My spouse is a counselor; we are at our second international school (my fourth). Most schools, we have found, are very particular about their counselor candidates and you would almost have to be certified and have direct experience. My spouse came to the international school circuit via higher education administration and counseling at the very types of oolleges many of the top overseas students want to gain admission to, and you would not believe some of what she had to listen to and put up with. I don't want to dissuade you, but unless you have a really good hook of some kind, it will be tough. And, at the high school level, college admissions experience is crucial.

We have been in Jeddah since September. We are not at Conti, which we have heard is the best. Certainly in terms of facilities that is true, though I can't say for sure about the quality of the people or the rigor of the program at Conti.

While we are still relatively happy at the compound we are on, there is not a lot to do in Jeddah unless you like malls and restaurants. There is scenery and a lot of terrific outdoor sculpture and a bit more, but it is not an oh-my-god kind of place. We have been out on the Red Sea to dive and snorkel, but you can't do that all the time. Many of the schools we have heard have memberships in beach clubs (ours does) where you can spend time for a nominal fee. Ours is quite nice, but it is on the northern outskirts of the city and without a car, takes some planning.

We plan to buy a car soon which will help quite a bit. It won't create more things to do, but will make getting to them easier. We also recently got a dog, which is great. There is always the pool on the compound, and usually some stuff for the kids to look forward to. A few cultural events for adults, but advertising is poor and you really have to try and make connections to hear about things - it is extremely weird in that regard. (This is my fourth international school and the lack of communication and advertising is astounding.) There is a Natural History Society with monthly meetings here that are usually worth the time.

If I were a single teacher here I would have shot myself in October. As a family, you will be okay. While there are really interesting things to do here, it is not a cultural gem, so be prepared. It is a good launch pad to many different places to visit - primarily, but not excusively - outside the Kingdom; some decent (or better) airfares to be had.

Hope this helps. I honestly don't know if I could recommend my school but I have heard good things about Conti, and I doubt Jeddah is the worst place. (How about that for damning with faint praise?) Good luck.

My wife and I are in Saudi Arabia. We have two kids. All four of our passports are sitting in a locked file cabinet in the human resources office. We have our iqamas, and we trade when we leave the country. There has never been a problem. Is it weird? A bit. But, there are so many more things wrong with the school we are at it's just not that big a deal.

It's been a long time since I have had the time to check this site. Thanks to all for the advice. We are in Jeddah, and so far, we really like it here.

We just moved to Jeddah after three years in South America. We are teaching at The Competition, however, so I can't tell you anything about that school.
So far, we enjoy living on the compound. The city we were in before was NOT family friendly. Here, it is so nice to have our daughter rolling skating and our son skateboarding out on our quiet little dead-end street. There are a lot of kids on the compound, though you would hardly know it during Ramadan, but we look forward to many playdates. Security is excellent; actually we have been told most people don't lock their doors.
If you have other specific questions, I would be happy to weigh in with my perspective.

Sorry this reply comes late...but we just moved from South America to Saudi Arabia. Our experience is that the costs are not prohibitive. We are a couple with two children and yearly home travel is a deal-breaker for us. We have also received settling-in allowances, which help a lot with toilet brushes and all those millions of other little expenses. We have things in storage in the US - that's maybe $1200 - 1500 a year. Our shipping from our former school covered about half the cost of shipping to Saudi Arabia and we covered the rest- but it was worth it. We had not planned on buying a car here but have started rethinking that - so that would be an expense. Overall, though, I have been at four international schools (my wife at two), and while there are expenses I have never lost sleep over any of them. Good luck.

At our last school, there was a gay couple - an international-hire teacher and local-hire staff member - never a problem that I am aware of; this was in South America. While interviewing in February, we met gay couples, and know that with some schools in Europe there would be no problem. Good luck - I believe there will be a school for you.

There was a recent question as to whether some degree of anxiety is normal after having signed a contract for a new international teaching position; this is a bit of a variation on that theme.

We are moving to new positions in August - my fourth overseas, my wife's second. We have two children. Our anxieties are pretty much of the normal garden variety, and we'll be fine. The reason for writing this is to check whether others feel they are receiving adequate responses to e-mails sent to their new schools, and, if not, have you found a way to express your concern without seeming like an annoying pest.

We have a couple of contacts at our new school who are very good at responding, but when we have specific questions that they cannot answer, we seldom, if ever, hear back (or at least, not in a very timely manner). We understand it is a busy time of year for international schools, but we are not asking for a lot, and aren't even receiving acknowledgments.

Anyone else in the same boat and have some advice? Thanks.

My wife and I are interested in hearing about how other expatriate teachers/travelers deal with telephone communication abroad. We are moving to Saudi Arabia and plan to travel extensively (as we have done while living in South America, without a satisfactory means of communicating while traveling). Is it a matter of stocking up on different SIM cards? Are there particularly good brands of cellular telephones for what I am talking about? And - has anyone heard of the National Georgraphic Talk Abroad Travel Phone? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

The feeling doesn't go away - but you'll be fine. My first move was from Iowa to Taiwan in 1981 - I was single, out of the US the first 18 months, and made maybe two phone calls home - on holidays...just wrote letters a lot. Now, my wife, two children and I are moving from Venezuela to Saudi Arabia. The world has become so much smaller - e-mail, Skype, cheap phone calls, and we are planning our trip home for Christmas to see snow for the first time in four years. My biggest worry was when we left Massachusetts for Venezuela, and we sold our house; the house sold within twenty-four hours at a very respectable profit, but my lord, I never thought we would empty out that house of everything. Giving our dog up was hard, too. But - you will be fine. You have made a good decision, and you will be forever better as a result. If you are a couple, it will be a terrific adventure together; if you have kids, you are giving them an incredible gift. Good luck!

