Does the order of the job fairs matter much?

[Walter]

"... some people think PsyGuy's rating system is a little dubious."
That's putting it mildly. Poor Dave has never recruited a teacher in his life and is in his eighth job in nine years. I'd put more faith in a newspaper astrologer...

[Cheery Littlebottom]

The Psyguys scale - the only thing that counts in IS teaching!
D'you think he has a crystal ball? He certainly has some cojones given some of his statements. Thanks Amy! :lol:

[buffalofan]

What about the situation of waiting for Search London instead of going to Search Bangkok? I'm kind of hesitant to sign up for Search Bangkok, as I'm not in an in-demand subject and not part of a teaching couple (though I do have IB experience). I've read a lot of reports on here that seem to indicate a lot of cherry picking goes on at the Bangkok fair. Are there plenty of jobs still available at good schools at Search London January?

[Walter]

At SEARCH London and CIS London. And lots and lots of good schools in attendance.

[PsyGuy]

The PsyGuy Applicant Scoring System is designed to be used by recruiters and admins to assess applicants against a specific position or pool of vacancies. Its not an achievement score, you need a vacancy to compare the candidate against.
As such depending on the situation, you may or may not get the point for being a teaching couple. If there is only one vacancy, then beinga teaching couple is irrelevant, your teaching spouse just ends up being a trailing spouse. If however there were two science vacancies then having a qualified teaching couple would be very advantageous.

Its important to understand that the PsyGuy Applicant Scoring System is a screening method not a selection method. Its designed to reduce the complexity of minor differences between candidates. If you had 500 applicant for a vacancy and you had the time to interview all of them would the impressions and notes of all those candidates be significantly different in any meaningful way INDIVIDUALLY. Wouldnt most of them have blurred together into groups of generalizations? What happens is you end up with 4 groups:
1) Unqualified/undesirable
2) Underqualified/minimal fit
3) Qualified
4) Favorites

The factors that contribute to those groupings are typically the same: Experience, Education, Certification, Special Qualities.
You dont use the PsyGuy Applicant Scoring System to select a candidate from the short (or short, short) list. You dont look at the top 3, 5 or 10 and simply offer the job to the teacher with the highest score. You use the PsyGuy Applicant Scoring System to reduce that applicant pool to that short list, and those are the ones you sit down and interview and talk too.

Ive recruited many people, far more complex vacancy searches then an admin in the ME who gets a couple applications for a vacancy. Choosing from 5 people is much simpler then 500.

@buffalofan

The London fairs tend to be European and European IB schools that your Ib experience would be valuable but unless you have an EU passport your not going to get a lot of interest.
The BKK fair is a lot of rockstars, and while a certain amount of status comes with just getting an invitation and being their, many teachers who arent the perfect resume, end up frustrated.
The rule is you go to the best fair you can get an invite for, because people get offers at fairs, and when those offers are accepted those are fewer positions to be offered to you later.

[Good Intentions]

You got to love psyguy, the Jeremy Bentham of international education.

[bilinguallearner]

I would say that it doesn't matter much. My experience was that I signed up at the last minute for one of the smaller fairs that was held in Atlanta in December and I got several job offers , one even starting right away! I think there's always a need for teachers if you're a bit flexible in where you will go. That being said, the early bird does get the worm, so the sooner you go, the better off you'll probably be.

Hope this helps,
Steph

Check out our European travelogue with posts from an international teaching perspective at www.bilinguallearner.com or on our Bilingual Learner Facebook page...we are in France right now!

[Walter]

"The Psyguy Applicant Scoring System" as used by zero recruiters anywhere in the world. By his own admission, Dave Psy has been a first year teacher in various Tier 3 schools and then, so he claims, a junior administrator for one year at a municipal school in Denmark - a claim that met with much skepticism. Just when, with a background like that, would he ever have been engaged in recruiting anyone? His latest story is that he is hired at a Department of Defense school. But he did make up another yarn that he attended ISS in Bangkok and had six interviews even before the fair started and scored a job as a back up in case he chooses to move on after this year. "Pants on fire" Dave!

Buffalo Fan, there are schools from around the world at the London Fairs: the USA, South America, Middle East, Far East, Africa. Some of the European schools will certainly prefer candidates with EU passports, others will be happy to make offers to the best canidates as they see them.

[PsyGuy]

You dont know what "own admission" means, like most of the claims you make, you just make up. I never claimed to work for 8 years in 3rd tier schools, and like most most of your statements you dont know what you think you know.

What part of "anonymity" do you find confusing? I didnt see your badge when you walked in, I dont owe you a resume or bibliography of my live or professional activities.

I most certainly did attend ISS BKK and interviewed before the 1st day of the fair and signed a contract. As always you dont know what you think you know. Your just a ME admin who thinks the big chair and the big desk means you can fiat reality.

You made up the whole Dave Jawor story so that your personal attacks would have the perception of merit. You couldnt defend your arguments so you made ad hominem attacks, but youd have no credibility if you couldnt claim you were "in the know".

@buffalofan

Walter is just peddleing more smoke and mirrors hed have you believe that BKK, UK and BOS are somehow the 1st tier, 2nd tier and 3rd tier schools respectively, since they are "attended by everyone from all over" and they arent. Many EU schools once you hit 2nd tier and lower just cant or wont hire those without EU passports. Their may be a handful of outlier schools that dont go with the typical school demographic, but hes just trying to blur the boundaries because he cant recruit at the super fairs,a nd no one at BKK (since hes not Aramco) would be interested in his ME school.