I'd say @wrldtvler123 is right.

I'd say more than a week and you either didn't get the job, or they are waiting for someone else's answer first. I'd say the exception to that is they just started their holiday, but if they're interviewing you early (Nov/Dec) it's probably a position they want hire for quickly.

Eion

I've posted reviews that were balanced. I included the strengths and the weakness of the schools as I saw them. Overall, my last school was a place I'd recommend for others to go as the overall experience was good, but there could be issues that someone else would have with the place that would be a dealbreaker for them. I try to include those elements too, so if that's an issue the readers can see it and avoid it.

I have a concern that overly glowing reviews are just as useless as overly negative reviews. Each of us has qualities we look for in schools that are particular to each of us. I take very negative reviews more seriously when they do include some positive elements because it appears that the reviewer isn't blinded by their bad experiences.

Eion

Whether a particular passport matters or not can come down to a country's policies for issuing work permits. Granted, you can deal with recruiters, owners of schools, or parents of students who are racist which can impact how likely your wife is to be hired. Certainly, the Middle East as a region has been problematic for people coming from South Asia.

I think a good thing to look at is whether a given school has hired other people from South Asia. It helps to network with people in other international schools and you can find out if a school has hired other people from South Asia. Do you keep in contact with former colleagues or have you met people through the IB examining?

Being flexible as a teacher so you can either teach English and ToK is certainly good. The schools I've been at have sometimes had experienced teachers start on ToK who were already working and the school, and other times they brought in people who had already taught ToK (and other subjects) to teach it. IB English experience is valuable along with being an examiner.

Without dependents, I think you have a decent shot of being hired by someone if you're flexible.

Good luck,

Elon

Hey @TheCloudRunner,

What age group are you thinking of working with internationally as a school counselor? The experiences recruiters are looking for tend to be slightly different depending on the age level you're targeting. I've worked both as a high school counselor and a college counselor.

My last school had 5 school counselors spread out over 3 divisions and we'd meet to talk about what we were doing every couple months. Our jobs were quite different depending on the division. My new school is larger with 4 school counselors just at the high school level.

I've known people working at small international schools where they are in charge of K-12 or 6 - 12 as well, which looks a lot different.

-Develop CBT skills for short-term counseling intervention. Some locations you might work there will be local psychiatrists/psychologists/community counselors, but other places it may be hard to find outside resources to refer out to. That can make for tough situations if there's a serious situation.

- Familiarize yourself with the International School Counselor Association's model for comprehensive programs (https://iscainfo.com/), which is based on the ASCA's model. There's a lot of movement regarding child protection issues at international schools, which can be tough because local governments may not have much in the way of laws or systems to deal with issues. Council of International Schools as an organization is getting involved in pushing this forward (http://www.cois.org/page.cfm?p=3842).

- It would probably be helpful for you to learn about the IBO's programs at the division you want to work (Diploma Program 11/12, Middle Years Program 6 - 10, Primary Years Program preK - 5) as lots of international schools are using IB curriculum these days. You don't have to do training on it, but understanding the approach can be very helpful.

- Find mentors who can help you when you once you're working overseas. If you end up at a school where you are the only counselor period or the only counselor in your division it's good to have people you can talk to about situations. Some overseas locations with have networks of international counselors who collaborate and support each other, but it's still good to have someone wherever you end up.

Be aware that SighGuy says a lot, but that doesn't mean he actually knows a lot. Take what he says with a pile of salt.

Good luck.

Elon

Lots of my colleagues have beards from goatees to rather full beards. I've worked at two good schools serving international students in China and it hasn't been an issue at either places. Both places had foreigners hiring people. In thinking about friends of mine at other schools that have facial hair, it's pretty widespread. I guess it's possible you could come across a recruiter who had a strong dislike of hiring teachers with facial hair, it seems unlikely to me.

The comments from Chinese people about my beard have usually been from female friends who think I should shave so I look younger.

I'm more surprised at how many of my colleagues (men and women) have lots of visible tattoos. This is true at both schools I've worked at here. Given that our population of parents is fairly heavily of East Asian origin, I've been a bit surprised that it's not a bigger issue. In China, there are lots more young Chinese people with tattoos than there used to be although they still seem to be less common in highly visible areas with young professionals.

Good luck with your job search.

