Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Snowball
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:34 pm

Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by Snowball »

Hello all,
I'm actually the potential trailing spouse in our family, but my husband and I are approaching his career options as a team. And he's averse to message boards, so here I am, asking questions.

We are American. My husband is mid-career as a college professor. He has his PhD and has been teaching at a small American liberal arts school for about 15 years. He has tenure and has held some low-level administrative roles. There is no drama or controversy in his career, and he has colleagues/supervisors who are willing to serve as references.

He/we are contemplating a career change. He has been given up to two years' leave of absence, and wants to explore his options in international teaching at the high school level. His interests are in teaching foundational science classes (as opposed to the research many professors prefer), so he usually opts to teach the intro courses to 18/19 year-olds. He is an excellent mentor and many students seek him out for career advice. He loves curriculum development. Since these are the parts of the job he most enjoys, we believe that high school teaching might be a good fit. He does not want to be an administrator at this time.

He has twice been hired as a guest professor for one-semester programs at universities in China and elsewhere in SE Asia, and really enjoyed those experiences, where his students were EAL.

To this end, he has recently obtained a state-issued high school teaching certificate. However, he has not done any high school teaching to-date. He has, over the years, guest taught in high schools, coached science fair projects, etc., but no formal classroom instruction.

Additionally, we are a family of four. I don't have a teaching license. If this is our family's new path, I would be happy to pursue TEFL and eventually teach at that level, or I may investigate other remote/IT careers. Immediately, I'd be happy to work a school support role if visas allowed it, or just spend some time as a stay-at-home-parent. Do we have any chance at all of finding a placement for next fall? Financially, we have savings and back-up for him to take a low-paying job for the first year or two, just to check it out. Then he'd either need to find a good-paying position or go back to his home university.

We aren't interested in going to Saudi Arabia. China isn't our top choice, merely because we spent six months there are we'd really like to explore a different part of the world. Our top choices would be eastern Europe or South America, although we'd consider the rest of the Middle East, stable parts of Africa, and Asia--anywhere, really. We're pretty adventurous and adaptable.

He has signed up with ISS and Search. He's late to the job season because he only recently obtained his teaching certificate. He's going to the Iowa and San Francisco fairs. What can increase his opportunities, as he heads out to job fairs in the next few weeks? Any tips? Suggestions? He's a phenomenal educator and has a tremendous track record in the classroom. If given the chance, he could excel at high school teaching, but he's not sure how to get his foot in the door.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

This isnt going to a positive, uplifting, and supporting response.

First, you sound like a tourist teacher, the way you frame it it defiantly sounds like a tourist teacher who wants to dip their toe in the water of IE. I write that because it sounds like with his leave of absence your a 2 year and done IT.
Second, Youre also a very expensive IT and at anything outside an elite tier IS your going to be taking a significant (massive) salary cut. It would either be so insultingly low as it would require putting your spouse at the bottom of the salary scale because none of their experience is KS/K12 or the IS would try really hard to give them some steps but with salary caps there is no way its going to come close to a tenured professor with 15 years experience on the Uni salary scale. Just isnt going to happen.
Third, a family of four thats a 4:1 traveler/employee ratio, thats a lot of coin for an IS to expend (assuming your kids need tuition places/waivers at an IS that probably has a wait list) and traveling and housing them, thats a 3LDK apartment/flat at a minimum. Add airfares insurance and all the other benefits and thats a lot of coin for an IT thats going back in two years, because thats how an IS recruiter and leadership has to look at it. In IE thats a career killer, this isnt rocket science even when its rocket science, and that type of family logistics is going to cut a lot of interviews short.
Since this is a two year job and back, your still going to have expenses and costs in the US you have to maintain until or when you decide to divest them or do something with them.

Fourth, what exactly does your spouse teach in the way of science? If were talking biology or some other kind of life science thats a lot of coin for a bio DIP/A*/AP IT, if its physics, chemistry and can do maths as well, its better, but your still competing with ITs who have KS/K12 experience and all a recruiter is going to think is that your spouse can lecture and conduct labs. There will be a lot of competition because again elite and first tier ISs are going to be the only ones that can afford you.

