Maybe you are looking to find a way to broaden your horizons, or maybe you just want to find a way to finance more than 7 nights abroad per year. Possibly you want to earn tax-free dollars. Whatever the reason may be, you've decided to try to get a teaching job outside of the country where you were born and raised.

I became interested in teaching abroad after two college friends kept sending me emails and photos of their travels when they secured teaching positions in Europe. Having four years of teaching experience, a valid teaching certificate and a willingness to live away from home, I looked into the different agencies that promote international teaching candidates and vacancies in international schools.

Some of the best known agencies are Search Associates, International School Services and the Council of International Schools. Their websites are listed below. I have worked with both Search Associates and Council of International School and have had a 100% success rate in dealing with both. I have been to three job fairs and each fair led to a job and numerous offers from other schools. The University of Northern Iowa has a job fair at their school. I've read about many success stories, but I've never been involved with them.

• http://www.search-associates.com/
• http://www.iss.edu/
• http://www.cois.org/
• www.uni.edu/placement/overseas/osfair.html

These agencies have several job fairs throughout the year, starting out in January. These fairs take place in cities in the USA, Canada, England, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and UAE. The fair season really begins in the late Fall as you need to get registered and obtain an invitation for the fair prior to attending. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months depending on how quickly you can get your references and paperwork completed. The earlier in the season you begin working on this the better off you will be.

There are two schools of thought regarding when to attend a job fair. Some believe that attending a job fair in the beginning of the recruiting season is better. They believe it is better because you are interviewing for the jobs before other candidates. Others feel that more jobs become available as teachers accept jobs at new schools, thus creating vacancies which need to be filled. The later in the year the job fair is, the more eager administrators are to fill positions. However, candidates are also feeling the pressure to find a job too. This pressure is felt regardless of the time of season in which you attend a fair.

Then again, job fairs aren't that much fun really. Getting a great offer or two can be very exciting, but it is a rollercoaster ride that can include a good deal of stress and disappointment if you do not take your agent's advice and "keep an open mind." Often times, you monitor the database for weeks before the fair and arrive to discover that the "game plan" that you had prepared is not relevant because the job has disappeared; either someone has been hired already, or the teacher decided to stay after all. On the other hand, there are always jobs that materialize at the job fair and are never placed on the database in advance. This is because some schools have vacancies after their staff members find jobs later in the year, or give late notice for other reasons. It's swings and roundabouts. You do really need to have an open mind and be willing to interview with schools located in countries you never considered if you want to give yourself the best chance of securing international employment.

I have attended job fairs in the US and in London. I have also attended early fairs and the "last" fair of the season and have been successful at all of them because I was willing to consider accepting positions in countries that were not even on my radar when I was preparing for the fairs. I also secured my first position in Europe when I was really hoping for Europe. However, I interviewed with schools on two or three continents prior to being offered the job. My advice is to be positive, vigilant, and see which organization is a good fit for you. Some agencies market themselves as being a bit more personal than others, while some may be less personal but have more positions available to candidates.

I have found The International Educator, http://www.tieonline.com/, to be an invaluable resource also. They have a publication that is distributed five times per year in which schools advertise. You can also register with them to post your resume on their database and search their database for vacancies. I have used this before and it allows you to contact schools directly. Often times you can reach schools that are not going to a fair which you are attending. However, schools which are attending fairs like to do their hiring at these fairs for obvious reasons. I have had schools contact me after finding my resume on the Tieonline database. I think you will find that some of the smaller schools utilize TIE exclusively. While most of the larger, more established schools will either work with an agency and attend job fairs exclusively, or do this in conjunction with advertising in and interviewing from direct contact resulting from Tieonline, or TES.

The Times Educational Supplement, TES, http://www.tes.co.uk/jobsHub.aspx?navcode=6 is a great resource for those looking for the "leading UK website for teachers and education professionals." There are many advertisements for international school vacancies on their site. These tend to be schools that are teaching British curriculum and looking for UK trained teachers, but not exclusively.

So the following are a few suggestions to aid you in your teaching abroad job search:

1. Review the agencies I listed in this hub. Check out their websites. Do some research of your own. While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a list of some very professional organizations that will help you find a job.
2. Find an organization or two that you like and register. Commit to going to one of the job fairs. Though it is possible to obtain a job through direct contact, it is not easy as some schools do all their hiring at job fairs.
3. Review the databases for which you have registered and send contact emails to schools that you are interested in, even if they are not attending the same fair as you. Though I have never obtained an offer this way, I have had some very productive dialogue.
4. Go to a job fair with a positive and open attitude and try to secure as many interviews as you can possibly handle over the two or three day period. Look at schools that you may not know much about and consider the interview practice if it turns out the school is not the right fit for you.
5. Send out some thank you notes to schools that you do interview with and if you do get an offer, consider it very seriously before you accept, as these organizations do not think too fondly of those individuals that break contracts and, in most cases, verbal commitments are binding at the job fair.

If you accept a job, it may turn out to be one of the best decisions you've ever made. Since teaching abroad, it certainly has not been all roses. None of these schools are perfect. However, I have had the privilege to work in three different countries, experience many different cultures and meet some truly great students and colleagues.

Good luck with your job search and please contact me if you have any comments or questions. I hope this hub will be of some use to you.

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