Apologies everyone for the "get off my lawn" moment - I promise that I'll try and not respond to this poster for a couple of months if its about getting a job or which country to work at.

I've noticed that you've made a few comments and I'm probably misinterpreting or forgetting something - but this is what I see

(1) You are a new Graduate teacher who has completed your qualification located in Vietnam (even though location is not that important)

(2) You wish to potentially work in China with some emphasis on saving money - lockdowns and such are not that important to you

(3) You are a new math teacher and want to know about which textbook to use and such.

So first onto becoming a teacher after your qualification. Unless you are a prodigy - don't expect to actually know how to teach well straight off the bat as University Teaching degrees can only teach you so much. So how do you actually become a good teacher? Well - having people around you working as a mentor and giving you support is pivotal. It's not the same as in practicums where there is a teacher in the room with you at all times and you don't really have control of the class. These mentors are there to support you - give you ideas and talk you through difficulties you may have.

Why am I mentioning this? Well - the chance of getting a school which provides you with this in China is almost non-existent at the moment. Parents are paying good money to send their money to "INSERT NAME HERE" school and parents will whine complain and carry on like a pork chop (or lamb chop if they are muslim/jewish). There is a massive shortage of international teachers in China at the moment and it's only getting worse. That means that China's best and brightest foreign teachers are leaving in droves.

In a world where math teachers are becoming as rare as hens teeth - I could not see a worse way of starting your teaching career. Don't forget that unless you have significant friends and family in the Chinese city you are moving to you will not have any family/friend support when things go south - and oh boy do they go south in your first few years of teaching. In my home country - 40% of graduates no longer teach after 5 years. We need as many competent math teachers out there as possible - and I'd prefer you to take a job that I want at a good school in a couple of years than having another competent math teacher bite the dust because of the bullshit and backstabbing that happens at a lot of international schools.

There is a reason why I like the 2 year rule before starting international teaching. You know just enough to teach decently - but still have enough of a learning curve so a new educational system is new and exciting.

And on buying textbooks. I've never purchased math textbooks for Grade 6-10 internationally. Do you want to know why? Well - each school I've ever worked at either (A) uses a different book or (B) has no textbook. The same is not true for DP / A Levels and such - where the content is much more static. There is an argument about which textbook is better though in the upper years - which I'll leave to teachers who enjoy teaching this content.

<<<RANT OVER>>>

Scooter gave you some important information. Unlike many other countries, foreigner's need to go into the bank and fill in paperwork. This normally needs to happen on a work day which limits your ability to do this.

Some schools are great and even have a bank representative come into the school once a month to do this. Some schools will resent you for just taking time off work to do this.

Some banks are helpful with sending money overseas, others not so much.

To put it simply, it depends on your school, city, bank, just along with teller.

I've heard both horror stories along with people moving money with ease in China.

To be honest, visas and the like are really down to the location and contacts the school has with local governments.

Joining one of the free job agencies (such as Teacher Horizons) is your best bet for a start.

Just don't see them as an honest broker when it comes to schools. They get paid to get you on the plane.

Something that might be interesting is to see if anyone has gotten a job in China as a graduate teacher.

I've got lots of negatives to say about working in China specifically if it's your first job, but sticking to the non profit more well known schools might be a good idea.

Note that sometimes for profit schools with a local clientele and management can be some of the worst work locations in relation to toxicity.

On visas, your school does that and expect them to pay for most of it. Ask specifically about how you will get refunds on flights along with how you can get money out of the country. Note that laws I think have significantly tightened on getting money out of China specifically if you are a foreigner.

Many of the better schools pay a living allowance in RMB and then send the main pay to your overseas bank account. Note that I have warned you about only getting paid in local currency and the difficultly in moving money

China is in an interesting place right now - both politically and socially.

If you spoke to people 6 months ago about China - they would have told you that there would have been some movement on Covid after the 5 Year conference that just occurred (including myself). That did not seem to happen - even though you need to spend less time in isolation which is a positive thing.

Can I confirm that you'll have 2 years teaching experience as I believe that is the minimum expectation for visa. I'd be happy to be proven otherwise and I do believe that there has been some movement on this.

For finding jobs in China - there is Search Associates, TIE, Teaching Horizons and many more. To put it simple - if you are willing to move to China and have a pulse then there is a job for you there at the moment (with the correct qualifications and experience of course).

