Anyone attending January or February fair?

[dglorioso]

Thanks to everyone on here - I'm new to this and getting some good info. anyone clue me in to chances of landing a job with a school if I'm masters level with 17 years teaching but no credential or IB experience? thanks - dglo

[LondonChick]

It depends a lot on what subject you teach and what kind of school you've teaching at...

[dglorioso]

Thanks Londonchick - pretty much what I thought. Didn't get into the process of registering early enough and the London fair looks good - lots of schools. A lot of these look like top tier schools. You seem to know what you're talking about - If I'm masters level, 17 years teaching but don't have a credential or IB experience, would these schools even consider me? Seems like the recruitment fairs are the way to go, but I like your suggestion of contacting the schools directly too - thanks.

[LondonChick]

So, only one week to go until the Search fair in London! Exciting!
CIS London is starting today... please leave some jobs for us Search people!
There are only about 3 positions I'm interested in, I pray that they won't be all gone by the time the Search fair starts.
I wonder if there will be any new positions too. Unlikely, I reckon.

[aussiechick]

There hasn't been a lot of talk about the CIS fair. Is anyone going? A couple of schools I'm interested in are going to both, but some are just going to Search, so that's good.

Despite not hearing from schools in advance (like Bangkok Patana) do you think it is still worth seeing them at sign up and trying to secure an interview? Or is it best just to concentrate on schools that have shown an interest? I'm new to this, so I don't know how long the sign-up process will take. What if you don't have time to get to all the schools you're interested in?

Londonchick, I hope you get one of your three. But, what do you think the chances are of a school you haven't considered approaching you?

[LondonChick]

Hi aussiechick,
I'm new to this too and I did ask my Associate a few days ago, as I was concern by the fact that I had heard back from very few schools. That's what he replied to me:

"As regards job openings at schools attending the January London fair, there is no need to contact the schools in advance. Almost all the business of the fair happens at the fair itself, not beforehand, including the fixing of interview appointments. However, candidates sometimes make advance contact with schools they are particularly interested in – some schools welcome these approaches, others don’t – and schools sometimes make advance contact with candidates they are particularly interested in. Most school heads don’t start to focus properly on individual candidates until they get to the fair. They then normally write written messages (on the Friday) to those candidates they are particularly interested in, for the candidates to find when they arrive at the fair, inviting them to fix an interview appointment time during the “sign-upâ€

[heyteach]

For what it's worth, Chicks, I contacted my current school in advance of the UNI fair three years ago and never heard back. I was somewhat discouraged and thought maybe that was a signal they weren't interested. However, once at the fair, I set up an interview, which went really well and I got the job. I think the lesson learned is to assume they weren't NOT interested in you, just didn't have the time to respond.

[aussiechick]

I've been looking at the schedule for school presentations at the Search London fair. Does anyone know what these are like? What can you expect from these presentations? I'd like to get to the presentations for as many of my target schools as possible, but obviously interviews will have to take priority! How do schools perceive your attendance or non-attendance at their presentations?

Also, did anyone go to the CIS fair? What was it like?

[aussiechick]

So how is everyone going at the Search fair? Londonchick? Misskiwi? Anyone else? How have you found it?

[psychbio]

So now that the London fairs are done, what is the consensus from those who attended? Overall impressions?

[olympe]

you need to go on the Blog of ISR., some updates have been put up.
http://internationalschoolsreview.wordpress.com/

[LondonChick]

I had a great time at the fair. I was really impressed with the level of professionalism all round. The candidates were really professional and definitely tough competition!

I was initially disappointed with the choice of interviews as three of my top choices did not even want to interview me, but the weekend went better and better, and I finally landed a dream job in a great school! I'm deliriously happy. I only had five interviews but offers came out of all of them! So I had to pick. What a nice position to be in.

I hope your fair went well too, aussie and kiwi. Let me know what happened.

[aussiechick]

That's great news Londonchick! Congratulations.

I got an offer from my first choice school right at the start of the fair, so I was extremely pleased.

I was also very impressed with how civilised and professional everyone was. Especially at the start of the sign-up session when there were 500 people trying to get in and only one door! But there was no pushing or shoving, everyone was really polite and friendly.

I hope it's good news for you too, Misskiwi.

[LondonChick]

Well done, aussiechick! It's so nice to know that some people had a good experience at the fair and are coming out of it very happy indeed. Congratulations!