The International Schools Review Forum

This has been talked about off and on for a while, but I'm in the process of updating my CV and Linkedin pages. With the Equality act that some countries no doubt follow, within the international scene is it important not to include the following?
*Date of Birth
*Race
*Marital Status
*Sexual Orientation
*Nationality
*Photo

In the past, I always included (DOB, Marital Status, Nationality and Photo) this is because of visa-related issues and of course some Heads and Board members are extremely selective.

I understand Search and ISS have talked about this in the past. Interesting to hear people take on this.

I have never even thought about including race and sexual orientation. I can't imagine getting hired at any serious school if you would include that information though.
Your nationality can be relevant, assuming they want native speakers.
Last time I searched for a job, Search would have you upload a photo of yourself to your profile. Not sure what their policy is nowadays.

Not a single item on your list is on my CV - yet I get decent jobs around the world.

I don’t think schools who are looking for people who have English as their “Native” language because of nationality is not accurate. For example, some or a lot of our students grow up learning English, and therefore, know English better than their “native” language. I have met people who have passports from UK, US, Australia, etc. who have immigrated after they turned 20, and they don’t speak English as well as the students we teach.

Include them if they are advantageous to you or if there inclusion would save you from wasting time. Most of them can be addressed by including a photo, and any IS that cares about those things will request a copy of your passport cover. About the only real tricky one thats relevant, and not on your list is gender identity. Many ISs (especially in Asia) would not hire a trans person.

I think marital status could be included, because of the visa impact and whether or not they want to foot the bill for a dependant - same thing as for kids, schools need to know if you're going to cost them in terms of a place so want to take that into account.

FWIW, Search aren't now asking for photos on their redesigned website, but still recommend it for the CV anyway.

expatscot wrote:
> I think marital status could be included, because of the visa impact and
> whether or not they want to foot the bill for a dependant - same thing as
> for kids, schools need to know if you're going to cost them in terms of a
> place so want to take that into account.

I wouldn't mention that until at the end of the interview, so they get excited about you as a candidate first. Works better that way, from what I've heard from (a limited so perhaps not representative number of) recruiters.
Of course if they ask before that, don't lie about it.

Personally I put date of birth, passport nationality and marital status as these are things that could have a bearing on work permits being possible or not.

I've never included any of that, except for a photo (and now I'm thinking of not doing that because of my age--although I look younger than I am). In my cover letter I've always mentioned that my husband also applying for a job (and when I had kids along I mentioned them as well (generally, as kids who are adventurous and involved. I figured they can look at my CV--my teaching history, my education, and can figure out my nationality. I know that's not true for everyone, so maybe nationality might be useful.

Nationality can both be a positive and a negative. It can be useful as it shows that you won't have a problem getting a visa to work in the country - some have weird restrictions, like China's one on requiring language teachers to have a passport from a country which speaks that language, causing problems occasionally for South Africans teaching English. On the other hand, it can allow latent prejudice to appear.