Fifth, if your applying to a high demand region, anything in the WE, they will absolutely see you as a tourist teacher.

Sixth, Iowa and SF are dump fairs, SF is on the end of peak recruiting really the start of off peak recruiting. Your spouse will get interest and then either they will shake their head at how much it will cost or you will shake your head at how little there offer is. So much so I wouldnt even bother going, not if you didnt have advance interviews. At least in SF theres other things to do the Iowa fair is almost always a winter blowout.
FV2020
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:21 am

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by FV2020 »

My advice-- you'll never really know what's possible until you try. Pay attention to the requirements in job posts so that you aren't wasting time, but apply to as many positions as you can. Search wouldn't have taken your husband as a candidate if they didn't honestly think he could get a job. You've got a few significant hurdles (3 dependents, no HS teaching experience), but that doesn't mean it's not possible.

If South America is your first choice, are you willing to go to Venezuela? Given the current situation, that would be a hardship post, but hardship posts have less competition for jobs.

If your husband doesn't get an international job for next school year, would you be open to him working at a high school where you live now for two years? If he can get IB experience, even better. Could you also earn a teaching credential during that two years? If he really enjoys HS and does not want to go back to the university job at that point, then you all would be in a better position to get international positions.
Snowball
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:34 pm

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by Snowball »

Dear PsyGuy, don’t worry. I’ve acquainted myself with the forum enough to know not to expect anything positive, supporting, or uplifting from you.

I know it doesn’t fit your narrative, but I expressly stated that he’s looking for a career change, not “2 years and done.” I also addressed the salary issue, and frankly, I’m not sure you know what an average college professor earns. (Hint: less than an equivalent American public school teacher in a teacher’s union state.) I listed the regions of the world that he would be willing to work in, and you may note that I didn’t even list Western Europe because it’s not a practical consideration for us. As I further explained in my request, he’s applying now at the “dump fairs” because he just recently finally obtained his teaching certificate. So I appreciate your reality check, but you actually didn’t tell me a single thing that we didn’t already know. What you didn’t do is answer my question about how to improve his chance of being recognized and considered as someone who can do more than “lectures and labs.” I take it that your real advice is “don’t bother; it’s impossible.” And I appreciate that perspective, truly, I do, so thanks for that.
Snowball
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:34 pm

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by Snowball »

FV2020, the optionnof teaching domestically is certainly on the table. I’m honestly not sure not sure how equivalent a public school job is compared to an international school (and I literally mean, I don’t know). Certainly, the ages of students are the same, but the demographics of the students and the style of administration will be wildly different. Still, it’s a viable option.

I’d be interested to read some responses to the Venezuela post in this forum. Because we have kids, We have some responsibility to not putting them in a dangerous situation. But generally speaking, yes, we will travel to a place with some low-level unrest. I just haven’t been monitoring the situation in Venezuela to know how bad things are or are projected to get.


Here’s a question: are there any steps a person with dependents can take to minimize the expense to the hiring instituion? Again, salary is not the greatest concern in the near term, as we’ve saved up for this and view it as an experiment, at least for the first two years until he gains more experience. So, could we offer to pay our own transportation costs? Our own health insurance? Etc.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@Snowball

Okay good, I was told Im not supportive and encouraging so call it a disclaimer.

Okay sure, but your spouse isnt moving into an equivalent position. The median average for a science professor is about USD$77K/yr, USD$87K/yr for physics. Secondary DTs is about USD$56K/yr (median of private/independent and public/maintained). So about USD$20K more for a professor, but your spouse is 15 years into that and your spouse is zero years into DE/IE. The average salary in IE (globally) is about USD$30K/yr, and thats average and your spouse again isnt around the average they are below the average. So if we compare the average of professors to the average of IE your looking at an IE salary thats 40% of what the average is (assuming your spouse is making the average).

