The biggest issue they want to know is can you teach the level of math they need you to teach. If the IB and British curriculum math class is equivalent or you can show you have the background to teach what they need, that's going to be good enough at a lot of places. Math is a high need subject area if you can teach IB Math HL or AP Calculus level and the slightly lower level subjects. Individual recruiters might feel differently, but as a whole you're fine there.

The bigger issue is two dependents. That's going to cost the school more. Is your child school aged? What level? Elementary, middle, or high school? For math, you may still be okay. Some schools will say no because you have two dependents. Other times you may be interviewed, but it's possible you lose out to people who are less expensive to hire.

I'd say you should try for American schools in the areas you're interested. Spend some time looking to see how they approach their curriculum. There's been a decent number of American schools where they've gone to integrated math from separate algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, pre-calculus.

Good luck.

Eion

Are you planning on staying overseas for a while? If you are then you'll need to use some place as a stepping stone since you don't have the minimum experience that good schools want. This isn't a particularly good offer, but if you can hack it for two years it gives you want you need to move on to a place where 300,000 RMB/year is an option in a better location.

My question is does it give you IB experience or AP (assuming you're teaching high school)? If it does that and you can get a credential somewhere, then it's probably not a terrible place. Granted Foshan isn't very exciting, but it's viable to get to HK for the weekend though Guangzhou and Shenzhen are decent and less expensive to go to for the weekend. With only 220,000 RMB a year, you can burn through that quickly if you're going to HK a lot.

The working on weekends to make up for holidays is pretty standard practice in Chinese schools. It doesn't happen in the international schools serving foreign students, but is almost always done in the schools with Chinese nationals. The universities do the same thing too. It's irritating.

At this point, the jobs that will be offered are generally not going to be at great places. You might get a slightly better offer somewhere else, but probably not what you're talking about for a counter offer. A counter offer isn't a bad idea, but I don't see them increasing it by that amount.

Eion

If you know people working at international schools that you want to apply to for jobs, they may be aware that their colleagues are planning on moving on after this year. So you may want to reach out to friends to see if they know of positions that are likely to open up at their schools. Now, people can change their minds, but I know of some folks who have openly said this is going to be their last year at our school. That would allow you to research the school and prepare application material this summer for when the job is actually posted.

But most often the earliest these jobs will be posted will be in September/October will more being posted in November and onwards. Different schools/regions have different deadlines for when people have to announce they are not returning. My two schools required you to tell them in late November.

Good luck

Eion

You may want to look at either poor Teacher or The Global Expariate's Guide to Investing by Andrew Hallam. Bonus points for you if you check it out from a library. He's a former economics IT who wrote about some of the issues facing expats, but he started off with teachers specifically.

The Global Expariate's Guide is more useful if you're not American as it goes into some more detail if you're from other English speaking countries. But they cover some of the same issues. He basically advises people to live within their means, have a plan for retirement, and avoid expensive/predatorial investment companies trying to sucker people like international teachers out of their money.

Andrew Hallam recommends index funds that are not actively managed and are sufficiently diversified for most people because it doesn't take too much thought.

He does a good job of breaking down the issues into something that's easy for a non-expert to understand.

Eion

I know three people who switched from finance or corporate business jobs into working at international schools. One spent 8 years working in schools before moving into another unrelated field and the other two continue to work at schools. One of those seems to enjoy living a life that is beyond the person's current means, but I suspect the person has managed their money well. When I spoke to those three about their corporate work, they all found it to be soul-sucking so working in schools was a relief from that for all three.

No doubt you'll work fewer hours as a teacher once you get settled in and can prepare lessons and grade efficiently. Besides the holidays which are much more generous than in corporate jobs in North America. My question for myself, if I were you, is how much would you enjoy the teaching and interaction with students, students' parents, fellow teachers, and administrators. In corporate work you tend to have long hours, but you're not necessarily constantly there with people. Being a teacher in the classroom means a lot of time working directly with students. If that isn't an enjoyable part for you working with them, then the job really can be tough.

