Why has recruiting become such a Gong Show?
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2020 2:10 am
I’ve been in international teaching for over 15 years. I went though a recruiting cycle this year and I cannot believe the changes I am seeing! I do not understand the hiring patterns now nor do I understand the shift in behavior from recruiting agencies as well as recruiters themselves. Has it become this way because the market is saturated with more teachers now? Have recruiting agencies just become so profit-focused that they don’t care about quality anymore? Are schools just overwhelmed with recruiting now? Are school recruiters feeling the same as I am?
The follow experiences below lead me to ask these questions:
1-Attendance at a job fair that advertised as being “very competitive” yet there were so many inexperienced teachers without much experience (local or international). It appeared to just be one "big, overcrowded, cattle call" where the bottom line was just profit. Don't recruiters have a limited number of invites anymore? Clearly anyone with a pulse and $$ was invited. This just makes GRC more attractive for my next recruiting cycle. If GRC plays their cards right and arranges a fair in January, they can probably get a leg up here in this market?
2-A text/email blast halfway through the “competitive job fair” basically said, “Didn’t get a job here? Come to our next fair in *****!” This was in VERY poor taste!! It's clear that a group that advertises itself as having a personal touch and caring about its clients has now become blatant about their bottom line.
3-Schools ghosting teachers has become the new norm? This is never OK ... I don't care how busy you are!! Common courtesy after an interview (or two) … when a candidate thanks you for your time/consideration in an email, you should at least respond. I had two schools do this after two promising interviews at a fair (it’s been almost three weeks since our last interview/my email). Recruiters (or anyone else) should know better.
4-Has anyone considered having a couples fair first? It seems that most schools want to hire couples first so why not just have a fair for couples and get it settled first instead of trying to do all of the calculating and shuffling at once? I had three schools tell me they offered to a couple. One contacted me days later saying the couple didn’t work out and requested another interview. Another school continued to update the position and post it as open.
5-I know of more than one couple that has a substantial amount of overseas experience in reputable schools but have not secured positions yet (late January-two kids). I know of one couple where the wife has not been able to find a position for over a year now (no kids). This will be her second year unemployed while her husband has a job at a school. None of these people have bad references or any reason to not be hired. Yet, they haven’t been. Some have offered one spouse a position but not the other. Is this happening more? In the case of an opening for only one spouse, I've seen schools just put the spouse in a temporary opening just so they can hire both. Not the case with them.
6-A lot of positions still remain open. Are schools hiring later? During recruiting cycles before, it seemed that a lot of more positions were filled in January than are now.
7-One school that told me they hired someone for the position that I interviewed for continue to have the position listed as available. They have updated the opening recently. I know there could be a lot of reasons why this could happen .... I was still available when they updated the position so I questioned it.
Thanks for reading my long post and any responses you share. Even though I did find a new job, I’m unhappy with the process that I had to go through to get this position. I want to understand this shift in the recruiting process. It didn’t used to be such a Gong Show :-P
The follow experiences below lead me to ask these questions:
1-Attendance at a job fair that advertised as being “very competitive” yet there were so many inexperienced teachers without much experience (local or international). It appeared to just be one "big, overcrowded, cattle call" where the bottom line was just profit. Don't recruiters have a limited number of invites anymore? Clearly anyone with a pulse and $$ was invited. This just makes GRC more attractive for my next recruiting cycle. If GRC plays their cards right and arranges a fair in January, they can probably get a leg up here in this market?
2-A text/email blast halfway through the “competitive job fair” basically said, “Didn’t get a job here? Come to our next fair in *****!” This was in VERY poor taste!! It's clear that a group that advertises itself as having a personal touch and caring about its clients has now become blatant about their bottom line.
3-Schools ghosting teachers has become the new norm? This is never OK ... I don't care how busy you are!! Common courtesy after an interview (or two) … when a candidate thanks you for your time/consideration in an email, you should at least respond. I had two schools do this after two promising interviews at a fair (it’s been almost three weeks since our last interview/my email). Recruiters (or anyone else) should know better.
4-Has anyone considered having a couples fair first? It seems that most schools want to hire couples first so why not just have a fair for couples and get it settled first instead of trying to do all of the calculating and shuffling at once? I had three schools tell me they offered to a couple. One contacted me days later saying the couple didn’t work out and requested another interview. Another school continued to update the position and post it as open.
5-I know of more than one couple that has a substantial amount of overseas experience in reputable schools but have not secured positions yet (late January-two kids). I know of one couple where the wife has not been able to find a position for over a year now (no kids). This will be her second year unemployed while her husband has a job at a school. None of these people have bad references or any reason to not be hired. Yet, they haven’t been. Some have offered one spouse a position but not the other. Is this happening more? In the case of an opening for only one spouse, I've seen schools just put the spouse in a temporary opening just so they can hire both. Not the case with them.
6-A lot of positions still remain open. Are schools hiring later? During recruiting cycles before, it seemed that a lot of more positions were filled in January than are now.
7-One school that told me they hired someone for the position that I interviewed for continue to have the position listed as available. They have updated the opening recently. I know there could be a lot of reasons why this could happen .... I was still available when they updated the position so I questioned it.
Thanks for reading my long post and any responses you share. Even though I did find a new job, I’m unhappy with the process that I had to go through to get this position. I want to understand this shift in the recruiting process. It didn’t used to be such a Gong Show :-P