The International Schools Review Forum

Do people recommend applying to schools not showing any vacancies?

What you're going to get on here is "what is the worst that could happen" answers. In theory, it is correct. They might see you, be impressed with your resume, know their is a vacancy coming, not really advertise it or interview, interview you, bam new job. However, I feel like this does not happen often and the percentage of this working is probably pretty low.

If anything, they will pool your resume and never hear from them. Unless you have an impressive resume, I doubt you hear anything more than an automated response.

Just my two cents, I am sure a few other posters will say something differing.

I wouldnt, but I agree if all your doing is emailing a form letter and application packet, your time invested is less than a minute.

ISs generally dont keep track of those things, they dont stuff a file cabinet or file on their computer with cold applications. Its too much work. How do you know who is still available and who isnt, and how do you organize that information. Its easier to create a vacancy posting and see what comes in.

Youre likely going to get little more than a form acknowledgment.

It depends. I would say if you are nearby and visit the school (see separate topics on this), sure. I would say that sending a general letter of interest during slow times might be worthwhile, but I would only do this once per school per five years. This way schools know you are interested in THAT school but that you also aren't pushy or overwhelming an annoyed HR person with emails. You will probably go into a general stack, but maybe they will remember you from the general stack and interview you when they list or before they post on something like Search ("public" posting on the school website or a local job board, trying to just fill the vacancy without getting bombarded). If they don't remember you, no harm, no foul--just apply to specific jobs.

There are very few administrators who get annoyed over a single, well-crafted, and well-timed expression of general interest. As a general rule either they like it or they don't remember it. It's really only a negative if it's annoying (too frequent) or poorly executed (letter leaves a bad impression through its tone or grammar or something)--or if the admin is a petty jerk with whom you wouldn't want to work anyway.

It changes the metrics if your application is part of a visit, which if your attempting to arrange than Id agree with @Thames Pirate and make a cold application in the process of securing an invite.

While leadership may not get annoyed in general, they also rarely get excited, its more like click, 10 seconds, dont have a vacancy, next email.

There are lots of petty and jerky leadership thst run upper tier ISs that a lot of ITs want to work at.

I used to work at a mediocre school that never advertised jobs. They would hire from those who sent in unsolicited resumes, so it does happen. However, based on my experience there, you should be wary of working with those who are incapable of following the simplest of instructions, or being hired by those who are too lazy/inept to even post jobs on the homepage.

I always apply to schools with no vacancies, if they are schools that I really feel I have a chance at. Schools often don't update their sites as fast and they fill (or don't fill) vacancies. This is especially true for schools that offer publically potential jobs that may or may not exist when teachers have to give official notice. The difference is, that if these schools don't respond fairly timely, I move on, figuring that they really didn't have openings, where I would do a more aggressive followup on schools that had advertised openings.