The International Schools Review Forum

Hi, I heard all the good teachers are quickly taken up and signed into tier 1 schools by November and that job fairs are pointless to go to...any truth?

Those are super star ITs and yes early recruiting (Late October to Late December) is focused on those ITs and elite tier ISs. They arent all gone though the BKK fair in early January is the fair for those ITs and ISs but the vast majority of those vacancies are filled by the end of peak recruiting (End of January) and yes many of them are filled before peak recruiting even happens.

Yes and no. Sure, there is a lot of early recruiting, but lots of good jobs are filled at fairs, too. Yes, many of those through pre-fair hiring, but certainly not all. The better jobs are mostly at BKK (Asia) and LON (Europe), but there are good jobs at other fairs. Many top teachers are just deciding about next year, so vacancies are just opening, too. Heavy recruiting is Nov-Feb, with January still being the top month. There is still a ton of hiring done at fairs, so there is definitely a point.

Even top or close to the top teachers are hired depending on a wide range of factors. I know colleagues who have had 4 interviews so far with more coming in the next few days. But their sense, so they say, is that schools want to feel the fit, then want to wait - like many teachers, the 'what if' factor comes in of waiting in the hopes of finding that dream candidate.

@Carmody

It really depends what you define as 1st tier, if your strictly focused on elite tier ISs (the top 1st tier ISs in a region) those are the ISs that can effectively make use of early recruiting, add in ISs in highly desirable regions and yes those ISs get to cherry pick and a lot of their very small amount of recruiting finishes early. If your more comfortable with all 1st tier ISs and less desirable regions than BKK is the fair a lot of those ISs finish up with.

If embassy ISs in regions like Paris and Tokyo, etc. are the only places you are interested in then yes fairs and premium agencies are going to be very frustrating to you.