My wife and I are at an international school. I will have two years full time experience at the end of this academic year, my wife will have one (she's on maternity leave this year). We're thinking of moving on and have had a lot of two way contact with a particular school, which we would be quite happy at. However, I'm wondering if we could do better.
I'm thinking of signing up with Search Associates. I almost certainly won't be attending a fair, but I would quite like access to the database and the ability to apply for jobs online. I'm assuming my wife can't join, because she doesn't have two years experience.
Do you think it's worth me signing up with them? How do I get my wife into the equation? The school we'll probably end up at, if nothing else comes up, doesn't sign contracts until April, so we have a fairly long period to look for other options.
To ISR admin, I posted this in the other forum by mistake. If you want to delete one, please delate the other post.
Signing Up for Search
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Your wife can join Search as well, though she may have to apply as an intern (though i doubt it, as your a "teaching couple", with experience and they will likely accept you as regular teaching candidates). Either way it gets you access to the database, and if your not planing on attending a fair, theres really no reason to pay the Search fee twice for both of you. Its the same database. Even if you did go to a fair, your spouse can attend as well (cost $75) but its cheaper then a second membership.
Is it worth it to you, well how much do you plan on using it and what for? Its a pretty low cost of entry, and its for 3 years (so if you leave at the end of a contract youd still have a year left to use it),so you could get a lot of use out of it even if you just used the database casually and only looked at the new vacancies in your teaching area. If your going to the other school though, its $225 you spent and didnt use.
You really need to ask yourself what your intentions and plans are. If your really looking for a job and the current school is just a backup, then id join. If your just curious what may be out there, and you have no real intention of looking for another position then save your money.
I am curious though why they dont sign contracts until April? Do they know if they have a vacancy or not? Thats the only real reason i can think of for waiting. When a school wants someone, its in their interest to sign them, or risk them going somewhere else. The only reason to not sign a contract earlier, is if they only want you as a backup, or they dont know if they really have a vacancy yet.
You can get your wife in the equation a variety of ways. You can just join individually for both of you. If you want to save a membership fee, you can just include copies of both your resumes in your application email and include both of you in the cover letter. In this case id copy and paste the contact email for the school in a separate email, instead of using the email tool in the search website. Your not going to any fairs, so there are no complications there.
You can go and delete your own message if you wish, if someone already replied, you can edit it and just type "deleted" in place of all the text.
Is it worth it to you, well how much do you plan on using it and what for? Its a pretty low cost of entry, and its for 3 years (so if you leave at the end of a contract youd still have a year left to use it),so you could get a lot of use out of it even if you just used the database casually and only looked at the new vacancies in your teaching area. If your going to the other school though, its $225 you spent and didnt use.
You really need to ask yourself what your intentions and plans are. If your really looking for a job and the current school is just a backup, then id join. If your just curious what may be out there, and you have no real intention of looking for another position then save your money.
I am curious though why they dont sign contracts until April? Do they know if they have a vacancy or not? Thats the only real reason i can think of for waiting. When a school wants someone, its in their interest to sign them, or risk them going somewhere else. The only reason to not sign a contract earlier, is if they only want you as a backup, or they dont know if they really have a vacancy yet.
You can get your wife in the equation a variety of ways. You can just join individually for both of you. If you want to save a membership fee, you can just include copies of both your resumes in your application email and include both of you in the cover letter. In this case id copy and paste the contact email for the school in a separate email, instead of using the email tool in the search website. Your not going to any fairs, so there are no complications there.
You can go and delete your own message if you wish, if someone already replied, you can edit it and just type "deleted" in place of all the text.
Teachers in the other school don't give notice until end of March. We don't give notice until the end of Feb. Neither school is recruiting through fairs. Both recruit through the Education department at two universities and through school districts.
It seems to work for them. I don't think they're flooded with applications, but they have more than enough to fill vacancies. There's a possibilty they won't have vacancies, but from what we know, that seems pretty unlikely. It's possible we might be able to sign early. We were going to meet up with the recruiter in the summer, but couldn't coordinate dates. The intention was to sign something then. To be honest I'd rather wait anyway, who knows what else will come up.
Sure, nothing is set in stone, but then few things ever are. I'm working with a strong likelihood.
It seems to work for them. I don't think they're flooded with applications, but they have more than enough to fill vacancies. There's a possibilty they won't have vacancies, but from what we know, that seems pretty unlikely. It's possible we might be able to sign early. We were going to meet up with the recruiter in the summer, but couldn't coordinate dates. The intention was to sign something then. To be honest I'd rather wait anyway, who knows what else will come up.
Sure, nothing is set in stone, but then few things ever are. I'm working with a strong likelihood.
Last edited by IAMBOG on Mon Sep 24, 2012 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Clarification
Europe is even later, but all that says is that if the teacher who's positions you'd fill haven't given notice, then there really isn't a vacancy. The teacher may decide to stay come March, in which case their isn't a job. It's not that they don't sign contracts until March, it's that they don't have a confirmed position available.
So
So it sounds like you've decided to look. I'd join Search then, and since your not going to a fair, you don't need two memberships. Make sure when your applying as a couple that you email the schools independently of the Search messaging tool.