Almost all are posted when the are known. Waiting to the fair does not help the school or the recruiter at all. New openings can occur as the recruiting season moves on if existing staff get jobs at other schools.

Mysharona's salary range and housing info is correct. In addition, the top schools pay 10% retirement! pay full premium for international health care! annual flights home and have a contract completion bonus of $2,000 starting in year three. The best way to compare packages is the ability to save. In a top tier school in Shanghai you can save between 35% to 50% of your salary depending upon how much you travel. As a single teacher with a teenager, you would probably be closer to 35%.

Hope this helps.

Antonia,

Would your former principal write a letter in support of you explains why you left after a year. The best situation is to be truthful. If you say you only had a one year contract, but it is later found out or is known that the school has three year contracts, you will have problems with prospective schools or the agency.

Unless you have a specific interest in the Middle East, I would recommend the SF fair. While most of the top schools are not in attendance, there are a fair number of quality schools.

Do not email department head. They rarely have input in the hiring process in international schools.

Emailing the principal is fine particularly at large schools. The schools receive a large amount of applications and catching the attention of the principal through an email may get your application out of the pile.

Noon is fine. It will take 30 to 40 minutes to get to the airport from the conference hotel.

Cbad,

The email to the principal is basically the same. Explain how your experience fits the school and position. Do your research, know the mission and main initiatives. Explain how your experience and skills fit those initiatives. Emphasis how you can contribute to the school outside the classroom. Specific examples of collaboration with colleagues would be helpful.

Hope this helps.

cbad,

To me being aggressive means researching who the building principal is and sending him/her your resume and cover letter directly rather than only the head of school and/or HR department. Check the schools' website frequently as the vacancies may change with new openings appearing. If you are contacted for an interview, make sure you follow up the contact promptly and foolwo up with thank you e-mails.

I would not call the school directly. While some may see this in a positive light, most do not welcome the interruption.

I hope this helps.

overseasvet,

Some schools will post vacancies over the next two weeks. Some schools have held off posting because they have given people extensions or made some internal transfers.

Some admin will do interviews during the next few weeks in advance of the fairs.

You should bring your computer.

Cbad,

Given your background I do believe you would be a viable candidate even though cannot attend a fair. I presume your wife has a German/EU passport. Obviously, you need to be aggressive in applying to the schools that have openings for you.

Good luck.

VA75,

Concordia is very competitive because of the low turnover and they also fill a number of vacancies through the Lutheran school network.

Seoul Foreign School actually can have trouble filling their vacancies due to the strong religious aspect of the school and the country.

Concordia is not as religious as SFS but is becoming more so under the new head.

What do you teach? The ISS fair has a good number of schools many of whom are ready to offer contracts. Three days is enough at that fair. How competitive you will be as a single depends on what you teach.

Counselme,

Very few international schools offer one year contracts. The cost of recruiting, flying the person to country, shipping and relocation allowances make it cost prohibitive. The only one year contracts I have heard about were for people filling maternity leaves or late resignations. These types of openings generally come up in the spring or even summer.

Bellarex,

Yes, Singapore is that expensive particularly in housing.

As you pursue this opening, you want to better understand the housing benefit. Most schools in Singapore provide a housing allowance that may or may not cover the cost of rental let alone utilities. The GEMS school may not provide additional housing allowance for children which would factor into your ability to save.

Other things to consider is whether the school covers all of the children's tuition or only partial, whether the school covers all of the insurance premium or not, and there are the Singapore taxes to consider. These all potentially can reduce the potential savings even though a teaching couple could make 140K.

Just a few ideas for you to consider.

Andy,

The best answer is get both certifications. If you have to chose between them, I would give a slight advantage to ESL particularly if you can get K-12 certification. Many schools will fill elementary vacancies as part of a couple or with local-hires. ESL teachers can potentially fall into this category as well.

At the end of the day neither ESL or elementary are high need positions for international schools because there the supply of ESL and elementary teachers is so high.

Having said that, great teachers will always be in demand whether they are ESL, elementary, math, SPED or whatever. I would advise you pick the area you are most passionate about, do you want to work with ESL students or elementary students?