Feel free to ignore the following - but here are some things to consider before moving to China.

(1) The number of flights in/out of the country is still really small. This means that flights are expensive and difficult to get due to demand. This does not appear to being significantly improved in the near future.

(2) The Yuan is currently depreciating (currently at a 15 year low from memory). As such - some of the ultra high wages are losing a bit of their shine due to currency fluctuations.

(3) If you don't work for one of the schools which can employ everyone they need and get them in country - then expect to be completing lots of replacement classes on top of your normal teaching allotment.

(4) Once you are IN CHINA - travel in country can be open but can change on a dime. Also - it's challenging to leave for holidays/family emergencies at present. As mentioned before - flight prices are currently astronomical due to demand and support.

(5) If you are after a full international school experience - then the number of expat families living in China has (and will continue) to drop rapidly as it's difficult to get full families in and out. Many have not left the country since March 2020. It's almost 2023! Let that sink in. That means that apart from the best school in a few cities, international student numbers are dropping and the recent change in laws for teaching compulsory education will make this interesting in the next few years.

I've had my time in China and enjoyed it - but would not go back as I felt a change in the country for the worse. Call it my western perspective - but I've seen my Korean kids hassled on the streets in 2017 due to the THAD missiles. With the covid hysteria there at the moment - I'd hate to think what is currently happening.....

As predicted, Psyguys responded...

Sorry - I feel like stirring a pot today .... :-)

As predicted - the school list is slowly getting stronger.....

To be honest - MYP is more of a teaching philosophy with marking criteria and Common Core is what you teach. As such - it's possible to teach Common Core at an MYP School.

In general though - there are 4 criteria in MYP math which makes it a bit different than national curriculums. They are:

Criteria A: Basically a test which includes unfamiliar questions that requires students to use their knowledge in new situations.

Criteria B: Patterns. Students often complete a small investigation looking at a pattern in math against specific ideas.

Criteria C: Communication. This is kind of a criteria that looks at how you communicate mathematically. It's discouraged to include this criteria with a Criteria A test.

Criteria D: Using math to solve problems. A 10 minute look at the criteria will give you an idea of the differences.

Note that what I have said includes sweeping generalizations but I find the MYP tends to try and teach through the inquiry cycle. This is challenging in mathematics - but a stronger emphasis on explaining and showing how you got your answer is often needed in MYP compared to pure national systems. Others can discuss if thats a good or bad thing.

For you specifically - showing that you are a constructivist teacher is probably a more important thing as a newbie to IB than showing your wares of IB excellence. As you are probably aware - there is a shortage of qualified and competent math teachers internationally which is only getting worse. Being able to teach upper years with proven results can make people hot property. As such - you should be able to get a job much easier than say a PYP or English teacher with 2 years IB experience. Note that there is still strong competition for the best schools. However - I would also study schools well as you are more in a position to choose a general location than any job that is available.

I've been to a number of Job Fairs and find the Bangkok fair to be often filled with people peacocking around - so it feel a bit like a meat market. This was pre-covid of course.

Note that it's still extremely early in the recruiting season with schools just starting to get into the swing of the new school year.

It's very common for better schools to push their way into the BKK fair at the expense of supposed "Lower Tier Schools" when the number got to around 130 schools. If I was looking for a job in 23/24 - then I'd expect job to come up a bit later this year as schools are slower to work out where they are with numbers (both student numbers and financially).

Do expect schools from China attending to not get near the 30-50 mark which was common pre-covid. Looking into my crystal ball - I'd expect around 10 Chinese schools which are individual entities to potentially attend the fair with some cancelling once they realize they can't easily come back into China or airfares are really expensive. A lot of schools have no idea what's going on with inflation and student numbers so expect some schools to tighten their belt as fairs are not cheap things to attend.

So will there be over 100 schools that attend the fair? Probably. I found that school numbers and quality generally tends to solidify by late November.

To be honest - there is not specific answer to this question.

Some schools will interview as soon as they receive a viable candidate. Some schools will wait until the deadline and then review then. Others will do it when they feel like it.

I've even seen school advertise to get resumes and use it as a bargaining tactic to get a teacher to sign on for another year. Remember that it does not cost anything to receive and review resumes on Search - but the payment occurs once the job has been filled BY SEARCH.

