ISS IRC in SF

Because I was interested in the prospect of teaching overseas starting in the fall of this year, I applied to and was accepted by a placement company called International Schools Services (ISS). In addition to screening schools and candidates and providing a searchable database for both parties to peruse, ISS, hosts several recruitment fairs (IRC - International Recruitment Conferences) during the fall and spring. Administrators from many of the schools attend to interview and hire candidates in person. I signed up for the conference in San Francisco.

After going to the wrong Hyatt (who knew there were two so close together?) I ended up at the huge, lavish Hyatt Regency, at a table in the candidates' hospitality room trying to make sense of the piles of papers and pamphlets I'd been given. Monday, the first day, consisted of school information sessions and an orientation about how the whole process would work (curiously scheduled for the end of the first day rather than for the beginning). Interview sign-ups were to occur Tuesday morning, and interviews would take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Although I'd done some prior research, I still felt lost. I wasn't even sure which schools would be attending the conference. I was, however, in better shape than some people seemed to be. The girl sitting next to me in the hospitality room hadn't brought a single resume with her. Luckily, ISS had set up computer stations, printers, and a copy machine for everyone to use, along with a collection of Post-It notes, paper clips, and pens. On the other hand, some people had submitted full portfolios filled with god-knows-what to schools and were sitting around at tables writing personalized notes to princepals.

Each candidate and each school had a "mailbox" which was really a file folder in a crate. In mine, I found a welcome letter and a form from the American Creativity Institute (or something) of Kuwait informing me that they'd like to interview me. I checked the thanks-but-no-thanks box and submitted it to them. Over the course of the next 24 hours, I was to receive about 10 other offers for interviews, none of which came from schools I'd contacted (mostly places in the Middle East and South America which, I assumed, were desperate).

I put several introductory notes and resumes into file folders for schools in Lebanon, Turkey, Switzerland, India, and Belgium. Of course the position for the school in Belgium had already been filled, which I discovered five minutes later when I attended their information session, and the positions at the schools in Switzerland didn’t last long either. There seemed to be lots of openings for science and math teachers – consistent with demand in the US – and high school counselors, but there weren't many for English teachers.

Beirut

By the end of the first day, I realized that there were really only one or two schools I was all that interested in, and I discovered on Tuesday morning during interview sign-ups that one of the jobs, a middle school position in Beirut, had been offered to another candidate several days before the conference began and they were awaiting a reply. I interviewed with them anyway, just in case, and with another school in Beirut that I thought might be interesting but turned out to be only so-so.

Many of the other candidates here have brough attitudes very different from mine. They talk about "casting their nets wide" and talk excitedly about the stress of the conference. When I arrived on Tuesday morning to sign up for interviews, which were to start at 8:00, there was already a line about 200 people deep made up of teachers who looked ready to claw their way to their first-choice school's table regardless of who may be maimed/killed along the way. I would be delighted to land a job at this school in Beirut. I'd be equally delighted to end up in New York for another year. I'm not desperate to be hired and haven't cast my net at all; I guess I've dropped a hook more than anything, and I won't be terribly upset if no one bites. It's a nice way to look for employment, I must say.

Lusaka

At 4:00 P.M. on the second day of the conference, here is where I stand: My first choice school, the American Community at Beirut, will contact me for another intervew (the princepal told me he was "very interested in a second conversation") should the teacher they've contacted turn down the job. I should hear from them sometime today or tomorrow morning, as well as from the other school in Beirut that I'm not terribly intrigued by. Another school, in Lusaka, Zambia, may also contact me for an interview. While I would love to be in Africa, I've heard that Lusaka isn't too great, and while I'd love to learn more about it I'm not head over heels for the prospect yet.