@Heliotrope- those are some great points. As someone who takes my health for granted, I didn't think about good healthcare facilities.

As for work-life balance, I agree with you. While many IE strive for T1 schools, maybe having a lower stress job at a T2 or even T3 may be a smart move. My question is, when vetting a potential school, how do you go about finding out the school's work-life balance? Do you ask current faculty members?

I'm sure anyone in the IE world has heard the term "cast your net far and wide" many times. While I believe there is a lot of merit to this, there is only so much you are willing to put up with when moving to a new post.

Thus my question is, what are some non-negotiables for you when looking for a new post? For me it is:

a) a safe location
b) good air quality
c) non-profit (or not-for-profit) school
d) no cell phones allowed during the school day

Besides these, everything else I tend to be open to when looking for a new post.

So, what are your non-negotiables?

...content knowledge or curriculum knowledge?

What I'm trying to ask is do you think schools care more about a teacher who knows their curriculum or one with stronger knowledge of the content they teach? As in, would a school prefer someone who has 2 years teaching experience and both years are IB or 10-15 years teaching experience but no IB experience?

(Clearly I'm not great with words)

Bonus points to any administators who can bring some clarity to this question.

While it's still (relatively) early in the hiring season, I was curious to hear how others job search is going for the upcoming year. Considering schools are already interviewing/making offers, I guess it's not that early.

As for me:

Schools applied to: 17
Rejected: 2 (1 official and 1 ghost)
Upcoming interviews: 2
Yet to hear back:13

How is your search going?

First, thank you all for taking the time to respond to my question. Very insightful to say the least.

I guess the reason for my posting this question is more than anything else curiosity. While I plan to apply to as many schools as possible that have a suitable job opening and are somewhere I'm interested in going, I wanted to get a better idea of which schools are more realistic for me landing an offer at. And yes, I understand there are a lot of factors at play.

So far this year I've applied to 14 schools and it has mostly been crickets, but I know it's still early in the recruiting season.

As I'm currently planning on attending two job fairs this year (two different recruiting agencies), do you feel in-person fairs give you a leg up or is that more a thing of the past?

With the hiring season around the corner (or already underway) and with me looking to make a move, I was hoping some people could critique my CV so I can have realistic expectations and to also put my ego in check.

As for myself:
-10 years teaching experience mainly as a middle school math teacher
-Also taught middle school level science (physical/Earth/biology), English, history & PE
-Coached Various Sports
-Certified to teach math to grades 1-8
-M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction
-Single/No Dependents
-Spent 1 year teaching internationally (hardship location that only offered 1-year contracts)
-1 Year as an Athletic Director at international school

Based on my experience, what tier could I find myself getting interviews/landing a gig with? I just applied to a T1 but realistically I know my application won't stand a chance at a place that is said to receive 150+ applications per vacancy.

Thank you in advance.

Well said @nathan61

You are much better at articulating yourself then I am (clearly).

In response to @angelica1981...

Can we stop labeling people who for a myriad of reasons don't want to get the Covid-19 vaccine as "anti-vaxx"? The term is nothing more than rubbish from the media (not your friends) as a way of us vs. them.

Also, as this is all (relatively) new (being the vaccine is less than a year old), how do we know it works? Or that those without it are more "dangerous" than those with it? Is it possible the real threat are those with the jab?

I have no problem saying that maybe those without the vaccine are a threat....or maybe they're not. I just don't understand how so many people seem sure that those without the covid vaccine are the problem when this is all so new.

This is me playing devils advocate...

I'm going to try my best to come at this topic from a different angle.

If you look at all the threads on ISR relating to covid and/or vaccines, you can see just how divisive this topic is. And that's just within the ISR community. I'm sure you all know how it is outside of ISR.

Instead of fighting and pointing fingers, I feel we all need to come together and support each other. There are people out there who want you divided and fighting within ourselves. We all know the saying "divide and conquer". Maybe instead we should all support each other and respect others decisions/ideas/beliefs. If you want to get vaccinated, get vaccinated. If not, then don't. But by arguing with each other we are giving those who want us divided exactly what they want.

I completely understand what the OP was saying and respect their thoughts. I too am not a fan of Search asking that question but understand a lot of schools are asking for visa purposes, and thus hiring someone unvaccinated is outside of their control.

Maybe, just maybe OP is right in their comments, or maybe they are nothing more then a crazy "conspiracy theorist". Either way as educators we should all be open minded enough to accept others thoughts and beliefs without all the name calling. If we can't be tolerant/understanding of others beliefs, how are we suppose to teach our students to be?

Sorry for my rambling...

Rereading my post, I wanted to clarify that I am open to both employees & employers responding to this post. Not just employers. (This is why you proofread kids!)

I'm interested in hearing others "ghosted" stories.

Can someone please explain the phenomenon of being "ghosted" by potential employers? If only I had a nickel for every time I've experienced this...

While I understand this is nothing new, I still have a hard time understanding/accepting it as being generally an accepted practice.

It has gotten to the point where my expectations are so low that anytime I get a rejection email/call, I am happy (err relieved) that I wasn't ghosted.

I guess my main question is: Is it wrong of me after a few weeks of being ghosted to send them an email thanking them for the job offer, sharing my excitement, and telling them I look forward to meeting them at the start of the school year? Funny how this elicits a response.

(Please note: this is referring to people who have already had an interview(s) with potential school, not someone who simply applied and never heard back.)

If you are an administrator/someone in charge of hiring, I'd love to hear your input.

If you don't mind me asking, in what country did you purchase real estate? Were you already a citizen of the country?

First, I apologize if this has already been spoken about at length on ISR.

I am getting back into the world of international education and will be heading to the Middle East for the upcoming school year.

I am looking into buying some property in my HOR (America) and was wondering if others own property's in their home countries while teaching abroad.

Is it worth it or is it more of a headache? What are some pros/cons? I would not be looking to rent it for additional income as I don't feel that headache is worth it.

I guess I am just looking for anyone's thoughts/experiences on this topic.

Disappointing to say the least.

I have been to a few fairs in the past as have always been lucky to walk away with a minimum of 5 interviews (probably because I'm a math teacher).

This fair I applied to 11 schools and all either declined my interview request or didn't get back to me. One school that I didn't reach out to offered me an interview. That was all I received.

Not sure where I went wrong or if schools weren't serious in their hiring efforts (or probably some of both).
What I can say is there were multiple messages from the fair organizers telling us to be patient and that a lot of schools weren't responding to candidates at all (or very slowly). So there must have been a fair amount of frustration from the candidates end.