Make sure you know what your salary will be. In the past teachers' salaries were less at QSI Phuket than at other QSI schools, though this may have changed.

Shansar, I wouldn't make any decisions right now. I think your feelings are very normal for someone less than 6 months into a new overseas job. I would be interested in hearing your feelings after your first year.

I don't believe anyone would look suspiciously at a Masters without classroom experience. Though experience might be more useful than a masters when trying to get a job overseas.

Payscales vary widely at overseas schools. At my previous school my masters earned $80/month more than my wife's diploma. At my current school its about $300 more per month.

I guess it comes down to how fast you want to be working overseas and whether you get hired at a school where having advanced degrees is significantly rewarded on the payscale.

The other option is to look for a job overseas and then do your masters. Many schools offer different kinds of support to staff going to school.

Our big Asian school definitely focuses on college admin and the counselors play a big role.

Echoing Ichiro, you won't have a problem based on your credentials. Good luck with your search.

Definitely sell and buy when you arrive. Rules are different in different countries and you might not be permitted to use it. Plus, I think you can put your shipping allowance to better use.

I would think that attending two different fairs might pose some problems if you get offered a job at a school that isn't high on your priority list at the first fair. Most schools won't be willing to wait much longer than the end of the fair for your answer. The exception seems to be the ISS and Search Bangkok fairs which are back to back. We met plenty of people at the ISS fair who had an offer in their pocket from the Search fair but were looking for something more disireable.

I think the secret is to be very open as to where you are willing to go and don't get fixated on one particular school. From my experience at fairs the most incredible opportunities often don't present themselves until you are at the fair and begin talking with directors and other teachers.

I think you can also put schools off for a bit at individual fairs. At our last fair we had one school offering us jobs, and we would have been happy there, but there was another school out there that we really wanted. So we kept the first school on hold, it was only a day but seemed like forever, while we negotiated and interviewed with the second. In the end the second school came through with jobs.

My experience with UNI has always been positive and I would definitely consider it a "main" fair. My wife and I have been to two UNI fairs and one ISS fair and I would rate them equal in terms of service and commitment. Of course cost is a big difference between the two.

Many schools are just now finding out what their current teachers' plans are, though I don't think you will hear back unless, as stated above, you have a specialty that is hard to fill.

Trojan,

I'm sorry I am coming off as a wet blanket. I don't mean to sound negative. I do wish you the best of luck in your search, as I said in an earlier post, if they want you the rules will change. Now that I think about it I have a friend who just got hired in Munich with two dependents, so there is an exception to the rule I cited. It is possible.

Tuition, while probably the biggest expense, is just one cost the school takes on. Others include insurance, housing, flights etc.

Referring to pt #2 above, we were once at the Northern Iowa job fair and a guy in a glaringly white suit got up in the opening session and said "I have so many invitations that I don't know what to do?". Obviously a huge groan was to be heard from the rest of us poor teachers. Anyway, we saw the same guy on Sunday morning shortly before we left the fair and he hadn't gotten any offers at all.

I have had friends who had multiple dependents but they were usually on local contract, not something I would recommend. My observations would lead me to believe you might find it a tough slog in finding an overseas position with 2+ dependents. Many schools use the simple equation 1 teacher = 1 dependent when they are hiring. Of course, this rule can be broken at anytime if you offer a skill set that they can't find anywhere else. For example, our second overseas experience was with three children and the school let me do work in-kind to pay for the 3rd. I have to admit we got the better end of that deal, but the school was happy.

Having young children overseas can be a wonderful experience. They open doors up that otherwise remain shut with older children and teenagers. Some locales offer the advantage of having in home help, which none of us could afford in North America. Of course your spouse will have special challenges and you should put some thought into what it might be like at home with two young children while you are away at work. Things to consider are how far would you live from school, would you have a car, would you live in an apartment or a house with a yard. All these things, plus many others, will affect your quality of life and ultimately your happiness.

In my experience the "dual" interview is pretty typical. Interviews are pretty standard in that they can be all over the place. We have had them where they drilled us on specific information (how would you handle this? What would you do in this situation) to the more general philosophical type of questions. I wouldn't worry too much about it. In some ways its helpful to have your partner/spouse in there with you as support.

Small school-you are more likely to be able to be an agent of change, more/different opportunities to get involved, you have to wear more hats, possibly more preps, you can get to know the whole school

Large schools-possibly fewer preps, harder to have an impact on the institution, more staff to share the extra curricular load, possibly better resourced, you won't know the entire school

I have worked at both very large (>1700) and small (<200) and I prefer the small.