Fair enough but then why mention the 2 years leave of absence, if your spouse is changing careers, the leave of absence means nothing, your spouse resigns, hes now an IT. Where is the exploration, unless of course it really is exploration, you MAY stay longer but you have a safety net and a recruiter has to see that as your gone in 2 years. Recruiters are going to want to know why, and its going to have to be a really convincing and persuasive argument, because its going to sound like bunkers nutter talk to leave on a whim.

I realize your spouse is just now getting their credential. Its not worth going to the dump fairs, not for their resume.

Again fair enough, okay things to do:

1) Going to the fair, you need to contact recruiters and leadership and get however many advance interviews you can. If you want to waste their time dont mention the family situation, otherwise be upfront about it. At the least it will tell you what your looking at as far as the market goes.

2) Look at the past experiences and isolate what you can do as far as ASPs, robotics, research. Dont need a lot of detail but a bullet point if fine (no need for a list of publications).
Aggregate all the Uni experience under one entry. Dont try to use your resume to convince a recruiter you can transition seamlessly between tertiary and secondary, without any secondary experience no ones going to believe it

3) Put together some AP syllabuses that for the subject your pursuing. Why, no one will ask for them at the fair, but you want to be able to show after an interview when the logistics costs come up, that the experience teaching foundations science courses is going to directly translate to performance, maybe your spouse is just a good enough lecturer that they can improve or maintain high exam scores.

4) At some point your going to want to look at the IB DIP course descriptions for their subject and be able to talk the lingo and know at least the objectives. Its less about content in secondary and more about relating to the students to keep them engaged. Its not large seminar courses of hundreds of students, its small groups of 20 or less who need to be engaged or at least look engaged. Everything in IE is more about student centered, inquiry based, etc. meds/peds. They already know your spouse knows the topic thats not the issue, its can they connect to students and transfer knowledge efficiently. At a fair in an interview thats what the recruiter ants to hear, they want a candidate who talks that part of the talk, and can describe how they walked the walk that part of the teaching. So get comfortable read up on the vocabulary on the concepts and then have some mock interviews with your spouse so they can answer those questions without getting to theoretical about it.

5) Consider a portfolio, but not if the only video you can provide is of a lecture. Whats going to happen is they are going to be really interested in your spouse assuming they have a good answer for the why the change, but then theirs going to be a question of family, and thats were notepads are going to be snapped close, and some nodding and then the interviews over. You have crucial minutes before that happens to show something special about your spouses candidacy, and the best way to do that is if you can sell them in advance with some kind of digital portfolio, and showing them that the Uni professor in your spouses case is going to transition to secondary at SLL, and there really isnt the time to do it between notepad closing and the nodding.

You cant really make yourself cheaper unless you can shed kids, or become a teaching couple. I would normally talk briefly about the idea of presenting themselves as recently separated with no attachments and then when your about to go there, dump on them that your spouse has reconciled hope you can pull some other OSh benefits.
Other options are going to a region in advance that you want to experience, and then looking or recruiting as a LH, since a lot of those costs then dont matter. One of the benefits of the WE especially somewhere like the UK is you can cut the cost by enrolling the kids in a DS or EuroSchool thus you dont need tuition waivers/places. Recruiters may bulk at a candidate that doesnt want to send their children to the IS, but you can create some type of reason from language immersion for the kids or some other specific reason. Alternatively, you can claim your going to home school (assuming the region legally allows that), you can get an ACSI certificate and claim its a religious reason.
Another option is going as a teaching couple, you dont have to attend, but your spouse can mention that youre getting a credential in something like ESOL or Primary or other subject that you have not teaching experience and if you present it to an IS that has a need instead of as a condition of employment it might solve a problem an IS has.

You cant offer to absorb costs, well you can but the ISs that would do that arent going to be ISs you are going to want to be at. Generally, ITs get whatever the OSH benefits are according to policy. You cant really undercut the contract at reputable ISs. Insurance isnt much of an issue, and most of the ISs that arent upper tier ISs will have caps on OSH benefits such as flights and relocation allowances anyway. Its the tuition waiver/places at ISs with wait lists and housing. It comes down to comparisons, why deal with a science IT with no KS/K12 experience who is an expensive hire when there is cheaper candidates standing right behind you and were right in front of you. Its the exception rather than the rule of a recruiter/leadership to sit down and say lets see how we can make this work, compared to just moving on to the next candidate.

