Thoughts on Search Online Fairs

[sciteach]

Hi All,

Today I received an email stating that most of the Search Fairs will be online this year (as expected). Has anyone experienced a fair online before? Most of my jobs came via Skype or during an actual fair.

I'm also guessing that jobs will be a bit less common in the earlier fairs just due to the uncertainty in the international markets and such.

[falconeer]

This recruitment season should lead to a further re-evaluation of the conference model, and with it, the overall relevance of Search. Why should a school pay Search a fee for a candidate that they Skyped with, when they can simply Skype with candidates independently? Once upon a time, the conference model gave Search relevance and made them essential players in the IE job market. I just don't know that this is the case anymore, and like so many other things, Covid should accelerate this.

As for this year, most of the people I speak with are staying put where they are until Covid blows over. Meanwhile, many schools have cancelled contracts for this year. Others have shuttered for the year in hopes that they can open up when things improve. I would guess that Search's revenues for the 2021 season will be down by at least 40 percent.

[IE_sciteacher]

We were talking about this the other day in the staff room (yes we are already back with students). Basically concluded that this will potentially shake up the recruiting scene as we know it. The economics of fairs are lucrative for SEARCH and costly for schools and teachers. SEARCH (and to a lesser extent ISS who have already shifted to blended options) will do everything they can to keep their piece of the recruiting puzzle.

However, like was mentioned, what is the value of what SEARCH is offering during an online fair and how is that different than just connecting via skype. How much does the SEARCH person actually do for you or for the school? We concluded that the main value of SEARCH is the database of postings and teachers. Schools posting them individually on their own websites wouldn't have the same exposure to the pool of teachers as a centralized database.

Could TIE-online, Linked-in, TES, or something similar that is simply a database with a subscription fee and no fairs or payments after accepted positions are the future?

[Heliotrope]

Don't forget the confidential references.
Apparently they can be brutally honest, and I suspect schools that are looking to hire value these, as they get a good sense of the kind of teacher the candidate is.

As a teacher I've never minded the cost of Search because it's such a small part of a months wage, and if it helps me find a good school with less effort it's well worth it. I've always happily payed the fee, but of course schools pay quite a bit more.

[shadowjack]

Search provides much more than a fair service to schools. It is a winnowing and vetting service, a records repository, a fast "go to" for sudden resignations, and it is extremely extremely reliable. The model might change. but to those of you who think that schools simply "Skype" people, you might want to think of everything that goes into identifying a set of potentially suitable candidates, examining their references, and evaluating the top choices for interviews.

After you hit a certain level of experience and qualifications, it gets easier, but nobody just "Skypes" and hires. God, I would run like heck from any school that did that.

[steve416]

I agree that confidential references are big. I am in my 4th international school and would be hard pressed to track down admin from earlier positions.

[inmortus]

Confidential references are one of the reasons I always end up going back to Search Associates. They have a complete collection which would be hard to recreate.

Sometimes I've thought about creating an online service to store confidential references and offer it for free (or a really low price), but I'm not sure if that really would get anyone's attention.

[PsyGuy]

ISs will follow a typical schedule. Early recruiting in the fall, peak recruiting in January, then the subprime recruiting in February.
Virtual fairs are in a word, underwhelming. Its mostly lower tier ISs trying to contract ITs early before they get a real sense of their worth before peak recruiting, playing on insecurities. They are essentially a premium agency looking to get a cut of what is otherwise online interviewing.

ITs are the commodity. Fairs and premium agencies will stay as long as recruiters and leadership find value in them for whatever reason, whether ITs agree or not.

[shawanda]

Though I have relatively fond memories (especially compared to the COVID present) from my past Search fairs, I am completely at a loss regarding whether I should sign up for their virtual fair(s) this fall because unlike the old in person fairs, so far at least, the virtual fairs are not posting which schools are planning to attend. And we are only one month before the October virtual fair and no school names are yet appearing on the site. What does this mean? Are they just not going to publish school attendees or are they keeping the list quiet? ISS is listing publicly the names of schools attending their virtual fairs.

[elizamina]

Go the 'job search' function and scroll to the bottom. Under 'schools registered to attend fairs', choose the virtual fair in October. You'll see there are at least 35 schools registered so far (last I checked).

[PsyGuy]

@shawanda

Agree with @elizamina. Virtual fairs tend to be a waste, its all the informality of a individually booked online chat with all the rushness of a conventional fair. Really its about your lead-up approach. You should be putting feelers out doing a pre-search now, seeing what interest you generate. It depends how the pandemic progresses. Theres an unusually high number of IS vacancies for mid year appointments as ISs are creeping forward from transitioning from hybrid or remote learning to full onsite F2F learning. Peak recruiting doesnt even happen until after the winter holiday. Theres probably going to be an increase in early recruiting due to the increase of availability, a significant number of high quality ITs ended up without jobs so, they are available if not idle and there will be ISs that want to take advantage of the uncertainty, aside from that though unless your a superstar IT or in leadership this year isnt significantly different from any other year. Unless your pre-search generates sufficient leads and those ISs want to/prefer to interview through a virtual fair (which would be a red flag warning) than there isnt much utility from a virtual fair. There just isnt the pressure and stress dynamics and chance serendipity you have in an onsite fair. It ends up being "speed" recruiting on Prozac.

[kellysensei]

By "putting out feelers," do you mean sending out resumes/cover letters despite no job advertised? Is that a recommended thing to do?

[kabdurr]

That was just what I was about to ask. Is it appropriate to send a CV cold?

[Heliotrope]

kabdurr wrote:
> That was just what I was about to ask. Is it appropriate to send a CV
> cold?

Yes, although I wouldn't expect too much of it.
Everyone is always busy, so they're not likely to pay too much attention to a cold call.
If they're not actively looking for candidates for a specific position it doesn't make much sense for them to dedicate time to this, since once they advertise a position they might get a lot of applications that are tailored to that upcoming vacancy.
Then again, there are some recruiters that might enjoy looking at these unsolicited CV's once in a while, and if they do, you might get lucky. At least then yours won't be one of many and yours might get a thorough read.

It might be a bit different if you stand out in a certain way: you teach a subject that has a shortage of qualified teachers such as computer science, you teach at a top tier school and have lots of experience or you possess some very unique and useful skills, etc. Something that will make a recruiter think that that kind of candidate might not be found amongst the pile of applications once they advertise a position.

[sciteach]

Well it seems as though some more schools have signed up. 79 in total at the moment - but China is very strongly represented (32 including HK).