The International Schools Review Forum

Hello,
I applied in December for a position at an IS in Europe.
I received an email a month later to let me know I was shortlisted.
They asked me to submit a video interview, which I did. It is a simulation of a real interview:questions show on your screen, you have a limited time to answer, no possibility to pause, go back, or delete. You pretend you are talking to an interviewer, but you are actually just looking at the webcam. Not my favorite type of interview. They even included questions in 2 other languages. Probably to assess my level since it is a position of foreign languages teacher.

I received an email 2 days after I submitted the video. They are inviting me to a 1st Skype interview with the Principal and HR person next week. They also started contacting my references.

Do you think they are going to make an offer? Should I get ready to talk about the package (which is accesssible on their school website), or should I expect another round of questions ?
I am a newbie in IE. I don't want to get too excited.

Thank you!

If it is a reputable school, the package is the package. At any school I have been at, the package is pretty much non-negotiable, transparent wage scale and it is what it is.

If you start talking package, you are going to come across as caring more about contract and $$ than about teaching students...

@ shadowjack
I completely agree.
I have all the information I need about the package, and I don't want to negotiate.
I am just wondering if they are going to offer me the job, in that case we are going to talk about the contract/package,
OR if they are still in the selection phase.

First interview? Selection phase. 2 or 3 interview? Getting close, with possible job offer coming. When we moved schools last year we averaged four interviews/discussions for the schools that were serious about us, and we were serious about them.

It depends if the principal is executive leadership and has hiring and firing authority. There isnt much reason to bring HR around is there isnt much business to talk unless HR is essentially the messenger for the HOS or ownership. Still this is still the first interview youve had with people. Id say its even coin it could go either way. You should always be prepared to discuss and negotiate the offer.

I disagree to an extent with @SJ, yes the package is the package and the scale the scale and while you cant just demand X coin or Y benefit there is still negotiation. You can negotiate how many steps and what counts as a step for salary and you can discuss accommodations or flexibility in certain benefits. Acme AS has a salary scale with 10 steps on it and two bands one for a bachelors and one for an advance degree. The cap is step 5 for new ITs. You have 3 years experience and so step 3 but you could present that you have X years in a professional field that is worth an extra step, and you have two bachelors degrees and the second is specific to the teaching field so you could make an ask for the advanced degree salary band. Thats a position that can work. Acme AS also offers a shipping allowance as part of the package but your single and really dont have anything other than luggage to ship, asking for the shopping allowance to be provided as a shopping allowance is also a position that can work. If you had kids, Acme AS might offer the first placement waiver at 100% and then the second at 50%, you can push directly for 2 at 100% or make a position that your spouse is interested in some part monitoring to be a part of the school community and maybe something as simple as monitoring 30 minutes in the morning at the drop off on a part time (wage based opportunity) that would also come with another full 100% placement waiver.