I would not recommend Venezuela as a destination, its not that kind of adventure you want.
Snowball
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:34 pm

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by Snowball »

Friend, I wish that $77k were the average for his line of work! Perhaps that’s true of R1 universities, but it’s nowhere near that in small liberal arts colleges, which are more teaching-focused. They’re worlds apart. I’ve been dismayed to see new tenure-track hires—that’s a person with a PhD in their field—start teaching at a liberal arts college for $38,000. And I’m not talking about backwater, unheard-of schools. These are colleges that rank among the tops of their states. As with other teaching fields, there is a vast oversupply of qualified individuals, and the schools get away with underpaying their faculty. So, sadly, the salary drop is not so much as you’d expect.

I’m mentioning the leave of absence here in the forum, so as to say that we have a back-up plan, but that doesn’t need to be shared with the recruiters. A two-year contract is a two-year contract, right? If he loves it and stays longer, great. If he decides “thanks but no thanks,” we’re in the fortunate situation of having a fall-back option.

His current college rarely has a class of more than 30 students and there’s a huge emphasis on individualized attention and mentorship, so I think there’s room to expand upon those experiences and highlight his skills there. Your comments remind me that much of the world doesn’t distinguish between research universities and liberal arts college (which are such a North American phenomenon), so it may be beneficial for him to really emphasize those student-focused qualities. I imagine that one strength th would be his ability to counsel students on how to sucessfully apply to colleges and universities, at least in the Americas. I’m not sure if that’s important enough to be a selling point.

This is a whole new world to us, so I admit that I didn’t even know digital video portfolios were a thing. Aside from footage of him teaching, what would such a video portfolio include?

I don’t think we’d feel right about misrepresenting our family. We’re all along on this together. One of our kids is only 2, so no need for her to go to school as of yet, and that saves the school some money. Our older child will be entering Year 2, and I’d frankly love to drop him into a local school for the language immersion, if it were a global language that would potentially be of long-term benefit (So, Spanish or French, yes. Kazakh or Thai, not so much.)

This has given us some good material to discuss and develop; thanks so much.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@Snowball

Well I dont need to wish for it, I got the data from the BLS, and averaged physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science which came out too USD$79783/yr as an average salary. The data was from 2017 however so just to be conservative I put it at about USD$77K/yr

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-train ... .htm#tab-5

I agree with you though the whole myth that professor is some glory profession isnt true anymore. Thers just too many people getting doctorates, who really dont need them, and their isnt a demand in their professions even in academia. Still though your USD$38K is a starting salary and your spouse is 15 years in so they are making somewhere between USD$50k/yr and USD$60K/yr. Its still a huge cut considering that the IE average of USD$30K and your spouse isnt average. Of course OSH benefit compensate for that but your not really leaving so youve got bills back in the states your going to have to pay on that what 50% cut in coin? Okay though its not a drop for you.

Well yes, no, yes, no, yes. It depends what your spouses uni says and what they go looking for. A tenured professor with a spouse and to kids who is just up and leaving for IE, because why, thats got to be a real great story behind that. Otherwise a recruiters got to call the Uni HR to make sure everything is up and up and their isnt anything torrid, and if HR comes back and says the status is leave of absence or sabbatical, if they dont say "eligible for rehire" which they cant because your spouse is still an employee. Again, would have to be a really, really, really good explanatory narrative, and those casual questions like selling your house, etc.. id want to have those well rehearsed. However, yes 2 years is 2 years, theres always a risk ITs will leave for whatever reasons.

Its not just individual attention, ITs dont have office hours, they get prep periods but students are in class, and that means youve maybe got a few minutes at lunch in the morning or after students release. Its not a huge amount of time, and ITs are expected to compartmentalize everything during class time. Student centered, inquiry, guided discovery, project based learning. Those are the majority of the pop.ed meds/peds.

