The International Schools Review Forum

Can anyone suggest using Search or Schrole for international schools in Japan (preferably IB in the greater Tokyo area - Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba...)? I'd like to know if Japanese schools tend to post on one more than the other.

Thanks

If your focus is that small, skip the agencies altogether. Use the “find an IB school” tool, filter for Japan, and contact all the relevant schools directly. Good luck.

Once I got a job in China using ISR reviews. I went down the list of reviews specifically searching for high paying but mismanaged tier 3 schools because in my experience, low tier and mismanaged Chinese schools are ripe for a good long dawdle. And I found a school on ISR that I was at for 2 years. It was probably the best and best paid dawdle of my career!

Try searching using the ISR reviews.

[quote=fangpiren post_id=61219 time=1620617859 user_id=251846]
Once I got a job in China using ISR reviews. I went down the list of reviews specifically searching for high paying but mismanaged tier 3 schools because in my experience, low tier and mismanaged Chinese schools are ripe for a good long dawdle. And I found a school on ISR that I was at for 2 years. It was probably the best and best paid dawdle of my career!
[/quote]

Then why leave after two years?

I agree with sid. Contacting IB schools directly would be the cheapest way, because there are so many of them who wouldn’t use search or schrole. However, some jobs come up on joyjobs and wishlistjobs. If you are not picky about the tier of the school, try contacting schools directly. There are many new schools that are also candidate schools, and the number of IB schools are increasing.

[quote=sid post_id=61220 time=1620630283 user_id=218]
Then why leave after two years?
[/quote]

If you are a career IT, do you really want a tier 3 school in China on your resume for longer than that?

Search has the majority of schools - but not all. Do note that Search does not get you an interview - but it can help if you have strong references. I can't comment on Schrole.

When it comes to the second tier schools in Japan - a few of these do not join up to Search. Contacting these schools directly is the best bet. Many of the schools also employ people directly from their websites, which sometimes might be more accurate than what is written on Search. However, I can't comment on a persons employablity through just contacting schools directly.

In general, I see Japan as one of the harder nuts to crack if you want to get a well paying job at one of the better schools. Japan is a highly desired location such as Singapore - but Singapore has MANY MORE SCHOOLS and specifically students than the whole of Japan. Many people stay in Japan for a significant amount of time. For example - a teacher had been at a particular school in Japan I used to work at for as long as I had been alive at the time.

There is also a larger expat teacher and job hopping between schools that occurs in Japan than some other countries. As such - some of the jobs are filled by people in country or people that have been recommended by people. Others will have more knowledge than I on Schrole

buffalofan wrote:
> [quote=sid post_id=61220 time=1620630283 user_id=218]
> Then why leave after two years?
> [/quote]
>
> If you are a career IT, do you really want a tier 3 school in China on your
> resume for longer than that?
No. But nor do I want a string of short stays.

More importantly to me, if you’re happy somewhere: stay there. Life is short.

[quote=sid post_id=61225 time=1620742936 user_id=218]

> If you are a career IT, do you really want a tier 3 school in China on your
> resume for longer than that?
No. But nor do I want a string of short stays.

More importantly to me, if you’re happy somewhere: stay there. Life is short.
[/quote]

Two years is not a short stay IMO. I'm sure many schools initially look at my resume and initially give it a pass but come April and May, they might reconsider. I've never been unable to find a job so 2 year stints are acceptable.

As far as "happy" goes well thats different for different people. I'm happy where I a now but only because I can leave in a year and go somewhere else. Honestly I never understood IT who move half way around the world and stay at one school for 15 to 20 year. There are 2 such lifers at my present post and they were it like a badge of honor. The whole point of IT is travel again just IMO.

fangpiren wrote:
> [quote=sid post_id=61225 time=1620742936 user_id=218]
>
> > If you are a career IT, do you really want a tier 3 school in China on your
> > resume for longer than that?
> No. But nor do I want a string of short stays.
>
> More importantly to me, if you’re happy somewhere: stay there. Life is short.
> [/quote]
>
> Two years is not a short stay IMO. I'm sure many schools initially look at my resume
> and initially give it a pass but come April and May, they might reconsider. I've
> never been unable to find a job so 2 year stints are acceptable.
>
> As far as "happy" goes well thats different for different people. I'm happy
> where I a now but only because I can leave in a year and go somewhere else. Honestly
> I never understood IT who move half way around the world and stay at one school for
> 15 to 20 year. There are 2 such lifers at my present post and they were it like a
> badge of honor. The whole point of IT is travel again just IMO.

