UNI Fair
Re: UNI Fair
I don't know enough about ALL of the fairs to be able to make comparisons, but speaking for the UNI fair on its own, yes, it is a good fair for new teachers, especially if you are single. Some schools will be looking for more experienced candidates and may not grant you interviews, but there are plenty of other schools in attendance from many different countries.
Re: UNI Fair
The UNI fair is an outstanding fair. The organizers do an excellent job, its centrally located (as in the middle of the country), the facilities are good and it generally has a pretty good representation of schools from around the world. It also might appeal to new teachers or teachers new to international teaching because it requires minimal investment and/or it doesn't do a lot of pre-screening (at least it didn't that last time I went with 3 dependents after getting the cold shoulder from ISS). My knowledge is a bit dated so it might cost hundreds of dollars now but it was rather cheap when we went both times. I teach at a large, well known school in Asia and the admin have always been at UNI along with the fairs in Bangkok, Cambridge ....
Re: UNI Fair
I also thought UNI was a good fair, and less of a rat race than Cambridge SEARCH. There were a lot of excellent-to-little-known schools there and the recruiters were hiring and not simply scouting.
Re: UNI Fair
the queens fair in kingston, ontario, canada is also a good fair for new teachers.
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shadowjack
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Re: UNI Fair
Vandsmith, I have friends who were hired out of that fair over the years. It is a decent fair!
Shad
Shad
Response
The rule is, the best fair to attend is the "best" fair you can get an invitation to. If you can get an invite to the BOS fair, than thats a better fair to go to than UNI.
UNI is a "short bus" fair, it has a few good schools but most of them are lower tier S.A, ME and some Asian schools, essentially hardship locations, or low paying regions (such as S.A.).
Yes its less stressful, but thats because its a lot less competitive. Its mostly entry level ITs who dont know much about the field, and there isnt really any schools worth fighting or out competing one another for. You have a more homogenous group of ITs and schools.
The Queens College fair isnt any different and a number of those schools require you to have a Canadian certification to be appointed (not an issue if your a Canadian teacher). Its the same tier and caliber of schools.
The only two reasons to go to the UNI fair is if your really focused on going to S.A. The ME and Asian schools will hire you just as easily over a Skype interview. The handful of upper tier schools and the ones in Europe will be represented better at the super fairs, which occur earlier (start of peak recruiting) with more and better opportunities giving you a higher probability for a return on your investment.
People get hired at fairs, and school complete hiring at fairs, the later in the season you enter the fair circuit the fewer vacancies are available, since they were offered to other earlier. Going to the UNI fair is handicapping yourself. Th $150 UNI fee doesnt get you very much, other than the fair and updates on their limited IS vacancies which is tiny compared to what you would have access too with SA or ISS, and the premium agencies arent that much more, which gets a you a much bigger jobs database, and access to better fairs.
Only about 30%-40% of ITs get hired at fairs making the jobs and schools database much more important both before and after throughout the recruiting season. Finally, those fees for SA and ISS are higher but they are for multi year membership and access, as opposed to UNIs one year.
UNI is a "short bus" fair, it has a few good schools but most of them are lower tier S.A, ME and some Asian schools, essentially hardship locations, or low paying regions (such as S.A.).
Yes its less stressful, but thats because its a lot less competitive. Its mostly entry level ITs who dont know much about the field, and there isnt really any schools worth fighting or out competing one another for. You have a more homogenous group of ITs and schools.
The Queens College fair isnt any different and a number of those schools require you to have a Canadian certification to be appointed (not an issue if your a Canadian teacher). Its the same tier and caliber of schools.
The only two reasons to go to the UNI fair is if your really focused on going to S.A. The ME and Asian schools will hire you just as easily over a Skype interview. The handful of upper tier schools and the ones in Europe will be represented better at the super fairs, which occur earlier (start of peak recruiting) with more and better opportunities giving you a higher probability for a return on your investment.
People get hired at fairs, and school complete hiring at fairs, the later in the season you enter the fair circuit the fewer vacancies are available, since they were offered to other earlier. Going to the UNI fair is handicapping yourself. Th $150 UNI fee doesnt get you very much, other than the fair and updates on their limited IS vacancies which is tiny compared to what you would have access too with SA or ISS, and the premium agencies arent that much more, which gets a you a much bigger jobs database, and access to better fairs.
Only about 30%-40% of ITs get hired at fairs making the jobs and schools database much more important both before and after throughout the recruiting season. Finally, those fees for SA and ISS are higher but they are for multi year membership and access, as opposed to UNIs one year.