All very true, the research uni vs. liberal arts college not really a thing outside the US.

Uni Counselor does the tertiary application tasks, your spouse teaching SLL will be asked for a rec letter, but most professors or academic staff at unis doesnt really have the paradigm of admissions officers and they usually dont have any insight for what a chair or department committee would look for outside of their field. Now if this small liberal arts college is a global ivy like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, maybe one of the seven sisters, MIT, something like that than it probably doesnt mean much. Unis dont generally care much about what ITs think, even if you have doctor in your name. Its not worth a bullet point, because its a typical part of the IT job description that youre going to write recs when requested.

Digital portfolios are really the thing compared to portfolio books. Usually a QR code or website with an intro a repository of standard application documents and a couple videos a video introduction and mini self interview and a teaching demonstration. A number of major contributors of the forum however have the opinion that portfolios are of little value. I think its benefit is worth the time in your situation because your spouse is going to need to correct what are general stereotypes of tertiary lecturers/tutors and show why they would possibly want to spend the coin to hire your spouse when they get to the trailing spouse and two kids in your spouses presentation.

Well if your in Asia or the ME your not going to find French or Spanish municipal DSs. So you need one tuition waiver/place in primary for your year two and then you need EC for your age 2 if your going to work in a support or IT role at the IS.
FV2020
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:21 am

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by FV2020 »

@Snowball

Knowing that your children are so young, I take back the Venezuela comment; a close colleague of mine just finished a contract there, and although he is fine, it would be very risky to bring a two year-old there.

As for teaching HS domestically, it all depends on what your husband's goals are in switching careers. Knowing more about that could help us give you advice. He is essentially making two career changes at once. For instance, have you lived in a small, homogenous area for a long time and want to expand your horizons? If so, why not teach college abroad since money is not an issue? If he is feeling a little burnt out on academia and wants to make a difference at the HS level, then he could do that domestically. Private high schools in the U.S. frequently hire professors with no HS experience, and a private school is certainly closer to an IS than a domestic public school.

For the fairs, have your husband brush up on the terminology/trends in k-12 teaching: differentiation, PBL, inquiry, kinesthetic/visual/auditory learning, 21st century skills, formative assessment, etc. If he can provide examples of how he already does these things in his classroom, a recruiter is more likely to see his potential as a HS teacher. While your husband clearly has a wealth of content knowledge, teaching a ninth grader is very, very different that teaching an 18 year-old. Also, he should be prepared to explain classroom management strategies.
snowphantom
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2017 4:42 am

Re: Reply

Post by snowphantom »

PsyGuy wrote:
> The
> average salary in IE (globally) is about USD$30K/yr, and thats average and
> your spouse again isnt around the average they are below the average


You love to throw around this number but this seems extremely low. I challenge you to share actual data to backup this claim. That would require half IE to make less than 30K and half to make more. Care to provide relevant statistics to this claim? I know of no international school that pays less than 30K per year for a teacher, let alone half of the schools in the world (or roughly half the number of international teachers).
mamava
Posts: 320
Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 7:56 am

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by mamava »

Because he's a science teacher, he may have some leverage not having actual classroom HS experience...but any quality schools would ask questions about pedagogy, current trends, IB/AP, etc. Yes, answers can be looked up and rattled off, but it's important to be authentic and honest.

You also have 3 dependents along--very elite schools may carry that load, QSI schools will, Middle East schools (many) will--but that is definitely not the norm. So that's another tick in the negative box. As people say, you don't know if you don't try, but those factors, plus nearing the end of the big hiring season, will make your chances harder.

Lower--the 3rd tier--schools might be willing, but you always have to look at whether those schools are good places for your own kids to spend time and be educated.

