The International Schools Review Forum

Hi there, when is recruiting time? I have had a few very positive interviews on Skype, three schools passing me to the next level of interviewing a few days after the first interview. I felt that all three of those school's interviewers were professional and that all the interviews went very well and I got positive feedback and told they would be in touch. I felt positive and would have accepted any of the three. I really expected something before Xmas but, I haven't had confirmation for between 4- 7 weeks. Is that usual in the fall: October, Nov. Dec Skype method? I even saw one of the jobs reposted. I am fully qualified and have good references. What are people's experiences with the Skype interview process before the international fairs start? Is it usual to have two successful interviews by the same employer and be left hanging? What are people's experiences? What is going on in the recruiter's end? Thanks for insight and also your experience.

Hey Counselme,

It does happen where you can have interviews that seem to be going well and then have them drop off the map. I had two do that, but one got back to me to let me know "thanks but no thanks". The other one stopped contacting me and by then I had several others I was more interested in who I was talking with. Things came together for me earlier this month.

I'm guessing you're looking for counseling positions based on some of your posts. The good news is that there are a lot of jobs this year for counselors this year. A lot of schools try to hire these positions early, but it doesn't always happen. A lot of the high school positions at the better schools are going to want extensive experience helping students through the university admission process in the US and the UK. It's bonus points for Canada, continental Europe, Korea, Hong Kong and Australia, but it's less important than US and UK.

As an experienced counselor you should be able to land good jobs at the fair, but the early round of fall hires for counselors tends to go to people who are already working abroad or have exactly the right credentials and know people.

If you're thinking about working at the high school level you may want to do some more preparation before the job fairs. I'd do some reading up on US admissions and delving into the UCAS website over break. Admission Matters is a good read for an overview. The College Solution by Lynn O'Shaughnessy is a good view on it from the financial side of things. The Gatekeepers is a good non-fiction view into how highly selective admission works at US universities with holistic admission. Join International ACAC and get on their closed FB page to see what people are talking about.

Good luck.

Very helpful. Thank you for your information and the insight. I will look into all of those and make sure I diversify the counsellor knowledge. Post secondary admissions would certainly be an area I need to spend time in and seems like something one layers with experience. I have been looking at the college counselling as something to fear internationally, but with the tools you mentioned, I can likely figure it out. Naturally, I want the students to have someone who is already able to help them. It would seem it is something one learns as one goes and supplements with some of the excellent resources you provided. It can feel like a mysterious thing. I'll be studying over the break.
Happy Holidays to you.

Early recruiting starts generally in November of a given year, though some ISs start even earlier than that. Peak recruiting begins in early January with the BKK fair and then finishes up in early February with the BOS of SF fair, which is mostly the start of third tier recruiting. Which progress to about May which is when recruiting for the EU increases. Last minute recruiting is early July.

You almost always get positive feedback, lots of ITs interview well. You need to manage your expectations, everyone thinks they are special and awesome. The rule is when an IS wants you they act like they want you, they dont make you wait if they want to move forward. It would be very unlikely an IS would keep an IT waiting if they were intending on making an appointment, you likely were not and are not on their preference list.
When an IS reposts a vacancy it can mean several things, but they arent ready or wanting to pull the trigger with you. Everyone has good references and is fully qualified you wouldnt have got the interview if you didnt.

The standard procedure at many ISs is two interviews, meaning lots of candidates have two unsuccessful interviews. You should feel accomplished that you were even interviewed and participated in early recruiting and with three ISs. What happened is they talked with you, they didnt find any negatives, but nothing that was extraordinary, so there is nothing for them to rush for. If they lose you, then they will contact another candidate who has similar qualifications, as there isnt a depressed candidate pool.

I disagree with @eion_padraig , there arent lots of counselor vacancies a bit higher than normal but still well within a 1SD. This is a vacancy an IS is typically motivated to fill early, as the counselor is often on the leadership team in some capacity, but if an IS doesnt get a superstar candidate, there isnt any competition for capable counselors this year. The Gate Keepers is a little high on the hyperbole, and Admissions Matters is overly simplistic. College Solutions is a good guide, but FA is just one aspect of being a Uni guidance counselor, and its a very minor one and not very applicable within IE as many students youd work with dont qualify or arent eligible.
Uni Guidance isnt just something you figure out from reading some texts, it takes experience and building a network, but talking the talk through an interview isnt a high bar of assessment.

Not to be mean, Im sure you are competent as a MH counselor, but it doesnt appear based on your posts that you have the special qualities recruiters are interested in to be successful in early recruiting as a counselor.

One last piece of advice Counselme, and that is you can safely ignore what SighGuy says. When I used to read his posts in the past, about 1 in 20 posts he makes is actually relevant and accurate. I figure the saying about a broken clock is pretty relevant in this situation. I've added him to my ignore list along with a couple of other jokers on the forum and it improves the quality of the website substantially.

Good luck.

@counselme

You can safety ignore @eion_padraig. They dont know what right and wrong mean, the forum is a lot easier to read when they are ignoring me.

PsyGuy wrote:
> @counselme
>
> You can safety ignore https://jp.jooble.org/ @eion_padraig. They dont know what right and wrong
> mean, the forum is a lot easier to read when they are ignoring me.


exactly

@Anou, To each their own.

::sigh::

It was just a post reply so that @Anou could insert an ad link.