The International Schools Review Forum

This sounds too good to be true - at least for those looking to teach in South/Central America and the Caribbean - which is my next destination if things go my way. I found that it was quite easy to register with AASSA but I heard registering with ISS is quite difficult. Maybe this is a back channel into ISS

"Additionally, we have a partnership with International Schools Services (ISS) and you may want to consider attending the International Recruiting Conference (IRC) they are hosting in Atlanta from December 9-11, 2018 at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead (same hotel the AASSA fair is at). Please note that there is no fee and you do not need to register with ISS or complete paperwork to attend the ISS recruiting fair as they will utilize your AASSA file with recruiters. The only requirement is that you are a fully accepted and paid AASSA candidate and you must be present and attend the AASSA Recruiting Fair prior to attending the ISS Fair."

Nope its totally legit. Historically there have been a number of 'mega fairs' where one organizations fair ran back to back with another fair (typically SA). ISS has been improving its market through partners rather than acquiring new clients (they have commission/invoicing models that are different). So yes you will get to attend two fairs and the ISS fair without additional cost and you will already be there. However while the increased cost is only extra accommodations, etc, a few issues to consider:

1) Attendance at the ISS fair will not give you an ISS profile nor registration, or access to their database. It will give you a list of ISs and an indication of vacancies but nothing else. You will have no access or followup with ISS other than that which you obtain directly from a recruiter or third . research. This really isnt a backdoor to ISS, its more a toleration of a foreign recruiting candidate (AASSA) mingling with ISSs recruiters.

2) The fair is in the second week of December, which is before the big push in recruiting, its a dump fair and its early. Leadership is busy with closing out the term, and any superstar IT recruiting will be done around November.

3) It looks like there is more value (2 fairs for the price of 1) and there is some additional value, but its not going to be twice the access. Youll see many of the recruiters you saw at the AASSA fair, what benefit will there be to talking to them twice for what will be essentially the same vacancies. There will be some, and if the cost isnt prohibiting to you and you have that time you might get a small number of increased vacancies and then have to get an interview with them and then get an offer.

4) It is a lot of time, thats a solid week off from teaching for these two fairs, they do cross over the weekend but they will take up the end of one week plus the beginning week of the next. Thats a lot of time to take off, especially when considering the opportunity cost of the mega fairs and the opportunities at the mega fairs (BKK, LON, and BOS) will be better. Can you really afford to take a whole week off from class at the end of term.