Salary and qualifications aside, it's the family size that is a bigger issue, esp. if you won't consider the ME. European schools may not offer enough $$ for adequate housing for a family that size, or may not be affordable on 1 salary. Everyone always talks about how much you make and save working overseas, but if you don't have school fees, or benefits aren't provided to your dependents, you'll spend A LOT of money in that respect with tuition, housing, insurance, flights, etc.
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by Thames Pirate »

I am ever the optimist, so I say go for it. It sounds like you are realistic. Especially in science and with a uni background plus a credential, he can find something worthwhile. Perhaps not for the coming year, but you never know. I say apply domestically as well for the coming year (as hiring season is less of a single rush season) so he can test the waters and get some experience (especially IB!) if you don't find something. But I know people get hired at decent schools in cool locations straight out of uni, so why not your family straight out of uni teaching?

In the meantime, if you can get a credential of some sort or even school based experience (ESL or tutoring or something), that would really help your chances. Private music or language lessons, secretarial work, school nurse, IT, library assistance, TA, or anything else you can think of are all valid options. Without knowing what your career/training/experience/skills are currently it's hard to advise more specifically. Working from home or independently might also help, but when schools are hiring they often still consider the person a trailing spouse. That varies by school, but something to note. You could also consider applying as an "intern" or something along those lines.

I agree that the 3 dependents and the timeframe are actually the two biggest things working against your family right now. If you can mitigate the former, the latter is less of an obstacle, especially given how open you are on location. The track record and the subject area are huge points in your favour.

You are doing everything right. You will find something with a bit of patience, grit, and sometimes a bit of luck.
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by Thames Pirate »

Some other thoughts:

He could consider doing an IB DP online training. In his case, it would signal that he is serious about a career change and it means a school would not have to train him. Also, I would imagine that, as an administrator, the concerns would be related to classroom management and dealing with parents. So any experiences or courses/seminars he could attend on those types of topics might also be helpful.

I also want to reiterate that signing up as an "intern" (stupidest classification ever, but whatever) signals that you are willing to take a job but won't cost as much as a full teacher. That mitigates the dependents issue and also strengthens the idea that you are serious about a new career and life. It's a good foot in the door for a TA job.

Finally, don't settle. You sound like a family worth having around given your approach to this process, and if you are patient you can find something that will suit you. I know you are concerned about the two year leave of absence, but if you do a year in a public school in the US and a year abroad, he will have an idea of whether or not high school is a career worth continuing, in which case he won't go back to the college, or that he hates it, in which case breaking contract to return to the US, while not ideal, would not hurt his career chances in the long run.

Oh, and do you have an email you'd be willing to share since there is no PM function?
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@snowphantom

You dont know what an average is, its not half makes under 30K and half makes more than 30K, the unit of measure isnt people, its coin. We already settled this several years ago, and again several years before that, its a very pervasive statistic. Your error is there are a lot of ISs, its not just the 800 or so ISs repped by the premium agencies. The third tier and lower third tier particularly as well as regions like the LCSA push the average down.

@@Snowball

IB would save a few hundred, but its a non-issue the ISs that can afford you arent going to shave some coin but not providing PD, and the places where it would matter its not enough of a savings to balance the travel ratio.

Interns in IE, arent coffee fetching assistants. Typically, the ISs that do the program well and just arent looking for cheap labor provide full OSH benefits, its generally a whole school program so theres one maybe, maybe 2 IS wide, they typically select a young person to mentor. Its not a way to lower or reduce the cost of hiring, and even if they were, theres too much cost to shave off breaking out the package. Its not the salary thats the issue, the IS doesnt have to bend over backwards to lower the salary, its the OSH cost of a family of 4 to fill one classroom.
expatscot
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 4:26 am

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Post by expatscot »

I'm going to chuck something in here on the 'leave of absence' thing.

When we left Scotland, my wife was eligible for a 2 year leave of absence - which she took. She was upfront with her school about why she was doing it, and we discussed it with agencies and also heads when interviewing. Any comments we got were that it was a sensible thing to do for our first time abroad, because we had the security of knowing we had something to come back to. Similarly, we rented out our house (still do) and this is in no way seen as a problem.
Post Reply