only to be told that they can't put me into active mode because under the new database they can't hide teachers who are not looking for the current academic year. I thought I would get database access from the moment I paid, apparently this used to be the case, but isn't anymore.
That should give you some more thinking time before you pay.
I have just finished everything and paid the $200 only to be told that they can't put me into active mode because under the new database they can't hide teachers who are not looking for the current academic year. I thought I would get database access from the moment I paid, apparently this used to be the case, but isn't anymore.
That should give you some more thinking time before you pay.
Solution
You can still get database access, you just have to tell them your searching for the current (2012/2013) year as well. It means you loose a year of your three year membership, for what is essentially the remainder of this year, but if your planing on being hired in the next year or so it doesnt matter. Since once your hired rejoining requires a new $200 fee for a new 3 year membership.
Lessons learned...
Long-time lurker, first-time poster and just thought I’d add my thoughts to the SA process. Not strictly relevant to the OP, but it gives you an idea I guess.
I’m a specialist teacher with over 10 years experience in international teaching at the same school, a non-teaching spouse (who has 5 years experience as an international school teacher’s assistant) and 1 child.
I resigned early to see what was out there but really didn’t start looking until after the winter break (by which time it was too late to join the ISS/SA Bangkok fairs in January).
Things to Do Differently Next Time 1: Resign as late as your contract allows but start looking as soon as you realize that this will be your final year at your current school.
I wanted to stay in the same place as I am now, but 20 odd applications to various first, second and third tier schools yielded just 1 interview in January (which went well but didn’t lead to a job), and a bunch of rejection emails.
I then registered for the SA Bangkok job fair in March. I didn’t know about ISS or any of the others.
The fair was interesting, and I got some “halfâ€
I’m a specialist teacher with over 10 years experience in international teaching at the same school, a non-teaching spouse (who has 5 years experience as an international school teacher’s assistant) and 1 child.
I resigned early to see what was out there but really didn’t start looking until after the winter break (by which time it was too late to join the ISS/SA Bangkok fairs in January).
Things to Do Differently Next Time 1: Resign as late as your contract allows but start looking as soon as you realize that this will be your final year at your current school.
I wanted to stay in the same place as I am now, but 20 odd applications to various first, second and third tier schools yielded just 1 interview in January (which went well but didn’t lead to a job), and a bunch of rejection emails.
I then registered for the SA Bangkok job fair in March. I didn’t know about ISS or any of the others.
The fair was interesting, and I got some “halfâ€
"I am married, with 1 child and 1 on the way. Does this limit my chances? I'm not looking for a teaching position, rather to be a Coordinator, Manager, or Director of Instructional/Educational Technology. "
Yes and no.
For your position, I think no, it does not, but your position will be less common than, say, elementary teacher.
I recommend going to the fair (whichever you choose and agree bigger is better, also earlier because if you don't land something in December, you can pay the 50$ to go to another fair). You will learn a lot talking to everyone there, Search associates, heads AND other teachers, not just general things but specifics about areas and schools, which are good, what others' experiences have been...
I would recommend that you tell them you're looking for 12-13 so you can get a look around of what is happening before November-December, get your ducks in a row, all of that.
Good Luck!
Yes and no.
For your position, I think no, it does not, but your position will be less common than, say, elementary teacher.
I recommend going to the fair (whichever you choose and agree bigger is better, also earlier because if you don't land something in December, you can pay the 50$ to go to another fair). You will learn a lot talking to everyone there, Search associates, heads AND other teachers, not just general things but specifics about areas and schools, which are good, what others' experiences have been...
I would recommend that you tell them you're looking for 12-13 so you can get a look around of what is happening before November-December, get your ducks in a row, all of that.
Good Luck!
same situation
@BobbyBamboo, I have also recently registered with SA, and am in the same boat. My associate said she would activate my database access in July, but that she didn't want to do so earlier, and have schools be frustrated by having a candidate appear available when in fact they are not. I get that, but it was somewhat disappointing, since without active status, you really can't do much on their site.
PsyGuy, I can't speak for anyone else, obviously, but I could not be ready for an August start. There's a reason I'm starting the process a year+ out. Without boring you on the details of my life, I have a lot of "loose ends" to tie up before I could pack up and jet off somewhere else. (I'm not currently in the international circuit.)
Maybe
Granted I dont know what your situation is, you may have a medical, legal, or family issue that simply has to be done, so in this case accept my apology in advance, and this is a "general response" then.
Might I suggest that the loose ends you have to tie up, arent really all that urgent. I say this because of a couple factors ive seen over the years, mainly that:
1) Your not leaving forever, in the worst case scenario you have to wait 10 months (one academic year) and then you can come back and attend to all kinds of things over the summer. You could even come back over the winter holidays which is what 4 months between the end of August and the middle of December. Is that really so long?
2) Unless you really are headed for somewhere say the middle of a jungle, its not like your leaving civilization behind. Between phones and internet access, what can you really not get done, abroad?
3) What do you really HAVE to do, Im willing to bet that many of the things on your "to do list" would become mote if you left for abroad. I meet A LOT of teachers that would love to teach overseas, but they keep adding things to their "list" that they seem to think they have to do, before they can leave.
4) This isnt a "the CIA will be at your door in 5 minutes, come with me if you want to live" scenario, this is May, and were talking August for most ITs departure. With that kind of lead time there are very few tasks (see above, legal, medical, family exceptions) that you cant do in that kind of time.
Might I suggest that the loose ends you have to tie up, arent really all that urgent. I say this because of a couple factors ive seen over the years, mainly that:
1) Your not leaving forever, in the worst case scenario you have to wait 10 months (one academic year) and then you can come back and attend to all kinds of things over the summer. You could even come back over the winter holidays which is what 4 months between the end of August and the middle of December. Is that really so long?
2) Unless you really are headed for somewhere say the middle of a jungle, its not like your leaving civilization behind. Between phones and internet access, what can you really not get done, abroad?
3) What do you really HAVE to do, Im willing to bet that many of the things on your "to do list" would become mote if you left for abroad. I meet A LOT of teachers that would love to teach overseas, but they keep adding things to their "list" that they seem to think they have to do, before they can leave.
4) This isnt a "the CIA will be at your door in 5 minutes, come with me if you want to live" scenario, this is May, and were talking August for most ITs departure. With that kind of lead time there are very few tasks (see above, legal, medical, family exceptions) that you cant do in that kind of time.