The International Schools Review Forum

Hello ISR Community:

I'm a secondary English teacher at successful public high school in the US. 15 years of experience. Ten years of experience teaching MYP English. Two years experience teaching DP. IB and AP professional development completed. Experience as head of department. Extracurricular experience in journalism and athletics. References should show me to be a strong teacher. Masters degree from a well known US school.

Goals: Find a position at an IS beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.

Challenges: Non-teaching spouse and three children (our youngest will be three, the older two will be in primary school at time of departure).

Geography of IS hoped for (in order of most to least desired we would look for): W. or E. Europe, SE Asia, Asia, S. America, L. America, and Africa. While this is specific we are open to the right situation in the right place. We are looking for a great community to join and be a part of in a part of the world that is safe, relatively pollution-free, offers good educational opportunities to our children, allows relative ease of travel to nearby locations and sites, and is generally non-restrictive to women's roles or access to the community.

Current plan: Apply to Search over this summer while researching and applying to specific schools that might be a good fit.

Additional Info: While my wife is not a teacher, she has an MBA and is a managing director at a large public US university with experience in communications and institutional advancement (fundraising). She is open to using these skills abroad at an IS. She and I both have experience living abroad.

I've followed the posts and discussions on this board for sometime and have appreciated the insight and reflections shared by the community. I'm looking for any insight, expectations I should have, and/or things to be mindful of in my particular situation.

Thank you.

Do nothing, stay where you are, or shill your spouse out into senior/executive leadership in school development/advancement.

I had a much more detailed response until I got to your challenges. What your asking is an IS to travel 5 people to fill a Lit. classroom, and thats not very likely.
Third tier ISs just arent going to pay that much, they would rather hire some ET with a degree in English than pay for 5 travelers, thats a four bedroom apartment just off the top. Second tier ISs dont have to pay that much. First tier ISs have wait lists and 3 tuition places/waivers is real coin. What you would need is an Elite tier IS that can afford it and essentially "likes you". Given your preference time
Your resume is strong, but some of the factors dont have a lot of utility. Everyone does ASPs so you do the school paper (assuming they have one, or a literary magazine) and athletics are usually taken by the PHE department, and even if they werent none of those are really marketable, ISs dont have huge 5A sports programs. Would they like to have someone to coach football (soccer) or do the literary magazine if they didnt have someone, sure, is it any more important than anyone elses ASP, no.
Your spouse is a bit on a conundrum, you will have a three year old, what can your spouse realistically do? Either they are taking care of your child or youre hiring someone else too. That would be problematic enough if youre spouse is another IT, but your spouse isnt, you essentially need a senior leadership appointment for your spouse to match their skill set, and unless your spouse is fluent in some additional languages how are they going to function in the capacity of "school advancement/development". If thats your plan, your spouse not you, needs to conduct the job search and then bring you on as a Lit. IT as part of the package.

Otherwise youre back to traveling 5 people to fill a Lit. classroom and an IS that likes you and can afford that, which is equivalent to a Willy Wonka golden ticket.

It's not nearly so bleak. I actually mentored someone with similar specs this past year in finding jobs. They ended up with 2 offers by November and signed before Thanksgiving.
You have a strong background that could easily get you a decent int'l post, if not for the large family thing that PG has already discussed. (It's not generally a 4 bedroom place, though, it's a 3 bedroom place. One for you, two for the children to share. Very few schools ever offer 4 bedroom anythings; some do, sure, but it's a rarity, and definitely not an automatic minimum.)

Anyway, the key thing you need to do is re-purpose your wife as the lead in this search. Some excellent schools out there with lovely packages are in need of development officers. I recommend you get yourself a good associate at that old favorite, Search Associates, and start talking about how to build her CV and approach this search.

Thank you PsyGuy and Sid for your responses.

If objective then is to repackage wife as the main hire is Search still the right place to go? When I look at their posted leadership positions few to none look like they are ones outside of principal/head of school or IB coordinators.

Search can help. You get more personal service to help you set the direction of your search. I also recommend registering with multiple agencies. There aren’t many development jobs (but what there are are good), and you don’t want to miss an opportunity because it’s listed with an agency you aren’t part of. ISS, Carney Sandoe, Schrole for a start.

@TeacherJourney

Well to first put it in perspective:
1) Development/Advancement Director (DAD) is a minority appointment in IE, most small and many medium sized ISs simply dont have them. Either ownership or executive leadership assumes their functions.
2) Of the ISs that do, the majority of them have a strong preference to hire local, thats where the pool of coin is, and understanding the business environment and the culture as well as the language are vastly important considerations.
3) Its a niche appointment that doesnt scale. An IS will have many ITs and even multiple ITs in the same subject. An IS will have a number of of leadership but of them there is typically only one DAD, regardless of how big the IS is.

Understanding that lets look at the alternatives:

ISS: Its possible ISS would accept you, youre a mixed package but if your spouse really pitched their strengths well they could let the two of you in. The advantage would be that ISS actually manages a small number of ISs (for practical purposes a "chain IS") this could be an in for your spouse. Your spouse would also have better access and more attention.

Carney Sando: Absolutely an option, and one I would recommend, they do more of the work for you and "business" heavy appointments tend to be their specialty within IE. The problem is its not a jobs bank or listing service. The interest you get will be more properly vetted with a higher probability of success, but the number of those is going to be much lower, low enough to the point you may go the entire year and not get anything.

TIE: Its inexpensive (USD$40) and you dont have to join twice (for both of you), its probably the better choie for you than your spouse, while they do have DAD vacancies they are as mentioned above few in number and the engine doesnt support them very well (you will spend a lot of time clicking on "other" categorized vacancies to find out they have nothing to do with advancement and development).

TES: Great option, if your primarily marketable to BSs and have experience in that sector, but BSOs tend towards DADs that have a foundation with the crown and its pool of coin. Though its entirely free, you dont even have to sign up for anything and you can browse vacancies. Most of them have extensive application requirements.

COIS: Its an option for a segment of the EU ISs, but since its now priced comparatively with the other premium agencies there isnt much of a benefit unless your spouse is a native speaker or fluent in some other EUR (mainly french) languages. In addition many of the positions require EU passports or working papers.

Schrole, Nord, etc: As long as you dont pay for Schrole and can spend the time looking on the Nord and other agency databases you could get lucky. These sites are more directed towards faculty vacancies.

Which brings us to SA...
While I disagree strongly with @Sid regarding the "personal help" (its hit or miss, you could get lucky and get a great associate who will answer the questions and put in the time, or you could be ignored). The strongest benefit is the networking, as SA has an actual leadership fair (its in November) and while its likely there wont be any DAD vacancies (the focus is on leadership thats outside the business and operations tasking areas, more academically focused or those at executive leadership) it will give you the unique opportunity to shake hands make a pitch and get your resume into the hands and in front of the eyes of the decision makers. They might not have something now, but they may later, or they may have a colleague in another IS who is looking for someone. Its a unique opportunity to make professional friends.