Is it just me .......

[indogal]

Is it just me, or does it seem like this year a lot of really good, experienced international school teachers are having trouble finding positions for next school year?

Just from stories I have heard from friends around the world, and postings I have seen other sites, it seems like a lot of people from top tier schools are still looking. I know I personally had a really hard time recruiting this year even with years' of international school experience at excellent schools.

Is anyone else seeing this happening?

[fine dude]

Well, there weren't many positions at the so called Tier 1 schools and all teachers were aiming at the same jobs. Also, increased competition from laid off teachers from North America and the UK added to the woes.

Staying put doesn't hurt sometimes.

[shadowjack]

As fine dude said, more people staying put, plus more competition from teachers looking for work outside the UK/US means that less movement of teachers might be taking place. As well, each year some subjects have more openings than other years...I know friends who went recruiting one year and found nothing. 3 years later, they went recruiting and found an overabundance of interest. Luck of the draw.

[lemonlily]

I've had a really difficult time this year. I still haven't secured a position for next year. I've had interviews with 6 schools. 1 offer that I turned down. Another supposed offer that is coming in, but I will probably turn down as well because the salary is absurdly low.

I've been overseas for two years, in two different countries/intl schools. My last two times recruiting it was super easy for me.

It's making me worried and I think I might end up of having to move back to the US....even if just for a year. I suppose jobs will come along as the final months of the school year progress...but I don't see many quality jobs opening up.

I think it does have to do with increased competition and maybe it's just not a turn over year.

[WonderingWhat]

I'm having problems too and I have over 10 years teaching abroad, Masters degree, lots of IB experience. I too think it's the competition, especially from American teachers as education is crumbling and imploding there.

[Mr.C4ke]

But wasn't last year difficult too?

I remember being in the position of searching this time last March thinking exactly the same thing; then something came along...

[lemonlily]

well Mr.C4ke I sure hope that's what happens this time too. I'm starting to get desperate....but at the same time, might be ok with just going home. I do really want to stay abroad though and don't know how a one year back home would look on my resume. I am sure it won't help me.

There have been like next to no jobs posted on TIE. Last year there was way more than I feel like there was this year. It's difficult. I have applied for several positions where I have ticked all of their boxes including the "preferred" qualifications, schools that would be step down or sideways rather than up, and I've gotten nothing. I'm pretty much grasping for straws at this point.

[Dawson]

Not that this helps, but I think people are right that there is a huge influx now of people coming out of the States and moving into the international scene. The job market is just flooded right now.

[nalfc]

Not just the US but the UK - I have just bagged my first job abroad and never in my life have I known so many UK based teachers packing up and moving on from our schools. Its not just the teachers who are being made redundant but because we have a total idiot in charge of the England & Wales education shifting the goalposts mid year, a total all out discrediting job in the papers by this individual, ridiculous targets and a general erosion of teaching by Mr Gove add this to a horrific inspection regime and unrealistic pension payments and you have a country in crisis.

So as somebody says a massive influx of first timers like me.

[SpedMaestro]

How is the situation for teachers in Australia? My Aussie friends make the place sound like a beacon of prosperity..but they're blue collar guys...

[ChuckD33]

@SpedMaestro the situation in my part of Australia, Victoria, is pretty tight. I live in a regional centre 2 hours north of Melbourne and as an example, we got 20 applications for a 3 day per week, 1 year contract position for the 2014 school year. A grad took a job up here having lived in Melbourne her entire life as the market was just too tough to crack in Melbourne at the moment.

Most jobs advertised in the public system are for 12 month contracts initially so aren't majorly enticing. The private system is likely inundated with unsolicited applications from teachers in the public system so all they seem to be advertising is maternity and long service leave replacement positions.

Like always, hard to staff subject areas have vacancies but like a lot of countries at the moment, Australia, and Victoria in particular, seems to be punching out more grads than there are positions. The baby boomers will soon retire and there will eventually be jobs for these kids, assuming they've stuck it out through contract employment and not hightailed it out of the profession.

My two cents

[matts1w]

Anyone else notice "they" (At least in the US) have been talking about the glutton of retiring baby boomers, retirement, and the inevitable onslaught of job openings when I was in still doing my undergrad coursework.... One should note I graduated in 1993 and "they" are still are still talking about it.

[WonderingWhat]

The problem is really the English speaking countries: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, where teachers are not valued and all the benefits are being cut, workload going up, yada yada. With all the teachers leaving the USA they'll be hiring ex-cons to teach. If the world doesn't smarten up they'll be sorry for what the next few batch of kids will be like when they graduate: illiterate, can't add more than total of their fingers and toes, Facebook and GTA addicts.

[Cheery Littlebottom]

Actually, of all the staff here who are moving on, only one couple have had no luck on the job scene and this is mainly because he's in a VERY specialist area where few jobs arose this year. The rest of us are going on to some great posts. Thing is, this is an IB World school with a big budget for PD and lots of subject leaders and examiners at PYP, MYP and IB level. Most folks were recruited fairly early.
So, no, not a lot of recruiting woes here.
Having said that, we scored some absolutely amazing young teachers from the US in the last 2-4 years who had lost their jobs because of cutbacks (and in one case, lost two jobs in a year!)

[ChoirGuy]

I'm in a similar position to lemonlilly in that I may be moving back to the US, but a different one (maybe) in that many of my decisions this recruiting season have been based on my child's own education…also, I am a single teacher with 3 dependents so that's probably not helping the case. I've only turned down one offer but there's not much left out there in my subject area. We've seen quite a few posts this year, but most of the best ones (Tier 1 schools, I would say) were taken early by (I'm guessing) singles or teaching couples.
In any case, we're still going forward and hoping for a great post to materialize - always the optimist!