Many excellent points here already - particularly from interteach and jtf. (Although I would not advocate for initial contracts longer than two years, I agree with the reasoning behind it...)

My spouse and I signed contracts in February that had ISR reviews all over the place, but we did read between the lines; we think we read things right, but will have to wait to find out. We thought our current positions would be better than they turned out to be, but so much where we are now is just superficial dog and pony show p.r. crap. We made a commitment to not even think about going to a school that spoke of itself in unrelenting superlatives; we want to go where we are needed and where we can make a difference, not just be part of the window dressing.

From my perspective, having taught in many schools in the U.S. and abroad, most teachers do not complain much, speak up publicly much, or want to ruffle feathers much. Those of us who do make the others very nervous and we are accused of being unprofessional or worse. The same is true with many of the respondents on this website, I believe. This is a profession I commited to many, many years ago - and I would have had to be insane to have gone into it simply to be critical of it. When I am critical (and geez, that's just not that bad a word) it is to effect change - even if it is just to point out that there is more than one way of perceiving something. Many schools - not just international schools - do not want to acknowledge that there is more than one way to look at anything. At an international school, that frequently makes for some understandably surreal situations.

This is far more complex than mere happiness or unhappiness. And please do not reduce it to being irate or disgruntled, any more than you would suggest constipation as a reason. The profession's long civil servant history and mentality, the historical relationship between expatriate teachers and missionaries, and the fact that we work with children (and most of my career is as an elementary teacher, and we are the WORST - just always, always, always NICE) - make for this long-running dissonant kind of thing going on here. In the States, I was a union president and chief negotiator in an area where teachers were the only unionized group for a hundred miles - talk about surreal - talk about constantly hearing and feeling you weren't supposed to act or talk a certain way! To me, sometimes, reading the entries here is kind of like going to a union meeting (certainly not a faculty meeting, because we are all unfailingly nice at them) - but a union of people all over the world. And, as had been said, if you do not like what is here, guess what - don't let the door hit you on the way out.

I have tried to be positive and professional in all my postings. I cannot and will not promise to be unrelentingly positive - to what end?

I have been a teacher for 21 years, plus ten years in education outisde the classroom (NOT as an administrator...nonprofits!) I have never been in a perfect school and doubt very much I will - but all in all, I would not trade my experiences for anything - and I have had some amazingly wonderful ones, and some unbelievably disappointing ones. I reserve the right to exalt in the former and be pissed as hell about the latter.

While there are some very valid points listed above, I'll just add my two cents. As an international school teacher and parent of two, I would be MUCH more concerned with how family friendly the city you are going to is. Our school is, if anything, too family friendly - many times to the point where it feels like a mortal sin not to participate in things and commit to beinng at the school seven days a week. The only major thing as far as the school is concerned, is the type and location of the housing to which you are assigned. We have a beautiful, huge apartment, but many weekends our kids (the youngest in particular) seem to be under house arrest, because our housing (near the school) is nowhere near any friends' houses or apartments (outlying, tonier suburbs), and the city in which we live is not at all family-friendly unless you like malls. Since many administrators are well past the age where they are raising children or even remember what that was like, you would be well-advised to ask to speak to teachers with children before making a final commitment. We are relocating to a new school in August, and family-friendliness OFF school grounds was our highest priority. We think we found what we were looking for.

I obtained my first overseas teaching position with only two years of experience - and went from a little Midwestern town of 500 to a large Asian capital. It was a last-minute opening I obtained in the summer, but short of marriage and kids, it's probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I was young and stupid and it was far from perfect - none of my overseas jobs have been perfect - but I am a better person for the international experience. Going to my fourth international school in August after 21 years of teaching and about ten years off in the middle to try other endeavors.

I wrote a big long thing about ISS and UNI awhile back, but can't find it now, so will respond anew, though perhaps more briefly. To some extent, I see it like buying electronic equipment - I can buy it at WalMart or Target (UNI) or from a specialty store with expert staff (ISS). This is what ISS does and they do it well, and the cost is not that much more. While the UNI placement office is one of the first - or THE first - in international school placement - I always think it's like having your mother working at a job fair. Also, have to admit we had an issue at the last UNI fair we went to - a school gave us a verbal offer and then retracted it - and UNI was of absolutely no help at all. It was a horrendous, emotional experience and UNI really did nothing. ISS has consistently been professional, efficient, organized, and done the job. We have received jobs at two ISS fairs and can't think of a single criticism. And, I'm sorry to bring it up again, but why would I want to go to Waterloo, Iowa for anything if I did not have to?

My wife and I have been to UNI and ISS - and I am a graduate of UNI...I would highly recommend ISS over UNI. The service is great.