The Job Fair

It is almost midnight as I am writing this and I have to teach tomorrow.  I have had almost no sleep this weekend due to attending a very large job fair for international teachers, and recruiters of international teachers, in Canada this weekend.  And it was exhausting, but don't worry, this story has a happy ending.

Let me first say that if you have never attended a three day job fair event, you should be grateful (and hope everyday that you can avoid it).  This was singularly exhausting; emotionally and physically, but I will get into that a bit later.

So here is how this whole fair business works.  You first have to be invited to the fair by the company that I am working with (it is a service that matches well-vetted schools with North American teachers who wish to teach abroad).  The fair in which you are invited to depends largely on the amount and quality of experience and certification/education.

For example, there was a fair happening in the states on the following weekend, but it was going to feature candidates who had 10 years of overseas teaching experience, and schools looking for teachers with that experience.  I have my bachelors and my masters in teaching, as well as certification from New York State, but only 2 years of full time teaching experience (I can, and have, stretched this to include graduate school assistantships, but if I am totally honest, its about 2 years).

So after some debate with the coordinator working with me, she sent me to a slightly smaller fair.  The only issue with this fair is that there were only 4-5 schools I was interested in, and a heck of a lot of the schools attending were in Kuwait.  As you can imagine, I (and every other American who have their news spoon-fed to them in CNN) had some reservations about Kuwait--and the rest of the Middle East (schools from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain were also present).

After receiving the invite, you've got some work to do on researching these schools.  You gotta look at salary and benefits, savings, allowances, student population, student teacher ratio, info about the schools...and not to mention the particulars of the country you are considering entering.  It's a lot to start researching!

Once you arrive at the fair--beginning at noon--you register, are given hard copies of the itinerary, school information, and FAQs about the fair (digital copies were emailed weeks prior).  You then enter the Room of Nervous and Hopeful Congregation.  This is where all the candidates looking for a job are corralled when they are not watching presentations or being interviewed.  People gather and start to feel each other out: had you taught overseas before?  Where?  What was it like (and how does it compare to my own experience)? What are you looking for next?  You begin to share war stories, give advice about regions, gush over what you loved, etc.  It was both nice to be around people who had taught and lived abroad, but also a reminder that sometimes we tend to get a bit carried away in large groups.   As you are networking and making connections with people who could help you later in your career (exchanging business cards and emails) you also begin to scope out the competition.  Who is also looking for the same positions at the same school as you are?  At this particular fair, it was pretty easy to get to know who was after what and where.

During this first day, several of the schools were presenting information about their school and their campus.  You could choose to attend these about schools you were interested in, although I found them to be basically opportunities to ask questions in a less formal setting, so you could arm yourself with some information before getting into that interview room.  Starting at 2:00, the most recent and up to date postings for available positions at each school could be found in a medium sized banquet hall, and candidates were encouraged to go and look at what was available.   At 6:00 was the candidate orientation, immediately followed by interview sign up.

This is by far the worst part of the fair.  You have about 90 seconds to get the recruiter to find value in you and your experience, and about another minute or so to impress them with your CV if you were not immediately turned away.  One school I struck out on without even being able to hand him my CV, another two schools talked with me briefly, took my CV, but no interview.  Another school had a very in depth conversation with me, took my CV, but again, no interview.  One school recognized me from my photo on the my CV and explained that the school would be interested in me, but due to the restrictions placed on international schools by the national governments, I would not likely be able to get a visa; I needed to have two years teaching experience in the subject and age range that I would be being hired to teach for.  So, for example, I have two years teaching experience, but it is for university students and for EFL.  I only have 6 months teaching experience in the exact subject matter they would be hiring me for, making me likely to be ineligible for that visa (although some countries are less strict about this than others, and national schools--schools belonging to that country--are not subject to these rules). 

So at this point I had been talking to schools for about 30 minutes, and have so far struck out in terms of securing an interview, when I pass a table for a school in Bahrain.  Now, I had no driving desire to live and work in the Middle East, but other than the usual security anxieties, no real reason against living and working there (although I knew I would not live in Kuwait, so I did not even bother with the schools from there).  And I had heard fairly positive things about Bahrain from both the candidates at the fair who'd been there, traveled there, were born there, etc, as well as positive information from other sources.  And hey, there are no travel warnings for Bahrain.

So I stopped by the table, sat down; we went over my CV and just as I was resigning myself from considering the fair to be valuable only as an opportunity to network, I got that interview.  I then returned to the candidate holding cell, which after the interview sign up feels more like the Room of Doubt and Extremes of Emotion to talk a bit about Bahrain with the other candidates.  I went back to my hotel shortly thereafter to go to sleep (I left home that morning at 5:30, and it was now after 10:00pm) and prep for this interview!   The next day I arrived early, both to attend a few more presentations and to check to see if any of those other schools who took my CV had fulfilled their promise to schedule an interview; they didn't.  I went to my interview and with exception of stumbling over the question asking me how much I knew about Bahrain (because I don't know that much!), I killed that interview--or at least I think I did.  But I told myself I was not expecting anything out of it, and since I hadn't really considered Bahrain before, I couldn't be really sad if I didn't get the job, right?  You can't regret something you didn't anticipate, am I right?

I went to lunch with my dad (who came along for the journey) and then attended a reception at 8:00 that evening, where I looked for my interviewer, but did not find him.  I wined and cheesed with the other candidates and networked some more and then went back to my hotel--another really long day!
Well, I went back to my hotel room that night, telling my dad that we could have a leisurely day on Sunday.  I would swing by the fair location, check my mailbox just to be sure, and tell the fair coordinators that I was leaving.  Well, I opened my email at 7:00 the next morning to find an offer for a job at the school I'd interviewed with, and as per the fair coordinators rules, I had 24 hours to make a decision.

Well, I went back to the fair, spoke with the man who interviewed me, went over the job offer, asked him tons of questions and received tons of information, told him I was interested but need to "consider other offers" (ha).  I talked with the people from the company to ask them bunches of questions about Bahrain as well, in the room that is now more like the Room of Disguising Emotions (some where happy but trying not to rub it in and others were disappointed but trying not to show it).

So then I had a 5 hour drive back home to hash it out--Dad loved that back and forth monologue--and a few hours to discuss it with people. On the rare occasion I let him talk, he had good advice: "It's the experience you need to get closer to what you want.  And teaching abroad is what you're about, right?"  Mom's advice was "not to talk to too many people, Rach, because they will just confuse you; just go." Solid advice from Mom and Dad despite their considerable reservations about the country and the region I would be headed to for two years.  I did talk to a few people, my trusted sounding board for life decisions, made some lists of pros and cons, and at about midnight I emailed the school back officially accepting a two year post in Bahrain.  I am nervous, but also pretty stoked; kinda like I was pre-China.

Go. Me.




Oh, and a disclaimer: I will still be posting about China.  First, because I still have a lot I want to write about China; it was almost two years of my life! Secondly, because I will not be leaving for Bahrain for another 8 months (but I'll keep updating on that process).