The International Schools Review Forum

I have had no problems in the past dealing with recruiters and recruiting firms. I am active in Search, and because my vacation puts me right there for the ISS Bangkok fair I thought, no problem, 195 dollars. Very doable.

My first international posting was for 1 year. After activating my account they put me on "hold". They are now asking me to contact the school, and get them to send an email to ISS.

What kind of Mickey Mouse operation is this? I worked for 6 months as a recruiter before I went overseas, and I know you must follow up! The key word is "YOU". If they want to know that I had a one year contract do the following.
1. Ask me!
2. Ask for proof!
3. Call the school!

The school is in China, none of my contacts work anymore, the website has a link for English which does not work. I am at a loss. It was 6 years ago.

I sent a picture of the contract. They say they have a policy (obviously not on their website) of checking any school which was only worked at for 1 year. I have no problem with that, I only wish they would do their work themselves. Anyone else deal with this type of stuff from ISS?

I have worked with ISS once before. I attended one of their fairs in Bangkok as a teacher. I'm not giving any details but I can't stand ISS. I'll never go with them again.

[quote="WonderingWhat"]I have worked with ISS once before. I attended one of their fairs in Bangkok as a teacher. I'm not giving any details but I can't stand ISS. I'll never go with them again.[/quote]

I concur!

With A LOT of complaining and emailing and eventually finding the newest person at the school. I recieved confirmation, but do not think ISS is ever on your side! I will attend their fair as there are 2 schools I want to see, but otherwise...

Agreed they are not!

They market themselves as helpful, but that couldn't be further than the truth. Starting with multiple email inquiries over the summer just to even see if I qualified. Never heard back from them. I finally called several times and then got a human. Normally if a company does this I'd walk away, but friends had said this was the main agency to go through especially for my first time out. In general my email inquiries after being accepted took 7+ days to get a response.

The portal has been helpful and I've landed quite a few interviews and have plans to meet up w those schools at the SF conference, but I find their "assistance" in the process at a sub par at best.

i would have to agree.
for me, these firms are useful only for access to their database of schools and nothing more.

v.

If you find yourself needing a recruiter, we found Michael Williams at Search to be fantastic. He answered all of our questions warmly, thoroughly, and quickly. He held our hands when needed, dragged us though, cheered us on, and congratulated our quick placement this year at our first IT post. I don't think we will be looking for jobs again soon, but I will go right back to him when we do.

I agree with every poster here who has stated that ISS was a selfish, money making entity that invests little care and attention in their applicant clients. They have recently attempted "on-line" fairs because I think they can see the beginning of the end to the meat market in person fairs. If you read many of the fair diaries (even Search) you will see that the hiring fairs are for many, just a chance for admin. to go on a junket that gets them away from the schools for a while. But I digress...

ISS has a poor customer service rating, and other than their database, are fairly useless in terms of assistance when you most need it. I would stay away from them. If you must.... go for Search, and if you are good, really good... Don't bother with the fairs....send your info to the schools and market yourself well.