Note that I don't see anything wrong with your question - just that there is not a specific correct answer to your question.

I won't comment on ASIJ as I don't know if we are able to in the public forum.

I'll be a bit more specific when it comes to finding partners.

This is a massive generalization and there are always exceptions to the rule - but single females find looking for serious partners challenging in Asia.

In general - the foreign talent pool of similar male (if your that way inclined) people to date are either married or also have options of dating local. That significantly reduces your dating pool with foreigners.

Some Japanese men do date foreigners - but they tend to be the more "international" type who may have lived overseas or have been around foreigners in general.

There are some gaijin hunters who want to date a foreigner for the experience - but I'll let others talk about that in more detail. Let's just say that I would not want to date someone like that if I was a female.

It's also quite sad - I've seen lots of smart intelligent females who are catches in their home country leave international teaching in Asia (remove Singapore, Bangkok + KL from the list) due to their inability to find a serious partner and feeling lonely + worthless. I've also seen others who have been happy being single for a decade.

When it comes to jobs in Japan - there are basically three tiers of schools (don't think of it as the International Tier list of quality). Tier 1 are schools who pay well and you can save a bit and live comfortable. You can count these schools on one hand and some staff have been there for 30+ years.

Tier 2 allows you to live comfortably in Japan but there is more turnover. The schools are either lesser known or in smaller major Japanese cities (so not Tokyo / Osaka).

Tier 3 are some of the worst schools you could possibly imagine. Dictatorial administration, one of the world's longest teaching years and even longer work year, administration who mainly communicates in the home language etc.

Note that internationally some schools which are considered Tier 3 are fine - but in Japan these schools can be abysmal and tend to be more private Japanese schools who run an international department.

Wages also look extremely low in Japan at present due to the low Yen. Setting up to live in Japan is expensive - but living over time is reasonably priced.

I agree with Helitrope on this - re : negotiating pay.

I've found that schools which are very transparent on wages (such as providing pay scales) during the interview process are often more likely to be transparent in how they run the school.

If you teach an "in demand" subject in a hardship post (say Physics in Pakistan) - then I do see a strongly likelihood in a possibility of negotiating salary.

Note that the salary ranges are self reported by the school and are not always the most transparent.

In general - many of the best schools have steps which are dependent in years of experience. Often there is a limit at what step you can enter an organization at - but you can continue to climb when you are at the school. For example - a school may have 12 payment steps but the most you can enter a school at is step 8.

Also note that the wages for some schools are totally wrong and it depends on the school. Some wage estimates include all benefits before tax. Some wage estimates are for after tax without benefits. To put it simple - it's labyrinthian and there is not much Search can do about this.

American schools are often more interested in Masters and PHD's than say IB schools - which means that the Bachelor or Masters question is actually irrelevant.

So can you ask for 60K? Yes - but don't be surprised if the offer of a job is rescinded as unfortunately international teaching is a buyers market with more qualified teachers being present than looking (apart from China and some schools in the ME). If you have 10 years experience - your wage may be more than 46K but I doubt it would be anything like 60K. Think of something like a $500-$2000 step per year as more of the norm depending on the school.

There are even schools where everyone gets paid the same - and some schools where everyone gets paid different and it's mentioned in the contract that you are not allowed to discuss wages with other staff....

It really depends on the school and country. But remember - working overseas normally does not allow for as much negotiation as you might get in the states.

I agree with them

Editing NOTE - I changed him to them as I don't know who the original poster was)....

Just some things to consider.

(1) The main recruiting season I'd suggest would be August 2023. Most of the better schools will advertise between November 2022 an March 2023.

(2) The paid membership forum has a PM function. The other member also needs to be a paid member to access this feature.

(3) You are employable - but do remember that there might only be 3-8 positions that you can teach in Vietnam at these high end schools. There was many more positions available the upcoming school year in Vietnam due to their last extended lockdown which was meant to be quite harsh. The other poster will be able to talk about that more than I. Most jobs are for 2 years - so there may be less movement next year as I'd expect things to be improving and people at least finishing their first contract.

At least there are now 3 airlines to Hanoi/HCMC from Melbourne now (Bamboo, Vietnam and Jetstar).

Through friends that I have that work at the better schools in Vietnam - the other posters comment on hiring locals with international experience and treating them will seems to be the truth.