Response Time?

[PsyGuy]

@megb0238

A great deal depends when you apply in the year. In general ISs request notices of intent in October/November (it seems to get earlier every year). The schools then put together a list of vacancies and categorize them by priorities. Depending ont he school they may then decide to post vacancies early (before the holidays). Really the premium agencies start recruiting after the winter holidays (now) which begins with the BKK mega fair, and the peak ends in February after the BOS fair, from that point on vacancies begin to drop. Some schools (the bottom tier schools in low desire regions) dont even bother until late in the recruiting year, because they know no one is looking at them yet. The upper tier schools start recruiting so early, because they want rock stars, and they are likely to have only a few vacancies and if they can fill those vacancies or arrange advance interviews (usually the night or day before signup). Before then what they are really doing is just building an applicant pool.

So how long to wait, sometime before now and never. Schools either 1) State a deadline in the vacancy post saying if you receive no contact by such a date or within such a time frame, you didnt make the short list. 2) Send a mass mailing when the vacancy is filled. 3) Just do nothing.
The rule is really this, if a school WANTS you, really wants you, they dont play hard to get. They contact you, and contact you quickly. If a school takes an interest in you you may receive an email or be copied to an email forwarding your application to a faculty or member of admin. If a school just considers you one of the numbers and you know your just an average candidate then Id wait a week or two and send a followup email. You need to learn to take the hint though, disinterest does not mean they are busy, or any other excuse it means at that moment they just arent interested.

@Cafare52

Why do you have to apply seperatly includes a number of reasons:

1) Legal requirements. I dont know what your family business is but in working with children a number of national governments require an application on file. ISs and private schools are exempt from a number of regulations, but child safety is an issue a school wants all its ducks in a row. This is why many applications include language: A) that all your statements are true. B) That youve been notified of any all background or child protection requirements. C) Compliance with local labor laws (such as this application is not an offer of employment, etc).

2) All resumes and agency profiles are not created equal, and depending on the country may have information required that would not typically be found on a westerners resume, and agency databases do need to comply or at least protect themselves in regard to fair labor laws. The application allows them to ask those questions.

3) Its good business and HR practice. Your application is going to form the beginning of your employment file. Its dated, signed as establishes a snapshot of what you claimed on a specific day/time. That application is very likely formatted for data scanning, storage and retrieval. Which greatly reduces costs. Someone or some program has to input your resume otherwise, and edit for errors. Having YOU do the data entry reduces HR costs.

4) Schools use the application as a means to evaluate a candidates degree of interest. An email application that a copy and paste takes less then a minute. Completing an application shows interest and commitment to your candidacy with that school. If an applicant wont even fill out an application, how much work are they going to commit to if they are here. Will getting them to do every little task be an exercise in management.
Some schools such as elite tier schools can receive 1000's of application letters and resumes, it is often not about selecting the best candidate from that sea of candidates but deselecting against who you dont want, lack of an application is any easy criteria to reduce the applicant pool.

Those overly selective criteria from lower tier schools exist for several reasons. 1) Admins have colored glasses, they all think their school is special. 2) What a teacher values is subjective. Its not always about the most money and the best compensation package. If you want to live in the Bahamas and THATS your goal, then a dump school compared to other regions may be the best or higher quality for that region. Tier status is only valid within that particular region. It doesn't transfer or translate outside of the region. 3) A good part of it is marketing, the idea is to catch the uninitiated who dont know better and present them with an uncommon or rare opportunity, that the school can sell as a recruiting strategy. I commented in another post the other day, that what i wished Id known in the beginning was just how very much alike ISs were as a whole.

@Nomads

Thats an important point, many small schools, especially those in high desire locations do not have the HR resources to respond to the mass of application materials, and do anything else. An international Lycee in the south of France would get hundreds of applications on the first day of vacancy, and the schools HR staff consisted only of an office manager, and an offsite payroll clerk.

@rudolph

It would seem simple enough that email automation would be easy, but a significant number of small schools contract outside for their IT services. The school may have a computers science/technology teacher (if secondary), but this is an instructional position, many of these schools pay for basic services and any type of automation is just more added cost that has to be justified from a limited budget. In several regions internet business accounts are metered services, and those return emails have a cost.
Realistically, small schools dont really care about the opinions or feelings of candidates they arent going to hire. There are plenty of applications despite whatever minor bad will is created in the labor pool. Why spend money on something without a concrete ROI.

The oppositional argument can be just as easy to make that why would you a job applicant show such a lack of respect for a professional admin who has a school to run and all the duties and tasks associated with that to read and search through a mountain of resumes and rate them meaningfully. Why should they do that work, when you can do the data entry into their application which is set up to record data in fields and make the process of rating your application more efficient.

It really just sounds like you have an ego, and arent willing to do what the employer wants, and who wants a diva as an employee.

Schools do try to predict staffing needs as soon as possible, its in their interest to do so, but sometimes depending on local laws, what a school thought was a notice of resignation, doesnt actually become a resignation. In a number of European countries your job is yours until you actually leave, and a resignation only becomes binding within a short period of time according to the effective date. Meaning until that time, the resignation is retractable.
This is in addition to more traditional factors such as falling enrollment, etc.

There are two types of salary/compensation systems "Closed" (also called negotiable, competitive, proprietary, unpublished, etc) and "Open" (sometimes referred to as public, published, shared, common, standardized, collective, etc). Schools with closed compensation scales can have several reasons for doing so.
1) They dont know what your worth, many new schools and new admins really dont know how much an international teacher is worth, because they lack experience or knowledge of the region.
2) Compensation and money is one factor in a potential teachers total compensation, and some of those contributing factors (benefits) can not be easily quantified in terms of money.
3) They know they aren't competitive and they have to sell you on the job. Admins much like teachers have a boss (ownership) and a job to do, and sometimes they know they are paying under market. Its an old sales strategy "commitment and consistency" that you get the other . interested, and then invested in the position and the process, and you increase the likelihood of making a deal. Very few schools can claim to pay teachers and staff what the teachers think they are worth.
4) Simple economics, why pay more then you have too. Publishing a salary scale involves a significant degree of commitment. If a school has financial fluctuations they may not be able to keep to their published salary scale Lastly, who doesnt like getting a deal. Many admins are shrewd traders, who perceive every coin saved as a victory.

Your view of education and teaching in how you relate to your students is very "idealistic". Many who are veterans in IE may consider you naive.

@fine dude

A number of elite schools publicly publish their salary and compensation scales. The premium recruiting agencies also supply compensation ranges (though some are VERY outdated).

@rudolph

In regards to your later posts:

The application requirements in that scenario were really just a means for the school or recruiter to dissuade the applicant. They were required to advertise a position (likely due to regulatory requirements) but they wernt interested in interviewing anyone, and the high level of work was their way of saying "save yourself the trouble" without violating and labor laws or rules.

Many admins have to interview candidates outside their field of expertise. Asking "How do you integrate technology in the classroom" often has nothing to do with technology, but how you organize, and deliver your response. Does it sound like your spitting buzz words off the top of your head? Does your response indicate past experience, planing and implementation, or are you making up your response on the spot? Do you convey confidence and expertise or are you sweating?

@fine dude

Passion does not equal proficiency or performance. Id rather have a heartless teacher with a high success rate of knowledge transference, than a passionate teacher who cant teach. Its like the sweet teachers pet students who are very sweet and very helpful, but cant do math or construct a sentence.

@jstwatchin

Yes they realize it at least on some level, the problem is they cant do anything about it. They cant improve your internet access, and they cant give you preferential treatment in submitting your application.