The International Schools Review Forum

This goes out to all the fine minds represented here!

(I have been a lurker for some time now). I am facing some career and life huge decisions at the moment, and could use some advice. I am worried about doxxing myself, because some details are pretty specific, and would be happy to do this over PM. At the same time, if anyone out there is facing something similar, they may benefit from your perspectives.

The general details are:
*Am already teaching internationally; can't decide whether to stay or jump ship (various reasons, some probably more valid than others); know it's late in hiring season; not sure if gong back to try for entry level admin job in DE is worth it; almost want to take a year off but scared; am older than 45 but folks think am way younger due to energy and fitness level (fwiw. It helps when adjusting to new places and with interacting with colleagues but age limits and financial planning are becoming bigger factors). There is a major life change that is slightly involved in this as well, and the offer of a teeny promotion for next year in current location (not quite enough to offset other negative factors, and it would include a contract extension).

Happy to be in education, happy for any feedback. TIA!

A lot of vagueness...

PMS arent enabled o this forum, the best option is to put your contact email in your dashboard profile and direct members to that to contact you.

Do you have a leadership position in DE, or do you have a network and relationship you can leverage into one? If not, than its just you sending out some applications, and otherwise doing nothing. You dont have an appointment to compare to staying or not. You mention a life change and a promotion that doesnt offset the negatives, which answers your own question, you arent happy and the promotion isnt going to change that. The real issue is as you alleviated to is return or take a break?
You can do anything for a year and not have it effect your resumes utility or marketability. You are older though but you arent to the place yet where you have to retire out, even though it means likely not returning to your current IS, it doesnt sound like you even want to. If you take a break for a year what are you going to do? Its very difficult to comment on comparisons when there isnt a lot of data to make that comparison. From what thee is to gather you appear to be asking if its okay to take a break, well its okay to take a break if you have a plan of what to do next. If you dont have a plan, that break is largely going to be spent figuring out what to do and setting yourself up to resume teaching when the breaks over.