How to find a teaching job overseas.

There are a multitude of really excellent resources online dedicated to teaching abroad. Some are obviously better than others, and they offer very different services. I can only speak from my own experience, but what I will say is that taking the time to research is a must.

I started with teachanywhere.com which is a free recruiting website. I was matched with a recruiter, and I was very impressed at the individual attention that I received. It was through this site that I interviewed for a school in Indonesia. It was a unique opportunity at a small school with lots of opportunity to really make a mark on the local education system. I was intrigued, but it wasn't the right time for me to make a move like that. I soon learned that any of the other job opportunities that came my way from this recruiting site were similar, small schools with development opportunities. It wasn't a good match for me because at this time I realized that I really wanted to pursue opportunities at IB World Schools.

This is when I found ISS (International School Services), and I realized that I had to make a critical decision. ISS is pretty expensive to join, but once you pay the annual fee, you have access to hundreds of jobs at some of the best schools in the world. It's not enough to just join and search the postings though. The head's of these schools want to meet you in person, and one of the only ways to do this is through a job fair. The drawback is that there is an additional fee and of course the cost of travel. There are several of these job fairs each year, and they are held in various locations throughout the world. This year, they were held in Atlanta, Bangkok, Boston, London, and San Francisco. I opted for Boston because I was able to stay with my sister in her lovely North End apartment. It is always a bonus when you can work family into a job search.

Something else to note, and this may seem like common sense, you need to do your homework. It is important to research the schools and the areas that you are interested in. My list started with about thirty schools focused on Europe. I sent individual email cover letters and attached documents to each of them. I personalized the emails to highlight the aspects of the school that I liked and why I thought I was a good fit. Most of the responses I received were generic responses from the HR departments, but there were some that contacted me directly, and it helped me move to the top of some recruiters' lists at the job fair. I will also say at this point that I have 9 years of professional teaching experience, three years with IB (2 of which are at the coordinator level). I have been to three official IB trainings, and I have a master's degree in Global and International Education.


TIE (The International Educator) and CIS (Council of International Schools) are also great places to look. TIE has a significantly cheaper membership fee too if you are short on cash.

The best thing you can do is keep an open mind, and don't focus all of your attention on one country or one continent. Some places are easier to get jobs than others, and some schools require very specific experience and training. Most of all though, don't give up. If this is something you truly want, the right job will come your way.

More on the job fair experience in the next post...

How do you change your life?

Decision to Change

Is it a moment of inspiration? Is it a long and drawn out process? Does it take a lot of thought or little thought at all? Is it influenced by outside forces or is it an internal experience? How does a person decide to completely change her life? Why don't more people do it?

I think it is a combination of all of those things. I think for successful, meaningful change to happen it has to be a combination of impulsivity and careful thought. In the beginning when I first decided I wanted a major life change I didn't know where I wanted to go or what exactly I wanted to do. I started to hunt for jobs all over the internet and all over the world, contact recruiters from various international teaching websites, and even had a couple of Skype interviews. I was dipping my toes in the water to check the temperature. This was a year ago, and I wasn't ready to just pick up and move when I got an offer in Indonesia. I had also just gotten a promotion of sorts at work here in the states, so I was reluctant to just abandon all that I had worked for.

My life was progressing nicely last spring. I had plans to go on a trip to Eastern Europe to present at the BCES conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, my job was locked in for next year, and I had an entire summer in front of me to be on vacation. There was also the hope of a September interview for an amazing school in Thailand. My summer proved to be much more than a string of destinations, it allowed me to have some time alone in a foreign land to reflect on who I was, who I wanted to be, and what I wanted out of my life. It was then that I realized that my life was my own and that there were no limits on what I could do. It sounds so simple, but in a way it was.

I started the school year with a focused motivation and overall calm. I also had the interview with the school in Thailand, and I got the job. I fretted over what to do. There were times where I felt that I would definitely be moving to Bangkok, and there were other times that it was the furthest thing from my mind. What I did discover, however, was that I was on the right path, that I needed a drastic change. It was a combination of things that prompted me to change, and it was the support system of family and friends who helped me realize that moving on and moving away would be the best thing for me. From that point on, it became my mission to find the most perfect job in the most perfect place. It wasn't easy, it wasn't cheap, but it was so worth it.

Where does inspiration come from?

Inspiration

What causes a person to be inspired, to be truly motivated in life? For my Uncle Leo, it was my Aunt Ginny. Inspiration for him was a time where he could forget about war and flying planes and think about the woman he loved. Uncle Leo died when I was very young, but that didn’t stop Aunt Ginny from living her life. She continued to travel, enjoy life, and build a foundation for me to dream big. 


For me, inspiration comes in many forms and in many places. A long time ago, I’m not really sure when, I decided I wanted to live a big life, one full of inspiration and adventure like my aunt and uncle. I didn’t realize, however, how much of a motivating factor these two people would be in my life until I got a bit older. 

I’m a bit of a loner, and I have always done things just a little bit differently and in my own time. The first time I traveled it was completely on my own to live on a small Greek island for a summer. There have been many trips since then including volunteer work in Tanzania, conference presenting in Bulgaria, vampire hunting in Romania, and finding myself in Turkey. It was never enough though. Every time I came home I wanted to be somewhere else. Sure I missed my family and the comforts of home, but I felt like something was missing. 

Taking on the adventurous spirit of Aunt Ginny, I took the bull by the horns (I really may do that someday) and set a goal to change my life. The thing that had been swirling around in my head for the past couple years finally found a place in the forefront of my mind and became a tangible goal. I was going to move to another country!

This new blog is starting as a "secret blog" for the people closest to me or the people who happen to stumble upon it. This is my journey of the ups, downs, and unexpecteds of drastic life changes. 

Thank you for joining me on the journey!