International Teaching
Recruiting Fairs

Motivations | Job Seeking & Interviewing | Recruiting Fairs
International Schools | Teaching & Living Abroad | Key Resources

Advice from Anthony & Roe:

In a typical recruiting visit to the United States, the administrator of an international school will attend to personal and professional business, participate in one or more educational conferences, travel thousands of miles, and interview dozens or even hundreds of qualified applicants at recruiting fairs or placement offices, in hotel suites-even in hotel lobbies, restaurants, or airport terminals.

Schedules are hectic and time is limited but, because many of the administrators will work directly with the people they hire, they are thoroughly committed to selecting educators who will be both productive and congenial colleagues.

Recruiting fairs generally require that candidates complete registration forms, pay a fee, and submit a variety of documents (e.g. resume, essay, college placement file or letters of reference). Recruiters attending the fair typically arrive early and review the pool of applicants. Candidates are notified through conference mailboxes or bulletin boards that certain employers wish to meet with them at a particular time. Some recruiting fairs set aside an "unscheduled" time for candidates to visit with employers to see if interview appointments can be arranged.

Preparing for an international job fair

• Locate key resources (internet, career center, library)
• Know who you are and why you want to teach overseas
• Prepare job seeking tools (resume, cover letter, portfolio)
• Register for international recruiting fairs

International Job Fairs

Candidates who are most successful in getting overseas teaching jobs investigate schools prior to the job fair. Most international schools have web sites and are listed in international directories.

	"The job fair is where all the headmasters from different schools come & interview. You have to fill out quite a bit of paperwork beforehand. The headmasters come early and look over all the paperwork and then invite you to interview."
	"The headmasters are very adept at their interviewing process. They have very good questions, they're insightful about what kinds of people will work overseas and they have to make decisions about faculty in the same week-end that you have to decide whether you're going to go or not. And they have a sense of who will work for them in their school."
	"It's very intense. In 3-4 days you're interviewing with headmasters, you're trying to give your best possible appearance and you're making decisions (about where you want to go). It's hard decisions in a small amount of time."
	"You really have to plan ahead, decide which countries you're interested in, how you're going to get signed up for those, because it can be very intense. You'll have to stand in long lines."