Two years is not a short period of time, but it is the shortest you can stay somewhere as an IT (unless you break contract, get fired or do a maternity cover).
Yes, you can always find a job even when you leave everywhere after two years, but at the schools I'd like to work at a string of 2 year stints and no longer commitments will generally land you on the 'No'-pile when they're sorting through CVs.
It makes sense that a school that would like teachers to stay for more than 2 years will favor candidates who have demonstrated that they're capable of longer commitments, and the type of schools that gets lots of applications can afford to toss aside candidates based on that (that, plus lots of other criteria). Of course there are exceptions, but most of the time if two candidates are equal in all other respects but one candidate's CV only shows a string of 2 year stints, and the other shows one or more longer commitments, that second candidate will get the job.
Plus, I'd rather be a school's first choice in December than a possible fallback-option in April and May, even if I you don't take into account what kinds of schools these would be.

When I stay somewhere longer, I do still travel. I'm not just based in the city I work in, I'm also based in that region of the world. If you're in Bangkok for example (or Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai, or any hub really), you can travel to loads of different cities & countries every break. You don't need to move to a new city every two years for that. You can't explore a region, or even a mid-size country, very well in only two years anyway.
And not everyone thinks the point of IT is to travel. Most start out with that mindset -I certainly did-, but if you're at a great school in a great city, with lots of short & cheap flights to different countries, and you have young kids, why would it be such a bad thing to stay there for 10 years?

[quote=Heliotrope post_id=61228 time=1620785428 user_id=229797]

And not everyone thinks the point of IT is to travel. Most start out with that mindset -I certainly did-, but if you're at a great school in a great city, with lots of short & cheap flights to different countries, and you have young kids, why would it be such a bad thing to stay there for 10 years?

[/quote]

Whatever floats your boat but why leave to begin with?

fangpiren wrote:
> Whatever floats your boat but why leave to begin with?

Yes, whatever floats your boat indeed - if you feel the need to leave after 2 years that's fine of course.

Well, I'll eventually leave to experience a different school (my current school is basically my dream school, but at some point I might just want something different), perhaps to be closer to relatives or join up with good friends somewhere, and/or because after 10 or so years we may have seen most of what we really want to see in this region and it'll be interesting to move to a different one.

The general rule is the broader your jobs search the more value a premium agency provides. I tend to agree with @Sid that your focus is so narrow and range restricted that using the IB database is going to be all you need if your fixed on IB ISs. You may also want to look at a site like GaijinPot where you can occasionally find candidate IB ISs and smaller ISs advertised.

@Heliotrope

2 years is not the minimum in all ISs. A number of regional ISs such as parts of the IE, and some of the ISs in Japan (specifically the ones attached to Unis) only offer 1 year contracts.

PsyGuy wrote:
> @Heliotrope
>
> 2 years is not the minimum in all ISs. A number of regional ISs such as
> parts of the IE, and some of the ISs in Japan (specifically the ones
> attached to Unis) only offer 1 year contracts.


No, not all, but 99%.

What do you mean by 'A number of regional ISs such as parts of the IE'?
Usually on this forum 'IE' means 'international education', but your use of it in this sentence makes me believe you're referring to a country? Not sure which one (IE is Ireland, but 'The Ireland' doesn't make sense).

The percentage of the ISs in Japan with one year contract seems pretty low at first glance (20% of the ones that are on Search), but the ones attached to a University will not be on Search or on most ITs's radar. I was asked to apply by the Osaka International School of Kwansei Gakuin and I do remember that they had a one year contract.

If you look at all international schools in Japan and don't just focus just on the ones that are Search, the real number is closer to 30 percent.
Some of these are hardly international schools but they do hire international teachers so I would count them.