Just wanted to share a glimmer of hope based on our experiences.

The first fair my husband and I attended was in SF. We didn't have a clue what we were getting in to. With a family to consider, we were looking more for a good school for our kids as opposed to a good school for us. As elementary teachers, we each had 5 years of public school teaching experience at the time.

We didn't hear from any of the schools prior to the fair, but in that whirlwind weekend, we had offers ranging from a Quality school with 6 students to Uzbekistan to Singapore American School. In our ignorance, we just talked to anybody and everybody. We ended up accepting the offer from Jakarta International School (great school!) and as I recall there were 6 of us hired at this fair and they had hired on the east coast as well.

After a stint back in the States, the 2nd time we went to a fair we went to Cambridge. Why? Because we were too poor to fork out the $$$ for airfare abroad. Again, we did not have any interviews lined up going in to the fair, but walked away with offers from a variety of interesting places: 2 from Saudi, Lebanon, 2 from China, Germany, and Japan. The only 'shady' school we didn't consider was one of the schools from Saudi because the interviewer gave us the creeps. The others were all places we would want our own children to attend.

We are currently working at yet another highly sought after, top-notch IB school. Just today the director told me he is going to hold out for Cambridge to fill some positions even though we have 2 principals who left for the London fair today.

Based on what we experienced over the years, my advice would be to stay positive and go to the fair with an open mind... you never know what you'll find.