On Search Database but Not Hired through Search

[fangpiren]

If I accepted a job at a school that is on the SA database but did not get the job through SA, would SA drop me if I break contract?

[PsyGuy]

Maybe possibly probably. It depends what the IS does. If they do, its likely your associate will be upset, since youre supposed to notify your associate when you accept a position and since this is an SA repped IS than SA will most certainly want to invoice for the placement, not getting notified means no placement fee. However, the IS should have notified SA so the placement fee could be invoiced as well, so the IS may not want to notify IS you broke contract either. It may not be worth the hassle and headache to them for one IT they will likely be able to replace. They might be the type of IS though that racks up a lot of coin for SA and they can reasonably inform SA you broke contract and not have any repercussions for the failure to notify, it might depend on timing and the context of breaking contract. You could spin that you didnt notify because you didnt have a lot of confidence in the ISs contract because of COVID (visas, immigration, etc.) or some other reasonable excuse. You could peddle that the recruiter/leader and you had a verbal understanding/agreement that if the situation didnt improve, got worse or it seemed unlikely that youd be able to get in and/or that if COVID didnt approve the two of you could part amicably, and youre just exercising that option. You both agreed not to notify SA because youre both still job searching and the contract was essentially only a tentative one. The IS is just upset because they dont have any control over the government and COVID regulations and enforcement. You need a job and you cant be standing holding the bag come August because of travle rules/restrictions. Playing the COVID card (or some other approach) might be sympathetic to your associate and they might keep you.

[fangpiren]

The job wasn't listed on SA. It was listed on JoyJobs. I think the school once used SA but not at the time that I accepted a position with them.

[sid]

You might have a slightly different challenge, in that Search will require a recommendation from your most recent school. This means you have to put Search and the school you left into direct contact, and there’s no telling where that leads. Search will not activate your profile without a current contact, but they might decline to represent you if that contact reveals that you broke contract, regardless of whether it was a Search school. They can be understanding if the reason was truly new news (war in Ukraine) but tend to be less so about things like the pandemic- at this point, over two years in, it’s hard to convince someone that you left for a “new” pandemic reason.
Search can also, but doesn’t always, seek the school’s opinion on whether Search should rep the teacher if the teacher left under “interesting” circumstances. If the school doesn’t mind, Search won’t either.

[sid]

Or am I misunderstanding? Did you accept the job and go work there, or just accept the job but don’t want to honor your word?

[fangpiren]

The latter - I don't want to honor my word.

[sid]

That's a little different but still hard to predict.
Search may never find out. That's one possibility.
On the other hand, they may, at which point they may or may not be annoyed enough to do anything. It's easy enough for them to put your name in the database with a tick in the column for "never take on as a candidate", and have that sit there until the day you need them, whenever that might be.
There are other possibilities, including that the school you're ditching them for will find out, and may decide to renege on their offer.
The international world is small. You never know who knows whom, how well, and what they share. I've had the most unexpected connections pop up while I'm just randomly doing my thing, and while in most cases that is a neutral thing, it has the capacity to create very positive or very negative outcomes.
Just found out last month that a teacher who walked out from one of my schools a few years ago has finally resurfaced, in a low quality school in a city most people wouldn't call desirable. Am I doing anything about it, like contacting that school? Nah. Why be vindictive. Life is short. He was turned away from Search at the time he left us. We had hired him through Search, and they checked with us when he tried to go job searching after leaving us. We told them that he'd broken contract, and after that they decided on their own that they wouldn't take him back as a candidate. Rather a shaggy dog story, that. Not sure it's relevant. But it popped into my mind.
If you really don't want to keep the contract you signed, try an honest conversation with the school. It often goes better than people think. They won't be thrilled, I won't lie, but they'll be happier if you talk with them honestly and give them as much notice as possible. What'll really annoy them is if you faff about and make up stories, and delay, and they figure out far too late that they need to go find another teacher.

[Heliotrope]

How would SA find out?
The job wasn't listed on SA, and since they weren't involved I doubt the school will think to report you to Search. They might not even know you're on Search, and if they are, they might not want Search to know they recruited a teacher who is on Search without telling Search that they did.

I do agree with @sid: tell the school you're backing out in a respectful way with some apologies thrown in, and try to make them understand why you're doing it (assuming you have a good reason to go back on your word). Do it as soon as possible because they need time to find someone else - every day you wait they will be more pissed.

[expatscot]

The job wasn't listed on Search, so they played no part in your hire, therefore shouldn't be able to claim anything from the school.

