Job Fair Advice

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wander
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:05 pm

Job Fair Advice

Post by wander »

I’ve been teaching internationally for the last 8 years, but I’m attending my first fair in a couple of weeks. During the interview sign up section, what information do I need to throw out there as I introduce myself to recruiters. Any advice for this aspect of the fair?
shadowjack
Posts: 2138
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am

Re: Job Fair Advice

Post by shadowjack »

https://internationalschoolsreview.com/ ... f=1&t=2915

This will take you through a job fair experience and give you pointers.

Enjoy!
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

Signup depending on the school can be a couple minutes or a few seconds. A recruiter for an undesirable school may have the time to review and read a full two pages (because no one else is waiting in line), but the schools which attract the big lines and are the most desirable have only a few brief seconds to determine if you can meet their needs and wants in a teacher, and that boils down to experience, education and certification.

First, if you get an invitation in your box, meaning a real invitation not a general invite to stop by their table but an invitation for an interview than you can skip the line. Stand off to the side when the recruiter finishes cut in say you received an invitation (show it to them) and ask what interview times are open.

Second, for this venue specifically you want to use a condensed form of your resume. You dont need all the bullet points or accomplishments you ant them to be able to see quickly how many years of experience you have teaching hat and with hat curriculum. You want them to know your credentials and qualifications. Experience first, and double sided as opposed to stapled pages.

Third you have between 10 and 30 seconds. When the space clears walk up quickly, shake their hand then hand them your resume. During that time introduce yourself by name and stat your tagline (thats something specific youve researched and noted about their IS in advance) or a generic tagline based on the vacancy (or combine them). Close with asking what interview times they have available.

Summary:
Shake hands
Hand resume
Introduction
Tagline
Close, requesting an interview time.

Strategies:

1) Use your spouse, she can wait in one long line while youre in another and save your spot. Signup is two hours and some of those lines can take 30 minutes to get to the front and not get an interview slot.

2) You can be a shark or you can be a sheeple. This is like the Olympics everyone acts nice and social and helpful, but they are your competition. If you get an invitation dont wait in line (unless everyone has invitations) wait off to the side and when the recruiter is done speaking with the candidate walk up to the recruiter and invitation in hand state you received an invitation and would like to schedule an interview time. The recruiter has their first few earliest interview slots reserved for invitations, but you still want to get one of those as soon as possible and one of them is likely going to get the first offer, and you dont want it to be the person who interviewed before you. The other issue is that sociopaths act nice, and social and helpful, but people sabotage each other. They swipe resumes, go though your message folder, take out resumes and application materials from other candidates in the ISs message folders. Spill drinks on other candidates right before an interview. Fairs are stress, some candidates sail right through them and some have meltdowns.

3) You really need to plan signup and that starts well in advance of the fair. You want to try and get interview times in advance. By interview times I mean a commitment to a time slot, not just a "stop by our table". This solves two problems, one you get an idea how marketable you are, and two it saves you time. You want a balance of ISs. On one side of the coin there will be many tables that have no line you can walk right up make your pitch, and move on. Some of the recruiters literally just stand there looking at the wall for the entire time, but these are the ISs nobody is interested in and whats the use of a bunch of interviews if you wouldnt accept a position with those ISs. On the other side you have the high desire regions and upper tier ISs that can have a 30 minute line, you could easily spend all your time in lines for only a few ISs and not get any interviews. You also have dwindling resources (time slots) that have to match recruiters time slots. Many recruiters do not stay on the third day, so you have afternoon/evening of the first day and then the second day and all that time other candidates are interviewing and offers are being made, a portion of those offers will be accepted, making your later interview moot.

4) BRING AN ICHIRO. An Ichiro is named after a long lost member of the forum, who was a very valuable contributor, much like the Reisgio effect.
An Ichiro is essentially an alternative resume to describe marketing any type of flashy/gimmicky/creative method of introducing yourself to recruiters. It would generally involve color photos of you teaching, amazing students projects, etc and a more limited amount of text. Some people go all out and mimic advertising flyers, brochures, wanted posters etc (kind of a high risk/high reward approach).
During signup your only going to have about 10-30 seconds to make contact with a recruiter and get an interview slot. A resume doesnt convey the highlights of you as a candidate. You want to convey the top three bullet points of what makes you special or at least worthy of consideration. Enter the Ichiro, which in its basic form is a flyer (in color) with basic contact information, some visual representations of your work, and a few bullet points of what makes you special. Ichiros are also good for slipping under doors and in school folders. A three fold brochure or business cards allow you to carry your resume everywhere without being cumbersome.
Ive seen a number of Ichiros from business card resumes with a photo, contact info and a few stared bullet points with a QR code leading to a digital portfolio, to printed CDs, coupons (Good for one amazing teacher, time limited must be redeemed at [web address] and currency bills for a "1,000,000 teacher", 3 fold "sales" brochures, a couple teachers have done commercials and one did a full 22minute "info-mercial" that included a staged interview answering 5 pretty common questions, that was distributed on flash drives (you get a couple of flash drives from schools in your invite folder). The best one I ever got was a full, professionally bound magazine on slick paper stock it was 62 pages long and had articles discussing their teaching philosophy, a center fold with their bio and resume, articles about differentiation, their approach to the whole student, special needs, learning support, a couple stories about past schools and what they learned, and what they wish theyd known. It was extremely well done. The most recent unusual one were bottles of wine the candidate had created custom labels for that had a photo superimposed over a vineyard, a mock review to one side and a short list of bullet points describing their strengths in a “Quality Profile”.

5) Go into every interview ready to negotiate. One moment your interviewing and then you blink and their describing the package and salary, and now they have a document template called a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) or Employment Intent document. Some ISs will print actual contracts, but some ISs have to have those done by HR, so the Intent Letter or MOU is what you get. They are supposed to be as valid as a contract, but the only thing thats as valid as a contract is a contract.

6) Only offers matter, all the best intentions mean nothing. Its important to distinguish flattery and compliments from offers. "Youre exactly what were looking for and youre a great fit for our school, I'll speak to the board president and get an offer approved tonight" smile and a handshake and you think you have an offer, you dont. You have nothing, you have consideration, you go right to your next interview, because that recruiter might tell half the candidates they interview for your vacancy that, and its true because they will get an offer approved that night but it might be someone elses offer.

7) Some recruiters are bat poop crazy. One spent the entire interview time showing and explaining all the shopping she did. One recruiter hired the first 10 people who showed up and accepted as they walked in the door. "Hello how are you, would you like to work for us, this is our contract". I had one recruiter who did the interview in his robe while sitting on his bed. One recruiter in a group was watching ---- on the laptop while the other recruiter asked me questions (could see the screens reflection in the mirror behind them). Then there are the recruiters that are pervs.

8) You can distill the entire success of recruiting to "fit" they already know you can teach or you wouldnt have gotten into the fair. The secret is too be very, very likeable.

9) You are always on when you arent in your room. Everything is an interview opportunity. The IS presentation to the social to who you are standing with in the elevator.
reisgio
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:17 am

Re: Job Fair Advice

Post by reisgio »

PsyGuy, you are too kind and referential, as always.

To the original poster, I recommend ensuring that you are at the table of the schools you prefer as early as possible. And being highly attractive physically. It's a meat market. End of story.
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