By the way, your experience in Asia and language skills don't really matter than much. Sure, it can make your life in East Asia easier, but it's not what recruiters are looking for compared to a history of success in teaching. It's a minority of my colleagues who speak Chinese. If you are going to be able to teach high school level mathematics, that will be a bigger issue and help you get work at a better school.

So are you ready to start making USD35,000 a year? Some of the best schools in China have a pay scale that starts in the mid to high $40,000 a year if you have a Master's degree and no years of teaching experience. You'll have more time. I know teachers who love the time they get to be around their family, who play in rock bands on weekends, and who take time to study languages for fun. If you and your wife are both teaching, you can probably save up one of your salaries pretty easily. But you can blow through a lot of money if you keep up spending habits of someone pulling in USD150,000 +. Unlike the people I know who left corporate work, you say "I like what I do", so there's a possibility you'll find the work less fulfilling.

Good luck.

I think the easiest way to network is to get along with colleagues and be well-respected for the work you do at the school you're at already. When they head off to work at other schools it's good to keep in touch with people or at least be familiar with where they head off to. Former colleagues who put in a good word for you can do a lot to help you get considered at a new place. Even if they're not at the particular school you want to be at, if they're in the city or country or region, they may have contacts at the schools that you want to target.

Another thing to do is network at conferences and trainings you attend. It's not so easy to target specific schools that way, but you might get lucky. I usually ask people I meet at these events how they like their school and city. Again, if they're from the city, country, or region you're targeting you may learn more about what you're considering. I'd also let them people you talk to know about your possible interest in teaching at certain places.

Eion

If you're going into college counseling there are a number of good pathways. UCLA's certificate program isn't bad, though it's a bit more US centric. A few of the other University of California campuses also have similar certificate programs. That might be fine if you're school's students are largely headed to the US.

The Counselor Training Center also offers some good options for school counseling, but it's not as centered around the college counseling process specifically.

CollegeBoard does a good training in NYC every year that would be a good starting point. They have a track for new people and one for experienced people.

There are also US-based training programs by associations or by independent schools that do a decent job on US admissions. I did one at Taft School during the summer some years back. I've seen it offered by some of the regional ACAC groups too (Association of College Admission Counselors) which are admissions people, college counselors and school counselors.

I'd really advise you to get involved with International ACAC. They have a large conference every July in North America. This year's conference is already full, but they have done some regional conferences that are decent. http://www.internationalacac.org It's a great, supportive organization with people who know a lot. The Facebook group is also a great resource. They're starting to do regional institutes as well, which I've heard are okay.

CIS has a good college forum in the Fall which covers some of the the same topics at International ACAC, but it's less North American focused. Last year it was in Edinburgh. This year it is in Austria in November.

CIS EARCOS has a smaller, but good college admission meeting in the Fall in Southeast Asia that's worthwhile too.

I have friends who teaching and college counseling positions that are combined. The biggest issue is that it can be hard to attend useful conferences or do university visits or attend events held in your city when admission people travel if you have to teach a class. But the advantage it does provide is knowing your students in a classroom setting.

Good luck.

Eion

You'd have the necessary experience for teaching positions with 4 - 6 years of elementary education teaching experience. Whether you'd stand out in the pool for top tier IS is another matter. It's not clear if you're husband is a teacher or not. If he's not, then having a single dependent it's not much of an issue if you bring enough to the table beyond being an experienced teacher. If you have children as well and he isn't a teacher, then you're less desirable. More than 1 child with a spouse who is not a teacher will start to close doors for you.

Things like being an experienced PYP teacher could help a lot at IB schools. Having specific training around issues the school is looking to promote can be a big help. Being a grade team leader or something of that nature can help you be more competitive. Having a MA can be helpful, but to be honest it's fairly common among IT from North America.

Some teachers get hired to tier 1 schools right away from the US. It's a bit of luck and some of knowing how to assess high quality international schools. Some people end up at terrible schools because they don't know better. And some people end up at great schools without knowing how lucky they are to have been offered a spot.