I know of schools which will list some jobs on Search and some on other sites, depending on what they are looking for.

Another thought - is the school info on Search up to date? If not, then it's likely what's happened is the school has decided to stop using SA but SA just haven't removed it from their database. There seemed to be a few like that when I was applying earlier in the year.

[PsyGuy]

@fangpiren

SA doesnt care how the placement got too Z. From their POV if its an actively repped IS and IT, the placement fee is due even if SA played zero role. It varies though between ISs, some ISs really have no use for SA and they give prestige to SA by being members, some ISs have enough influence and clout they can successfully justify multiple channel recruiting without SA placement fees. Some cant they need SA and they need fairs, etc.
SA isnt really motivated to clean up the profile database, the bigger it is the better it looks for them. There are ISs in the database that arent currently active with SA.

You havent and wont be working at his IS so there is no need to provide a reference, and if you did you could ghost the IS and remove any effect of a reference had this been a runner, etc.

The COVID pandemic is still a very real thing in many parts of the world, and it still has substantial effects on recruiting and immigration.

IE is pretty large and spread out and its not very well connected. There is no global blacklist. An IT that never showed and dumped contract is such an infinitesimally small thing in the landscape of IE life. Its not like leaders meet and after sniffing each others butts whip out a notepad of ITs that broke contract and compare notes.
Theres also the issue of the IS not informing SA either, though there are leaders that will spite themselves to greater detriment out of vindictiveness. They dont want to lose access to SA either.

It is ABSOLUTELY to your determinant to inform the IS of your choice early. Not until you have a new appointment in a new IS. You get to use the SA database while searching and nothing bad happens until you do inform the IS. The moment you do youre handing over all power and control to them with little more than a plea of please be merciful. The better prepared you are the better protected you are. Regardless of when you tell them, they will be fine, the consequences to you have far greater potential to be detrimental to you than they will be to the IS.

[fangpiren]

[quote=PsyGuy post_id=62990 time=1651592508 user_id=68047]
@fangpiren
It is ABSOLUTELY to your determinant to inform the IS of your choice early. Not until you have a new appointment in a new IS. You get to use the SA database while searching and nothing bad happens until you do inform the IS. The moment you do youre handing over all power and control to them with little more than a plea of please be merciful. The better prepared you are the better protected you are. Regardless of when you tell them, they will be fine, the consequences to you have far greater potential to be detrimental to you than they will be to the IS.
[/quote]

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking.

[sid]

If you’re convinced Search isn’t involved, you get to use their database regardless of when you tell the school.
PG speaks of avoiding consequences, but what consequences are there to avoid? The responses you got have a consensus that there are no consequences. I’m the most negative voice here, and the worst I’ve got is that potentially down the line it might turn out that someone knows someone else and puts two and two together, probably resulting in a nothing sandwich with a side of awkward shoulder shrug.
So own your decision and tell the school. Then you and them can all move forward.

[PsyGuy]

Being convinced of something isnt the same as that thing actually being true. The IS might be actively repped by SA, and they might inform SA regardless of the consequences. If they arent actively repped they might send an email or make a call to SA anyway just to be vindictive and the associate might drop them anyway. Why take that risk when the LW doesnt have to. Why risk the bullet when you dont have to show up at all. There is no benefit to having that conversation with the IS, absolutely none. Why even have the conversation at all.

[Heliotrope]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why wait?
The OP gave his word to a school, but said they've since changed their mind: they don't want to work at this school after all.
If there's a chance the school will want to hurt the teacher's career, for example by informing SA, that chance will increase with every day they don't inform the school they've changed their mind. Yes, the school will ultimately be ok, but their attitude towards you can be managed by how quickly and with which message you will inform them. If I was an admin, and a newly hired teacher would inform me a week before the start of the year, I would be very motivated to make sure other schools and Search would know to avoid this teacher. However, if I was told early May and I the reason given was somewhat acceptable, I would think 'Darn!' and then move on.

[PsyGuy]

@Heliotrope

The IS the LW is breaking contract with might be actively repped by SA, and the IT is repped by SA. The IS might be vindictive regardless of when notified. Waiting until after securing a new appointment mitigates a substantial amount of that risk. Dont bother telling them at all, they will be too bust scrambling to find a new IT and whatever IS the IT is at will be too deep into the new year to take adverse reaction even if they do on the serendipitous happenstance that they do find out. Doing otherwise is just relinquishing all control and hoping for mercy.