AASSA or Bangkok or Both?

[justlooking]

My spouse and I are both highly experienced (15+ years), certified, IB experienced teachers with lots of desirable extras like coaching, yearbook, Extended Essay coordinator, etc. although not in difficult to fill positions (English and PE).

After 6 years in the ME, we are planning a change of scenery for next school year. We are registered with Search and signed up for the Bangkok job fair, but after some research, we're thinking South America would be a better fit for us than SE Asia.

Should we go for the AASSA fair in early December? Is it worth it? Will the good schools be there and ready to hire? We can't afford to go and get tentative offers because we'd then have to go to Bangkok anyway.

We would appreciate any guidance your experience might be able to give us.

[heyteach]

I say, cast your net wide and go to AASSA. The schools seem to be actually hiring there, not just looking over the prospects. I know my SA school hired quite a few there each year.

[DCgirl]

I've attended both of those fairs. They are really different and I would decided based on what you're looking for. The AASSA fair is small and almost exclusively South American and Caribbean schools. I'm sure the list of schools attending should be available at this point. They were definitely hiring. I also continued to get information about jobs later into the season. There were many people new to international teaching and a lot of ESL teachers. There was a variety in terms of school quality.

Everyone that I met at Bangkok (1st Bangkok) was a seasoned international teacher. The competition was still and it's early in the season but they were definitely hiring. All of the top Asian schools are there and schools from other areas as well, but very few from South/Central America region.

I've decided to go for the best of both worlds this year, and attend Search Cambridge. The top Asian schools and the better South American schools are there.

[Canada11]

I was in the same situation as you are in now and in the end I decided to go to the AASSA fair in Atlanta as I had my heart set on a job in South America. At the AASSA fair I had several job offers and ended up at a great school. As a result, I never ended up going to the fair in Bangkok. When I was at the AASSA job fair, there were more American teachers than international teachers looking for jobs so your chances are pretty good if you have lots of international experience vs. experience just from the States. Most schools that attend the fair in Atlanta will want to wrap up their hiring then and there. As a side note, the majority of the schools at the fair are tier two or tier three schools and the packages they offer are dismal (as low as $20 000/year). I think teachers go to these tier two and tier three schools to get experience. That being said, there are lots of great jobs to be had... you just have to choose the right one for you. But if you want a job in South America, attending the AASSA fair in Atlanta is a definite must.