Eion

Even transferring my work permit from one school in one province to another school in another province in China was a hassle for me this year. I thought it was going to be straight forward. Apparently the new system for work permits kept crashing in June, which was slowing things down.

This was a problem even at tier 1 schools in the country

Eion

I switched schools within the same country (China) and continued to receive an overseas hire at my new school. I would ask about that right upfront.

Eion

@Anou, To each their own.

People coming from overseas ESL teaching background don't get a lot of respect from teachers at international schools in general. Often, though not always, it's not seen as equivalent or relevant by the people hiring people. For that reason, I think getting several years of experience in US school based teaching would be good and a mix of having your own classroom and push-in experience would be good.

The way you get your credential doesn't matter really. The issue is do you have two or more years experience teaching in a domestic school before making leap to international schools.

I'm at a school in China that traditionally had plenty of native and very high level English speakers that over time has enrolled more EAL kids even in the middle and high school. The market is changing and there's a need for additional EAL support and teachers who are used to teaching content with EAL students. Schools that have vision are responding to the trend. I'm not sure that the For Profit schools at the bottom are doing this much. From what I hear from other friends in the region, this seems to be going on in Asia in general. So the good news is that when you have that background with teaching in the US, there should be good opportunities in Asia. I don't know to what degree this is happening elsewhere in the world.

There are bottom schools in China where they'd probably hire you with just a CELTA, but you'd not have much luck getting out of those schools without the being credentialed.

Years ago I was considering a job at a private day school in the SF Bay area. Their starting salary was going to be around $100,000/year. It was a college counseling position, so maybe it's a lot higher than what they pay teachers. I was a bit surprised and I don't think it's too common. Granted the prices of housing in the area meant that by itself wasn't enough to afford much more than a condo.

I would agree from people I know who used to teach in the Northeast that the highly ranked schools pay their teachers pretty modestly and work them hard. I've heard of better salaries at private schools out of the Northeast.

You might be best reaching out to the western medical clinics that serve people in some of the places you're considering and asking.

For instance in Shanghai, you might contact United Family Healthcare as their staff are foreign doctors. They tend to serve expats in the community. I'm guessing they could clue you into what they can or can't access, and they can probably tell you what folks do to import them.

Eion

I made about low $50K a year at a private school in the US. They started me with 8 years of experience. It was an day/boarding school with strong alumni support. The campus is nicer than a lot of college campuses. Actually, our school had better starting pay than the local schools, but it was in a state with very low investment in public education. There was no pension plan, but there was a 403b program with some matching funds available. Health care costs were absurdly expensive if you had any dependents and the deductible meant you weren't seeing a benefit unless you spent a lot in a given year.

Coming to Asia I make about the same (slightly higher) salary, but not paying for housing and not paying for a car allows me to save about 2 1/2 times what I did back in the US. The downsides being I'm not paying into Social Security and I can't contribute to IRAs because I don't have US earned income.

Eion

To the OP, I think some of this job satisfaction issue can be dealt with by selecting the right school.

There are some international schools where there is less interaction between colleagues outside of school. There are few qualities you might look for. This is more likely to happen when the local community is more accessible and easy to navigate as a foreigner. Look for schools where faculty can select their own housing and you're not terribly limited in your transportation to/from work. So places where it's possible and/or common to have your own car. Also, I'd say as a general trend the better paying/located schools will attract older faculty and they are likely to be married and have kids, so their socializing patterns may be different and a bit less focused on going out with peers.

I have a number of close friends that are on staff and I socialize a lot with them, but I also have local friends and expat friends who don't work at my international school and work outside of education. Spending time with these other friends keeps things from being too focused on work all the time.

But I do think the conditions of international teaching mean that colleagues have relationships that differ fundamentally from working at a national school back home. I'd say it's an environment that is less like high school and a lot more like university. You're far from home under stressful circumstances and you end up turning to your peers for support. Like university, close friendships that last a long time can form fairly quickly. But there are also issues where you find people are less reliable that you want or their focus is very different from your own, so not every initial friendship will really work out.

As I see it, people can do one of two things.

1) Find a new job where you like the principal and hope she/he doesn't move on right after you take the job.

2) Do your job well and ignore the incompetent principal, until you can't anymore and then see #1.

Unless you're the Head of School and can fire the principal, there is not much that can be done.

If you're a certified teacher, even without 2 years of experience, you should be able to get a higher salary than 15,000 RMB/month with housing included.