MizMorton: two schools is fine; all you need is one to say yes. I remember reading posts on this forum last year about people having 10-15 interviews at the fairs and feeling discouraged, since we only had a handful. However, we had the majority of those schools offer us jobs.

Good luck to everyone at Cambridge! I had a wonderful time there last year and it completely changed my life. It's a great fair to attend, especially if you're new to the international circuit. Remember to value every connection you make there, regardless of whether to gets you a job or not.

MizMorton: Are you going to Cambridge, or just recruiting online? If you're heading to Boston next weekend, let me assure you that you may get offers you never imagined.

Last year, we had no jobs available on SA from any of our top schools, and only one school expressed interest in interviewing us. Both my partner and I are not in high-demand fields and we had zero IB experience. We figured we'd get some good experience with interviewing at Cambridge and try again the following year.

When we arrived at the fair, we had five schools leave us messages asking for interviews; these schools were not even on our radar, but in locations we were definitely willing to go to. Out of our five interviews, we were offered jobs at three of the schools (including one in Western Europe), and accepted positions at a well-respected IB school in Africa. While many would consider this a hardship post, we absolutely love our school, our principal and work with awesome people; they have also sent us on PD trainings for MYP and DP.

Please don't give up hope. There were many people last year who had no offers at the fair but wound up with positions a few weeks afterwards, including several people with dependents. My partner and I were extremely lucky to get multiple offers at the fair, but that's not always typical.

Completely agree with AnneBar; I thought my SO was at a great disadvantage in our job search because he was not a native speaker, based on what was said on this site. He will be teaching Spanish next year (along with ESOL) at our new school and was offered two other Spanish positions (including an IB Spanish position in Europe).

Very few schools we spoke with (outside of Spain or Latin America, obviously) cared at all about having a native speaker, and preferred to hire the best teacher they could. He is not a native speaker, but his level is very high, has a masters degree in his subject area, and spent years living in Spain. If you also have a very high level of writing/speaking in both languages, you should be sought after.

Here are some answers to your other questions:

-Do not apply to teach Spanish in the aforementioned regions where Spanish is the native language, for obvious reasons. European, Asian, ME, and African schools will all hire non-native speakers, based on our experience.

-The best time to begin your application would be next August with Search Associates, and then either attend a fair or conduct Skype interviews. You could also join TieOnline and begin an application there. Since the majority of teachers are hired prior to May, you have several months to move. Getting hired now is unlikely but not impossible, and depending on the visa process, everything could be very rushed/stressful at this point.

-I would never break a contract. Unless it's due to a health or family emergency, it could have significant to severe professional repercussions.

I think your ability to teach Spanish and French will make you highly attractive to a number of schools... Good luck in your search!!

Just to include a different perspective on the marriage thing- my boyfriend and I were hired to teach IB at a top school for our first international position and were offered two other positions at the Cambridge fair. Neither of us are in high-needs areas (English, ESOL, and Spanish). We are, however, top-notch teachers with several years of experience and excellent references. They were only interested in what we could contribute to their schools as a couple, regardless of marriage. We knew of at least two other non-married couples who were also hired at the same fair, and offered multiple positions.

I know that may not be the case in every situation, but I just wanted to emphasize that in my own experience, absolutely no school mentioned the non-married thing as a problem (we obviously avoided anything remotely Christian and most of the ME). Due to what other people have said in this forum, I was genuinely concerned it would be an issue before I attended the fair. At Cambridge, at least, it wasn't an issue at all.

I interviewed with them at Cambridge, and turned down an offer. We liked the head, although he doesn't have much international experience (only two years abroad; decades of US private school experience). It is also located in an absolutely beautiful location (the Mediterranean is across the street!) and housing is provided.

The real issue is with the salary and the students. They were very upfront in saying that their students are mostly local and wealthy, so the school feels much more Lebanese than international. Got a lot of questions about how to motivate the local population to do well in school. That is not what we were looking for in an international school (our new school has students from all over the world), so we passed on it.

The salary is also pretty low; As I recall, between $25,000-$27,000 US, and it is taxed on top of that. That would be a pay cut from our rather paltry salaries in the states, so again, it was a no-go for us because we have debt in the US. I'm not sure about the cost of living, but from what I heard, living on $25,000 would be tight.

If that were my only offer, I would have seriously considered accepting it, though. You can get some international experience and live in a beautiful location for a couple of years. Plenty of things could happen with Syria (or Israel), but there are lots of other areas (Ukraine, Venezuela, etc) that are in much worse shape right now.

@newchapter: Oh, I definitely agree! I'm sure there were many happy folks at the fair with jobs and dependents. I just didn't have first-hand experience, so I didn't want to talk about "everyone we knew" getting jobs at the fair, without mentioning that everyone we knew were couples. People have mentioned sad stories from the fairs, and from the posts I've read over the past couple of years, many of these people had dependents or other complications.

Since calciodirigore was referring to "leveling the playing field" by not attending fairs and describing what we went through as "sad", I thought I would bring up that I've heard the same problems occurring regardless of whether you interview at the fair or on Skype. I think the fair/skype issue is just a matter of preference, and the results are generally the same, although I think breaking into international teaching is easier through a fair.

I also still think logistics play a huge role with many schools (from talking with recruiters at Cambridge), but places like AS Paris definitely do not mind dependents. I think most schools, if possible, will pick the best candidate if they can, regardless of their status. If all things are equal (experience, IB, education) between a group of candidates though, they do tend to go for the cheaper hire.

Anyways, I'm glad we both enjoyed the fair and are going to fabulous schools next summer!

zanyplum wrote:
>And for the record, I visited quite a few hotel
> rooms for interviewing and was always given a proper chair in which to sit.