Most of the higher tier schools will have a published pay scale. It will vary in the details, but often you get to be on a higher pay scale with more education (PhD or MA + 15 credits > MA > BA). You often get yearly pay increases for experience and I've been at schools that have adjusted that pay scale for inflation over time. Sometimes there are bonuses for signing up for another year. Again, those details will vary.

Good luck.

Eion

With a Masters in mathematics you'll easily find a job. Once you get some AP and/or IB teaching experience you should be competitive for good schools. If you can add physics as a content teaching area that would make you even more competitive.

With AP and IB you are teaching towards content specific tests. There are things to learn to be more effective, but if you know the math content and can teach it well it's just a matter of knowing how the courses are laid out. IB has some more components like the Internal Assessment, which are different from what you get in the AP.

Good luck.

Eion

Heck, I'd bet $10 that there are schools listed on TieOnline looking for math teacher that would take someone with a credential. The bigger question is what level of secondary mathematics can you teach? Are you comfortable with Calculus? Did you study advanced mathematics in university or are you just talking about geometry, algebra, algebra 2, pre-calc?

Eion

Depending on what type of school you want to teach at when you head back home, there are organizations that help US independent schools find teachers similar to Search Associates and ISS.

Carney Sandoe is the big one that does works nationally (and some international schools too) with US independent schools. There are also regional ones like CalWest or Southern Teachers Agency if you're interested in a particular region or state. I know Carney Sandoe and Southern Teachers Agency has job fairs not unlike SA and ISS. It may be feasible for you to attend a job fair even it means taking some unpaid leave. I attended a job fair in Chicago years ago put on by Carney Sandoe

Good luck.

Eion

There is a program in Colorado that does online courses for school counseling. I think it's Adams State, but I don't know if it's entirely online.

https://www.adams.edu/gradschool/counselored/

I also know someone who was able to do it through University of Western Alabama while overseas.

https://online.uwa.edu/online-degrees/m ... ounseling/

The challenge is getting the 600 hours (usually split into 100 hours and a second group of 500 hours) of practical experience. Most people I knew back in the US had to quite their job and spend a semester or two to complete the 500 hour internship. I knew a few who were working in schools who used their free time to complete the hours at the school where they worked.

Eion

They are not networked in the sense you mean - not the way that Dulwich College or QSI schools are networked. Besides a place like UWC SEA, which does have two campuses, they operate independently. I was interviewing with one last year and talking with the director of the school he made it pretty clear that even though there are philosophical things that connect them (plus the Davis money that helps out their graduates) there are big differences in how they operate.

There are conferences or meetings at times between the various schools, though I'm not sure how often and how is doing that. I have friends working at some of the UWC locations and I have heard them talk about them in passing.

Now, I'd imagine that previous experience at another UWC could help you out it's not like transferring between different locations of a school, but I wouldn't suggest taking a job at one so you could work at another UWC later.

Eion

@mrstranger,

China recently overhauled their rules for visas, so it may be an issue and it may not be. They seem to be asking for two years of experience to work in China as a teacher, though outside the tier 1 cities things may be more flexible.

1.) If you're willing to go to a third tier city, I'd say you'd have a good chance as long as they can get you a work visa in the area the school its located. There's been a lot of confusion about this even with HR people at different schools. You may even be able to work in places like BJ, SH, SZ, GZ, but those areas may be more strict about requirements.

2.) Hard to say. It's been a little under a year since the new rules came up, so schools should be in a better position to know if they'd be able to hire someone with your background.

3.) You should be able to move up in terms of quality of schools over time. For teaching at the high school level, getting IB teaching experience is very helpful and makes you more competitive. AP can also make you more competitive, but it seems that more IS are using IB curriculum than AP. I have a number of colleagues who are math teachers that are non-native English speakers.

That's good that you've been able to register for Search Associates. Access to that database is very helpful. It's wonderful that you have a supportive school too.

That's great you have a follow up interview and another interview, but my recommendation is to continue to send out applications to any jobs that you might be interested in. Typically well-run schools follow up quickly if they're still pursuing a candidate seriously. Good recruiters know they lose good candidates otherwise.

Good luck.

Eion