As we told the world a few months back, (and frankly one of the sole purposes for starting this blog) we have left our life in the United States for international school jobs.  A few months in, the results have been a mostly positive.  We both feel less stressed; we have been able to travel a bit; and most importantly, have been able to save just about as much in 4 months as one of us saved in 4 years teaching in Florida!

Since we both have educator friends, as well as others we don’t know, that may want to emulate our experiences, perhaps we can shed a bit of light about the process. 

International school jobs tend to be hit-or miss.  You have many reputable ones but also many for-profit schools with unscrupulous owners.  In order to help, here is a 5 step-process to help land a great international school job!

#1 Fit the Profile

Many international schools have a preference when hiring.  Ideally, they would like to hire teaching couples.  This provides the school with more stability and it helps them save money when it comes to housing.  After teaching couples, international schools look for singles.

They tend to pick teachers with non-teaching spouses last.  Why?  Well, if you are a teacher with a non-teaching spouse, what would they do all day?  Living internationally can be lonely if you stay at home all day.  It can also be difficult financially on only one salary.

If you do have a non-teaching spouse there are a couple of options:

A. Work remotely: Many jobs allow people to work from home.  If this is a job your non-teaching spouse can do, make sure you make it clear in your cover letter.

B. Try to get a teaching certificate: Perhaps the easiest avenue may be to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) certificate.  Many people around the world want to learn English.

Finally a word about kids.  Many schools provide free education for only one child per person. (i.e. a teaching couple would get free education for two children). Some schools offer education for two children regardless of who works there.  There is the odd school here and there that offer education for more.

What that means is that if you have more than two children, expect to shell out a lot of money for school!

#2. Have the experience

Usually, the minimum requirement for international school jobs is 2 years of teaching experience.  Usually, that is the minimum requirement, but many school will not hire teachers unless they have certain experiences.  Most international schools prefer teachers that already have teaching experience (I realize that this may seem like a catch-22). This is because international schools want to make sure that people won’t get homesick or flake out.

Many schools follow one of the International Baccalaureate Programmes (Diploma, Middle Years, or Primary Years).  These provide a consistent standard that leads to an externally awarded certificate (at the Diploma level). For Americans, the Diploma programme is similar to Advanced Placement (AP) classes.

Some international schools follow AP, while others are British curriculum schools (IGCSE and A-level), but IB seems to be gaining more traction every year.

We are lucky that we are both IB-trained and both have experience being examiners (we marks the tests for the IB that students take every year). These experiences have definitely helped separate us from other teaching couples out there.

#3 Do the research

When researching schools you should always try and do research about individual schools.  We recommend that you sign up to a teacher review site.  These sites usually give the basics about a school: how good the administration is; what it is like to live in the area; housing; cost of living, etc.  There are two websites that are pretty good.

The first is International Schools Review.  The subscription is $29 per year.  There are reviews to 11,000 schools from all across the globe.  You do have to take these review with a grain of salt.  Most people willing to spend time to review a place usually doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say about it.  That being said, you can get a good overall impression of a school by reading multiple reviews.  These is also a helpful forum that you can use to ask questions about International School jobs.

The second website is International School Community.  The subscription is $30 for a year.  This has less schools reviewed but the comments seem to be less negative overall.

Join up and trek with us!

Join our mailing list to learn all of the latest news and info.

Trek with us!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

#4 Look for jobs

There are multiple avenues to look for jobs.  Some are free and others cost money

Free options

One way (although inefficient) is to go onto individual schools websites.  Every school will have an employment page where you can find up-to-date vacancies.

Another free option is TES (this is a British-based website although you may find other types of international schools on the site)

The Council of International Schools (COIS) offers a job fair and database.  This is an option mostly for International Schools in Europe (but not exclusively)

Pay options

One of the cheapest pay options is The International Educator (TIE).  A subscription costs $39 per year and gives you access to a job vacancy database.  It also allows you to upload your CV/Resume (We have never used this)

The option that we chose when looking for jobs has signing up to the recruiting agency Search Associates. Search has a huge database of schools (including information on salaries and benefits).  For $225 you get access for 3 years to the database (or until you get a job) and you get a free invite to one of their job fairs.  We did not go to a job fair, but they are an interesting experience and many schools like to meet candidates face-to-face before hiring them.

The other major recruiting firm is International School Services (ISS).  Like Search, ISS costs a bit of money ($195 for two years).  I don’t have any personal experience with this agency, but I have a friend who has and she speaks highly of it.

#5 Network, network, network

Networking is probably important in any job field.  Teaching is no other.  There are quite a few Facebook groups (both particular subjects and general) that you can become a member of.  There are also numerous International School conferences worldwide.  The IB has regional conferences that you can attend throughout the world.  It never hurts to make your name known worldwide.

International teaching is a very small world.  It seems like at every school you know someone who has worked with one of your former colleagues.

International Teachers.  How did you get your current position? Is anyone interested in finding out more about international school jobs? Please post in the comments below.