THIS. Who sat on a bed? Two of my interviews were in suites, where we sat on couches with a beautiful view of the Charles and discussed our qualifications. The other two were in regular rooms, and we sat on chairs while we interviewed. I didn't hear about anyone sitting on beds.

I'm also wondering about all of these sad stories. Everyone we talked with during the reception and throughout our stay either had a job by Sunday or were in final negotiations. All of these candidates were teaching couples without dependents (including us). We're not even in competitive fields, and we had multiple offers.

I think the fairs, Skype, or whatever, are always more stressful for those with dependents or without a teaching partner. We didn't see many sad people, but were were also hanging out with the prime candidates. I know several people who have been rejected from jobs after Skype interviews because of dependents; I think it's the same at the fairs as it is on Skype, and it's just the nature of the industry right now. As a couple who don't want children, I think we went into the right career.

That said, I will definitely try to directly contact schools or try Skype next time just to see how it goes. This year we were new candidates to the international school scene, but next time, we'll have years of IB experience at the MYP and DP levels. I loved the fair, but it was very expensive and I wouldn't mind not going. I don't think, however, that we should all quit the fairs because of some bad experiences. There were many happy people at Cambridge and I felt it was very well organized.

Mac1030- It sounds like you at least made a number of connections at the fair and there is a strong likelihood that something will open up for you in the coming weeks. I'm a high school teacher who is moving to middle school, but I'm compromising because I'll finally have IB training and experience, and there are plenty of opportunities to move up to the DP level soon at my new school. If I had DP experience now, I definitely would not have compromised, and I agree with your decision.

Best of luck to you in the near future! If the posts on this forum are any indication, many (if not most) people receive positions after the fair.

exnewyorker- Congrats!!!! I'm so thrilled for you! I'm glad that yet another great teacher found a great school.

Thanks newchapter! The WE school was in an amazing, dream location, but the package was much lower and the positions weren't as strong as the Africa school (only one IB position, not for both). In the end, it will be a much better fit for us down the line.

Haha, thanks Psychbean! I will (finally) sleep very well tonight!

Congrats, newchapter!! It's nice to have had such a relaxing experience; it was way more stressful for us, but also very rewarding.

We ended up with only four interviews. As a couple, we have a few less options than single teachers for the obvious reason of trying to fit two positions together. We had one very pleasant rejection this morning (the rejection was purely logistical, as they made a local hire for one of our positions and are saving a lot of money; they talked with us over breakfast and said how much they would like to work with us in the future).

After breakfast, we had three call back interviews. And after the interviews we had three offers, including one at a Western European school that most people would love to go to. We choose a school in Africa which will train us in IB and has a phenomenal package. We figure if we don't go to Africa now, we'll never do it, and it would be an amazing experience. Not to mention that after the crazy amount of savings and IB experience, we'll be set up to go anywhere we want in the world, even Europe. ;)

Best of luck to everyone else! I came in with NO expectations and now I'm done on Saturday with three offers, a wonderful job, and couldn't be happier; I hope everyone on the forum in Cambridge experiences the same feeling!

Congrats, Mac1030!! That sounds like an awesome day! Fingers crossed for you, and it definitely sounds like something great may be coming your way.

One thing that's been interesting is that an associate said we should not rely on the website or our email for communication, and that many of the schools would not have time to check their email. Although we received several notes in our mail boxes, many schools have communicated to us about specific interview times through email, so we can skip their table today during sign-ups. If you're at Cambridge, make sure to check your email!

Thanks to Briz and Shadowjack for your words of advice/encouragement.

Well my hope for a couple more interviews paid off; we finally checked downstairs again after this morning and had two new notes from schools requesting interviews. That brings to total to four tomorrow... it will be a really long day, but I'm excited!

Newchapter... I think my partner and I will be staying close to the hotel and not doing much other than interviewing and attending school presentations until at least Saturday night (other than the reception tomorrow evening). I have so much to do that I'll probably just grab something in the hotel for dinner and prepare, prepare, prepare after the orientation.

I'm here! The hotel is actually nicer than I thought it would be, and our hotel room looks out on the river. My partner and I arrived and registered early, so we've had the whole morning and afternoon to relax and prepare. We have a couple of interviews ready for tomorrow, and hopefully a couple more will happen once we go to the sign-up tomorrow morning. We're not in high-needs areas, though, so we'll take what we can get.

We have been lounging around all afternoon in our room, but I'll get a bit dressier for the orientation at 6:00pm. When we arrived and signed up, I was in jeans (and so were many other people), but I figure I'll go for elegantly casual this evening. Tomorrow I'll be in a suit.

Good luck to everyone else here in Cambridge!!

My boyfriend and I will be attending Cambridge. I agree with you that it's nerve-wracking watching certain positions open and then close as the fairs progress. I will be monitoring the database carefully on Sunday/Monday; I assume some schools will update their listings after BKK and I'll have a better idea of how to prepare for Boston. I plan to do the same after London.

I actually find that most of the positions open for us are for IB or British-system experience, which we don't have. I have experience with AP and the American system- go figure! I do feel fortunate that I have advanced-level experience at least, even if it's not IB.

The current librarian at my school spent 8 years teaching abroad, including 3 years at one of the best international schools in Asia. He's given me a lot of advice (and contacts/connections) for the fair. He said the position he and his wife initially took in the ME was only open at the fair and was not listed previously. I have decent expectations that the same situation will occur this year as well.

Best of luck at the fair, Mac1030! Hopefully, we'll both find something great.