Recruiting agencies...Which is best?

[global_nomad]

I was with ISS from the early 2000s until about 2012. It was apparent by then that Search had greatly surpassed ISS in terms of quality and quantity of schools. I hated to have to move all my stuff to Search, since it was very inconvenient but in the end it was the right choice for me.

[PsyGuy]

@SJ

Id have to say no, but maybe. ISS did a vast expansion very quickly a few years ago to drive market share. This is part of the fest and famine that happens with ISS. If your not a valuable candidate to them your going to get ignored, but that makes a candidate more susceptible to the marketing of a bottom tier IS. However, it doesnt change the metrics, that the bottom of SAs barrel is deeper and wider. There is a higher concentration of bottom tier ISs than with ISS. Further the business structure of the two is very different, SA doesnt care who hires their candidates as its a fixed rate. So there isnt an incentive to expend resources on candidates that either wont get hired or will get hired regardless of where thats at.

@Thames Pirates position is focused solely on fairs, as if fairs are the only thing that matters. There are so many high quality candidates that simply dont participate in the cattle call auditions of fairs. Thats why ISS is superior, and the ISS BKK fair so small, it has a much larger concentration of first night recruiting.
Thats bunk, ISs dont want access to more ITs they want fewer ITs, they want those ITs to be high quality ones. Again, its quality over quantity.
The other issue that @Thames Pirate ignores is the relationship between COIS and ISS, the COIS fair would otherwise be competing against. ISS is the boutique like Armani, and SA is the mass market like H&M.

[Thames Pirate]

Except that they are selling the same product, so ISS is pretending to be Armani while selling HM stuff.

You haven't accepted that you were kicked off Search, have you?

[PsyGuy]

@Thames pirate

They arent selling the same product, ISS has a superior experience and the experience is the product. there is nothing to accept.

[yoplay]

As I've mentioned before, I've been an ISS lifer. But when looking at the BKK fairs of the last two years, ISS is clearly the inferior fair if you are looking to move to a top tier school in Asia. It's not even close. And am I crazy, or did ISS drop their east coast fair and now Search Cambridge is the only show in town?

In terms of what these agencies offer, I would advocate for keeping a realistic view. They offer you the venue where you might get your foot in the door with a future employer. That's no small thing, especially if you are just getting into overseas teaching and don't have any sort of network within the international schools community. That opportunity is what you make of it.

[PsyGuy]

@yoplay

We disagree.

No you arent crazy, ISS has always wanted to be at the top and the bottom of the peak recruiting framework and the SF fair pushed into the peak recruiting time frame, so for the last few years ISs has been at BKK and SF, they dont attend the BOS fair anymore. It really didnt fit into their ethos anymore, the BOS fair attracted a lot of newbies in the US DT market that their just wasnt a demand by the ISs reped by ISS and was being duplicated by the SF fair. Essentially the only game in the US market split from BOS into BOS and SF.

Fairs can be an opportunity they can also be an expensive exercise in futility, and are becoming more so as more recruiting is going virtual.

[Walter]

@Dave, you're like King Canute trying to beat back the tides. You keep inventing fresh "facts" to support an opinion that is simply untenable. Years ago, pre-SEARCH, CIS and ISS both hosted fairs that were in the region of 600 - 700 candidates. When SEARCH came along, they simply battened onto the front end of the CIS and ISS fairs and hoped to drag away away as many candidates as they could. ISS thought that by trying a new venue in the Far East they could steal a march on SEARCH and regain lost ground. The very next year, SEARCH put a fair in front of ISS Bangkok. For ten years now, SEARCH Fairs have grown and ISS and CIS fairs have shrunk. The fewer the candidates who show to these fairs, the fewer the recruiters who bother to turn up, and then even fewer candidates show the next time round. CIS and ISS would kill to have more candidates and more schools, but SEARCH have cornered the market. All of the top schools who use fairs to recruit go to SEARCH. They may also go to ISS and CIS but in ever declining numbers. And for the record, despite your claim, ISS and CIS have no recruiter relationship. That was dissolved several years ago. ISS now have a partnership with TeachAway. I understand why you have a down on SEARCH, but don't misinform people just because...
@yoplay ISS has always moved their US Fairs around. They do this in conjunction with AAIE. For many years they had a cycle that went Boston/San Francisco/New York/DC. New York and DC priced themselves out of the market and they were left with two venues. Last year, for the first time, they tried Atlanta. Next year, my guess is they will be back in Boston.

