How did you get your International School career started?

[expatartist]

Landed into it by accident. I don't teach but have an admin arts position. It is a dream job in a challenging city which I enjoy.

BFA in Painting.
Started teaching in Korea: Art & ESL in institutes (hogwan), then a private boys' high school, and English tutoring/Art.
Gave workshops with a photo festival in Cambodia for a year - working with former street kids as part of a rehab program.
In Hong Kong I taught extracurricular arts courses at an institute.
Over the years, gave arts workshops which eventually landed me a p/t teaching position in Beijing at an international school, via a teacher I'd met when giving a workshop. Started as a local hire, as I was already here working on a book project and learning Chinese. After a year, my current position opened up. Surprisingly they gave me an overseas hire package though I hadn't asked for it.

[Monkey]

Graduated college with a degree and teaching license in Elementary Ed. Went to a SEARCH fair as an intern candidate and got a job at a small international school in Western Europe as basically a classroom TA. I loved it, and the way the kids were learning and working in multiple languages really fascinated me. I decided, at that point, that I would eventually go back to get my masters in ESL.

I stayed at that school as a TA for just one year. I returned to my home country to get 2 years of teaching experience that I knew most schools would want. Did my two years, then I took some time off to go to grad school for that MEd in ESL. Went back to SEARCH, got a job at a 2nd tier school in the ME as a homeroom teacher. Most of the kids at that school were 2nd language learners, so my graduate degree got a lot of use, even though I wasn't hired as the ESL teacher.

Then I decided to move on. Went back to SEARCH, got an offer at a tier 1 school in East Asia as an ESL teacher this time. Now I'm itching to get back to classroom teaching!

[ShakHak]

Lunarium as long as you're a certified teacher with a degree, there are many international recruiting agencies, like Teachaway, SeekTeachers & others, that would be happy to interview you. There are teacher shortages in many countries in the Middle East, which also happens to pay among the highest salaries for Western teachers, so you could start there. Good luck!

[PsyGuy]

You really have to be a mercenary to teach in the ME, because you have to go for the money.

[Schmedz]

Am very new to all this, and technically am not yet an international teacher, although I have just accepted my first post abroad!

To begin, I thought about areas in the world I'd like to live and started researching schools in those areas. Read reviews on ISR as to where I should avoid at all costs, and then checked individual school websites for vacancies (signed up for email alerts etc..) also regularly checked international teaching vacancies on job websites.
When there was a vacancy that interested me, I applied (I've been ridiculously picky and only made a few applications!) but was fortunate enough to receive interviews and offers. Made a decision and am in the process of signing contracts, organising paperwork etc... And planning where the family and I are going to live (and where we can go on holidays in term breaks!).
I did attend a fair, but already had two interviews organised that same week and none of the available posts at the fair compared!
Crossing fingers all goes well and this August will see us in our new home and school.