The International Schools Review Forum

Anyone have any first hand/second hand knowledge about ISS and hiring before job fairs? Is it even worth it to send out the 'express an interest in this job' request? I have been sending one follow-up email to express interest. Do schools even pay attention to the 'interests' that are sent to them via ISS?

Also, when do schools generally start contacting people? I'm thinking it's a tad too early, but should be happening sorta kinda soon.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks for the replies :)

I have never used ISS. I used Search. With Search, I took advantage of their database etc to discover vacancies. I then sent applications directly to the schools I was interested in.

The bottom line is that schools hire before fairs. I am not sure how this "express interest through ISS" works. What I did is sent a cover letter that ended by saying I had attached my CV and was registered with Search. This made sure that the school got my full resume and sales pitch, as well as having access to the Search file if they were interested.

All the best with your search.

And do not despair if u do not get many replies. You only need 1 of the fish to bite.

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I was wondering the same thing. I have been using the "express interest" button, but have not heard from any of the schools I expressed interest to. Also, I was thinking about attending the job fair, but the fee, plus flight, plus hotel will be really expensive.

As a recruiter, I do not like the 'express interest' feature, and I'll be bringing it up with ISS. Every time someone clicks it, I get an e-mail telling me to access the website and pull up credentials. If someone expresses interest in 4 different open positions, I get 4 emails. The day the feature opened, I got 150 emails. And they're not stopping.
So I really do apologize to everyone who's using the feature in an expectation of some sort of response, but it's not going to happen. ISS set this up and flooded our inboxes, without asking us. Frankly I think they are misleading applicants by seeming to suggest that this is a quicker road and/or may lead to a response. I suppose it could for the small number of positions that are really hard to fill, but if you're a grade 3 teacher I'm likely just to wait and see if you're at the fair. There is no realistic way I can do my normal job and keep up with all these expressions of interest.
My apologies, and I hope you get one from ISS too.

Thank you Sid for that information. I usually follow up with a cover letter and my CV to each school I "expressed interest" to. I've been a member since earlier December. I still have not heard from any one using ISS. I can see how the flood of interest notifications can be a bit undesirable. Do you have any advice? I have a non-teaching spouse, but we have no dependents. Do you think this is why I can't seem to get any response?

Thanks,