[PsyGuy]

Thats not true, the only invention and fabrication is @walters smoke and mirrors. Yes COIS and ISS were competitors but that changed and it changed a while ago, with SA on the scene there simply wasnt a market big enough for 3 agencies.
While ISS and COIS had a stronger relationship in the past they still have a working relationship. Its a better descriptor of ISS and Teach Away as well. They dont so much work together as their are candidates that ISS wont accept, and they arent going to send them to SA. Teach Away gives them a relationship building option that doesnt compete with them.
The timing issue isnt really the issue its an observation thats not a cause. There was only so many days and spaces you could have in the recruiting calendar, otherwise the agencies would leap frog earlier and earlier dates. There is an optimum range, and ISS is at the front of it.
Sure SA did various things to poach candidates thats what bottom feeding means. SA wasnt poaching anything they were picking up leftovers, which is what SA does with there vast number of dump fairs.

No ISS wouldnt care for more ISs, they would like more of the higher tier ISs but there arent more upper tier ISs, the upper tiers are very stable the lower tier ISs are where the growth is, and its not aspiration growth. ISS doesnt want to fill its IS profiles with bottom tier poo ISs. Again quality vs. quantity.

I have no issue with SA Ive advocated for them in the past and still do. ISS is the boutique agency either you are valuable to them and get lots of attention or you arent and you get ignored. SA gives those a candidates an option, a mass market like H&M. Sometimes you just want khakis and a t-shirt and thats what SA does well.

@yoplay

ISS has moved their fairs around and it generally does follow the AAIE conference, DC and NY were priced out a long time ago, and BOS was a stable venue. Then they tried Atlanta, and I foresee ISS staying in SF for a while.

[Thames Pirate]

For those who haven't noticed, PsyGuy is behind the times. Recruiters, here and elsewhere, have confirmed this. Use his advice at your own risk.

[PsyGuy]

@Thames Pirate

Your claims of your one recruiter do not reflect current understanding, we disagree.

[Thames Pirate]

Yes, and of course you are entitled to your opinion. I will go with what recruiters told me--on here and in person--as well as by the behavior of schools.

[Walter]

@Dave You are not a recruiter and you have never been a recruiter. I am and I can tell you categorically that there are proportionally more lower tier schools at ISS than at SEARCH. There is approximately a third of the number of candidates who attend ISS over SEARCH. All of the top tier schools who need to / want to attend fairs choose SEARCH. A much smaller number will attend ISS as well as, but never instead of, SEARCH. It is simply a lie to suggest otherwise.

There is no relationship between CIS and ISS.

[PsyGuy]

@Thames Pirate

You are of course entitled to your opinion, and Ill go with what my recruiters at IE camp told me.

@Walter

You dont know anything, not even what you think you know. Ive recruited more than you have. I categorically can say that there are more and worse lower tier ISs at SA than ISS. There is a relationship between ISS and CIS.

[Nutella]

Which fair is the best one for teachers new to IT?
Or just in general?

[shadowjack]

Nutella,

Search fairs are bigger. ISS fairs usually come first in the shared city (for example in BKK it is ISS fair, then a day later SA fair starts).

However, if you don't want to pay big agency fees, go with something like teacher horizons, or pay 39 bucks (29 bucks in Oct/Nov during red star deal) for TIE online. Sign up for COIS - now CIS - free. I did years ago, then forgot I did, but my log in is still active. Or if you want to join the big two, take your pick. Search is bigger and reps more teachers and schools. ISS is smaller and reps fewer teachers and schools. There is some overlap between the two organizations, and some unique schools to each one too.

Just try to avoid places like joy jobs unless pretty desperate, and avoid daves esl cafe totally.

Just my two halalas,

shad