This is another review of recruiting organizations. Search will be holding their first recruitment fairs in the next few weeks.

Search Associates is one of the key organizations in the placement of teachers in international schools. Search was founded by John Magagna and includes an impressive list of experienced international educators as Senior Associates that includes Gavin Allen, James Ambrose, Robert Barlas, Marie Bogat, David Cope, Harry Deelman, Gary Duckett, Sally Gordon, Dexter Lewis, Ray Sparks, Jessica Magagna, Rob Graham, and John Ritter.

Search places over 1275 teachers, administrators and interns each year. They note that they are known for the personalized approach that they take with schools and candidates. This can be very pleasant for the first time applicant, as well as the veteran overseas teacher.

Before You Get Started with the Registration Process
Search lets the potential candidate know that competition for international teaching positions can be quite intense. In order to qualify as a teaching candidate with Search, they expect a minimum of two years recent full-time teaching experience in a recognized school program. However, they note that this is sometimes waived for teachers in high demand fields who can demonstrate strong potential. Search also looks for candidates who are flexible – that means that the candidate should be willing to consider several countries or regions of the world as potential areas for working and living.

As I noted in my article about ISS, Search also advises candidates that teaching couples and singles have the best chance of obtaining employment in international schools. This is generally due to the high cost, or limited availability, of housing. There are other considerations as well such as the cost of bringing a non-teaching spouse or children to a foreign country.

Search Associates generally charges a US$200 fee for registration of three years or until a candidate is placed. This includes the cost of participation in one of the Search Associates recruitment fairs. There is an additional fee of US$50 for each additional fair should a candidate not receive or accept a job offer at his/her first fair.

The Process

1. Select one of the Associates and register with them. Your choice will depend on your home region or the region of the fair that you wish to attend. The Search website gives precise details on how to choose an Associate.

2. Read about your Associate. This will give you the opportunity to get to know your Search Associate.

3. Create an account. You can complete the application to become a candidate in one session, and this should take about 30 minutes to complete all 12 parts of the application. You will need a printer to do this. You should also have your resume on hand with the phone numbers of 3 references. If you choose not to complete the process in one sitting, you have 14 days to come back and finish it.

4. Wait for a response from Search Associates. You will be contacted as to the final disposition of your application. If it is accepted, you will receive more information.

It’s that time of the year again – the international teacher recruiting fairs are just around the corner. Over the next week, I will be posting about the main recruiting organizations around the world. The first that I will discuss is ISS.

International Schools Services(ISS) was founded in 1955 and has been a key player in developing the overseas community in to what it is today. In addition to holding their well-known and well-attended recruiting fairs (known as IRCs – International Recruitment Centers), ISS manages a number of small international schools and they provide a variety of services for the international community. ISS will host four IRCs this year (the first starts on January 5th in Bangkok). ISS Registration ends this week, so if you’re interested you better get a move on it.

International Recruitment Centers

The Bangkok IRC is the first and is the most convenient for teachers who are already working overseas and don’t want to make the long trip back to the States for the four days of the conference. The second IRC will be held in Boston from February 7-11. The third IRC will be held in Philadelphia and will be a joint affair with CIS. The dates for this IRC are February 15-18. The final IRC will be held in Fairfax, Virginia from June 11-13. This conference is for schools filling new positions or replacing teachers who have suddenly decided to leave their positions.

If you want to attend an IRC you need to have a file already established with ISS. Once you do that (more down below on this process), you can register to attend an IRC. There is a U.S. $290 fee for registering for an IRC. This is in addition to the $185 that you need to pay to establish a file with ISS.

Attending an IRC does not guarantee that you will land a teaching position – about 50% of those who attend accept positions – but it’s a good start. I attended one IRC many years ago in Los Angeles. It was extremely stressful, I only ended up with a few interviews, and I was not offered a position at the schools that I interviewed with at that time. ISS did offer me a position at one of their schools later in the year. That’s how I got started in the international teaching field. More about the IRCs in a few days.

The Professional File

If you intend on establishing a professional file with ISS, be aware that it is a rather lengthy process so you need to know what documents are required, when they need to be submitted, and what the process is like.

Before you being this lengthy process, you should make sure that you meet the ISS requirements to qualify as a candidate. These are:

1) Hold at least a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university or college; 2) Have at least two years experience as a full-time teacher; 3) Hold an educational certificate from the department of education in your state or province; 4) Are planning on coming overseas alone or have a spouse that will also be looking for employment; 5) Are willing to commit to a two year contract; 6) Are willing to consider positions in at least two large continental areas.

You apply online. You may be timed out during this process if you have a slow internet connection, so you should have everything already completed and ready to cut and paste. This will save you an incredible amount of stress. Once you begin the application process online, you will have 90 days to complete it. So you can save and come back later to edit it if you need to. This is very important for those of us who take our time with these types of documents. Once you submit your application to ISS, you will no longer be able to edit it.

You will be required to write two narratives as part of your application. For teaching candidates the tropics are: 1) Please write a statement describing the personal and professional qualifications and experience you have that will enable you to be successful in an international school overseas. (200-400 words – not to exceed one page); 2) What makes you an outstanding educator? Please refer to a lesson you have taught and/or describe specific achievements of your students during the past year. (200-400 words – not to exceed one page)

Within two weeks of submitting your application, you will need to have: 1) an official transcript confirming your highest degree. This needs to be sent to ISS directly from your university conferring the degree; 2) Copies of your educational credentials – you can send copies via fax/email or regular mail; 3) References from your supervisors covering the last seven years. It is required that you send confidential references submitted directly by your supervisor on school letterhead (this may be difficult for some if you have lost track of your last supervisor.

There is an $185 fee for file establishment. You will not be charged a placement fee if you secure employment through a recruiting fair.

Once all this is done, you will be notified via email within two weeks of ISS receiving your application. Once this occurs, you can review positions for recruitment online, receive registration details for IRCs, received personal email notifications of positions listed for recruitment fairs for which you qualify, and receive complimentary copies of the ISS newspaper, NewsLinks.

Well, that’s a fair amount of information. You need to have all the required documents on time, so if you are planning on attending a fair later this year, you should get down to work right now. Good luck with job hunting! And if you want some great help in choosing a school, take a look at my new eBook – The International Teacher. You’ll find 155 international schools reviewed including most of the schools that will be attending the IRCs.