UNI Job Fair Hotel choice

[JISAlum]

I believe it used to be that the Holiday Inn was the 'place to stay' to network during the UNI Job Fair.

Is that still the case? I also heard that the Ramada Inn in Waterloo might be where most of the recruiting admins stay and would be a better choice for networking.

Thanks!

[samuraiwriter]

I don't know about the HI, but I think the Ramada is booked up already. I reserved my room back in early March, thinking that it might be the case. You can call the hotel and they will put you on the wait list. I did this a couple of years ago and to my suprise, a day before the fair, they called and I got in. It was an amazing networking experience!

[beenthere]

This might not be of much use but I have stayed a hotel just behind the conference hotel and it was substantially cheaper and just as easy to get to. It might have been a Super 8 or one of those brands. Another time we stayed at one that required a shuttle or a 1 mile walk and it was painful, especially in the February blizzard.

[JISAlum]

You're right, the Ramada is already booked. Couldn't find the Holiday Inn with the convention center. Maybe it's gone. Will have to go another route.

Also pulled up last years schools and was mildly surprised or disappointed at the lack of larger schools, especially SE Asian schools. Am assuming they've decided to go the ISS / Search route which I don't think is a positive step.

Wonder if Sup's find the trek to Iowa in the middle of winter a little less fun than Carmel or Boston?

Am really going to hit the 'direct' method of emailing credential and getting a personal site going with multimedia content. I'm aware of the 'Live' vehicle which has been started, but as a possible Tech Director, I need to demonstrate something a bit 'more' than a generic offering.

[beenthere]

Any option to go to ISS Bangkok even though you are not thrilled with the organization? My wife and I had luck there and were impressed with the schools that were represented. It cost us, both in lost salary and in flight costs but in the end was worth it.

[JISAlum]

[quote="beenthere"]Any option to go to ISS Bangkok even though you are not thrilled with the organization? My wife and I had luck there and were impressed with the schools that were represented. It cost us, both in lost salary and in flight costs but in the end was worth it.[/quote]

We do have air miles, but we'd be coming from the US- Chicago. If some of the bigger schools were there though, it might be worth it. Were some of the IASIS schools (SAS, JIS, ISKL) schools there?

I've heard that regional job fairs might be a better choice if one is more geographically oriented- and that seems to make sense.

[beenthere]

SAS, IS Bangkok, IS Manila, Singapore American, Jakarta International and ISKL were all there, though some had a higher profile than others. We had hoped for ISKL but they seemed to come and go without a lot of fanfare. IMHO if you want a job in SE Asia, which we did, either the ISS or Search fairs in Bangkok are the ones to go to. I know both ISS and Search are expensive, and believe me I have nothing against UNI (two successful fairs there) but they do offer some advantages over UNI.

[mexteacher]

My partner and I have spent the last two years agonizing over which fair to attend because our top 10 list includes schools in Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. I remember the old days of ISS/SA Boston when the mantra was "Don't limit yourself geographically." Now it seems the placement companies are doing that for us by regionalizing the fairs. The East Coast fairs, which use to be THE fairs to attend, were almost dead last in the line up this past year. This coming year WILL be our last at our current school, so we ARE going to have to make a decision. I think the Bangkok ISS fair is going to win out for these two reasons--
1. It is one of the first fairs which means
a. better job pickings and
b. if we don't get jobs there, we still have the rest of the season.
2. The majority of our top ten schools are in Asia.

There was speculation this past year that some of the bigger schools would reappear at UNI because it was earlier than Boston, but that didn't seem to happen. Maybe this year? I think all of us teachers are getting caught in the placement companies' fight to one up each other for a bigger piece of the dwindling pie (dwindling due to video conferencing, etc.). We can only hope that the schools will one day soon declare that enough is enough. I know my administrators are getting frustrated with the season being pushed earlier and earlier AND the large number of fairs to choose from (for them, the questions are--which will have the best pool of candidates? which will have the dregs?).

[JISAlum]

[quote="mexteacher"] I know my administrators are getting frustrated with the season being pushed earlier and earlier AND the large number of fairs to choose from (for them, the questions are--which will have the best pool of candidates? which will have the dregs?).[/quote]

It's almost similar to the US state election primaries being pushed earlier. I do feel that earlier is better. I also hope that the lock job fairs have on applicants and jobs is 'loosened' by technology. There is no reason tech can't facilitate more information and communication.

I really don't want to burn a couple of tickets to Bangkok, then pay the exorbitant fees for the fair, but that seems to be the way to go. Starting in Sept/Oct I'm contacting a short list of schools to see where they'll be going.

[mexteacher]

JISAlum, I respectfully disagree with you about earlier being better. This year, I was asked if I wanted to stay another year in OCTOBER. It was not even 3 months into the school year and I was being asked to decide what my plans were for the following August. In the past, the decision month has been January, a much more respectable time of the year for deciding to stay or go. January is early enough. October is just silly.

Respectfully,
Mexteacher

[JISAlum]

[quote="mexteacher"]JISAlum, I respectfully disagree with you about earlier being better. This year, I was asked if I wanted to stay another year in OCTOBER. It was not even 3 months into the school year and I was being asked to decide what my plans were for the following August. In the past, the decision month has been January, a much more respectable time of the year for deciding to stay or go. January is early enough. October is just silly.[/quote]

I agree with you that October is plain silly. My comment was that a teacher going to a fair earlier is better off if they hope to snag a job they want. Especially if they are focused on a school/geographic location.

I think the recruiting calendar is going to continue to be front-loaded so to speak with good jobs and teachers going early. I don't necessarily think that is a good thing in the end. We used to get asked in January as the first job fairs were in late January.

[scribe]

ISS in Bangkok must be the fastest growing fair there is - we went a year ago, when it was twice as large as the preceding year, and it has grown since then. Our current supt., who initially went a few years ago merely to meet up with candidates he knew would be there, has made it part of his circuit each year because of the large number of experienced candidates who have worked in places that taught them not to judge a locale by its media coverage. With alll the new schools opening in China, this fair will grow even more until, no doubt, a fair in China is initiated - perhaps in November at the going trend. If there is a downside of this fair it is that it is ISS, expensive, and pretty impersonal. The Shangri-La is lovely and the special rate offered for the fair was 'only' $150 per night - but go outside the hotel to eat and drink.
On the other hand, this same supt. also attends Iowa each year because even though he says he's fairly sure he'll only get a few people willing to come to the middle east, they are always candidates well worth the trip. In terms of big schools attending UNI, their web site lists - among others - that Shanghai American School was there last year, Cairo American College, seemingly all the well-reputed schools from the middle east, Seoul Foreign School - these are all pretty good places! It also offers South American options, which the Bangkok ISS fair will not - there are some European schools at each. Experienced educators will find less competition in terms of people who've been overseas for awhile at the Iowa fair - when we attended a number of years ago, our experience in out-of-the-way places on several continents definitely added to our employability - six interviews, six offers.