Dubai and March Bangkok Search fairs

[Q8Sobieski]

Hardly any schools are listed as attending March Bangkok and more than half of the schools in Dubai are in places I consider either unfriendly or unsafe. Does anyone think those two fairs are going to add more schools or jobs soon? They both look really weak. Did I make a huge mistake by skipping London? I went to March Bangkok several years ago and it was quite big. It seems really small this year. Am I alone in that observation.

[sciteach]

If you read on the website - Dubai normally has around 60 schools which is what they currently have listed at the moment. The Bangkok Spring Fair states it normally has around 30 schools and they are currently in the low 20's. They will have more schools but I would not expect a lot more.

Apart from the Dubai school which may have some Tier 1 ME Schools (I don't know the region so I may be wrong) it seems as though it may be slim pickings in the March/April fairs. Some jobs will come up out of the blue, but most schools are starting to employ earlier each year compared to even a few years ago.

The London fair is the biggest late fair - but I doubt that even they don't know who will attend yet as schools who can't fill positions at the earlier fairs of Skype normally come to these fairs. Some lower ranked schools which arnt allowed in the major fairs (such as BKK, London - I'm starting to see Cambridge as the poor cousin of the three) may also come to these fairs...

You'll also probably know that many position will start to disappear around early March and much fewer jobs will replace them - but there will still be a small number of jobs.....

[Q8Sobieski]

I did go back and re-checked the Search site for Dubai's schools. A load of them added themselves to the list recently, maybe just in the last week. I saw a school in Eritrea and one from Chennai, India -- I would have remembered those. But still, many of them haven't posted many jobs yet. But that's par for the course. A lot of schools don't post jobs until they get to the fairs. About 35 of the 59 schools are in GCC countries.

Bangkok is still sparse but if Dubai is any indication, the list should swell in the next couple weeks. But I am still feeling gloomy. There are less than five jobs that I see out there that I actually want to interview for. I guess it is time to start hitting TIEonline to get some more selection.

[PsyGuy]

All of the Spring fairs are dump fairs. Its a recruiting experience and more like speed dating.

Schools will add more jobs as they get closer to the fair and schools will make decisions and be added to the list as they get closer. This time period is called the "spring shuffle". To the schools it comes down to is it worth it to go. A lot of people get hired at these fairs as summer approaches. The problem is that most of the schools people dont want to work at. Its more "I want to go to this country and this is whats available" or 'I teach X subject and this is whats available".

BOS/Cambridge is the lowest of the three, BKK is the upper, LON is the middle and BOS the lower super fairs, after BOS peak recruiting season is over.

[Q8Sobieski]

I wanted to go to London in January but it was just too far and too much money given that I am in Asia now. It would have been 8-10 hours of flying each way and better than 150 USD per night for accommodations. I went to the Hong Kong fair a couple years ago and found it super competitive for very small range of school. I liked the range of Bangkok II in the past. This year, it just isn't looking that good.