Candidates

ESSENTIAL SELF SCREENING CHECKLIST

This check-list designed to help prospective candidates determine their level of competitiveness in seeking teaching or administrative positions in American, British, or other international schools. We strongly encourage you to complete this check-list before making application with Search Associates. PLEASE ANSWER YES OR NO TO EACH QUESTION.

1. Do you have at least a BA degree or a Diploma of Teaching -- or recognized equivalent -- from a college or university, preferably in the US, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand?

Answer Yes No

2. Do you have a valid teaching credential, preferably from the US, Canada, UK, Australia or NZ, OR -- in lieu of a teaching credential -- do you have significant career classroom experience in a recognized elementary or secondary inde pendent school?

Answer Yes No

3. Do you have -- with or without a teaching credential -- two years of full time experience in a recognized independent, parochial, or public school in one of the above countries?

If you answered "YES" to at least two of the three questions above, please continue with the checklist. If NOT, you may wish to explore the possibility described in the next paragraph, or you may wish to consider our Intern Program as described in our website.

There are some schools, mainly in Central and South America, or schools for host country nationals in the Middle East, that WILL accept and even welcome newly credentialed teachers -- or even a few recent graduates who are non-credenti aled -- with little or no experience. The Recruitment Fair in Bethesda is the best Search Associates fair for teachers just entering the profession to find such a position. If you believe you may be a suitable candidate for such a positio n, please continue.

4. Have your supervisors consistently rated you as being very good to excellent?

5. Is your family status secure and stable?

6. Are you either a single teacher without dependents OR a married teacher with a teaching spouse?

Answer Yes No

7. Do you have FEWER than three dependents who would accompany you overseas?

Answer Yes No

8. If you have children, are they good students without any special education needs?

9. Are you (and your dependents) in excellent health?

10. Have you taught in an American/overseas or international school? (This does NOT include work in a language school or in a school exclusively for host country nationals.)

11. Is your area of expertise one which is in demand?

12. Are you willing to become heavily involved in extra-curricular activities?

13. Do you speak a foreign language and have you traveled abroad?

14. Are you flexible about where you will go?

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If you answered "yes" to most of the above questions, and if you interview well, you will probably be a competitive candidate in our program, and we invite you to begin the registration process with Search Associates.

If you were unable to answer "yes" to most questions, we suggest you delay application until you are competitive with others in our overseas placement program.

The "check-list" you have just completed was devised by Search Associates and is based on many years experience in staffing international schools. Below, you will find some of the rationale used in building the above questions. The n umbers correspond to the numbers of the questions in the check list.

1. --- Few, if any, schools will hire teachers unless they have completed a BA or BS degree or its equivalent.

2. --- While not all schools require a valid teaching credential, many do; thus, having a teaching credential will enhance your competitiveness.

3. --- Most overseas administrators are looking for teachers or administrators who are currently doing what they will be expected to do overseas. In most cases university level teaching, tutoring, and substitute teaching are not seen as equivalent to full time regular K-12 classroom commitments.

4. --- In most grade and subject positions there are more qualified candidates and many more applications than there are vacancies. Candidates attending a given job fair -- and most vacancies are filled via job fairs -- are competing not only with other candidates at the same fair, but with those attending other fairs as well.

5-9 --- Overseas schools seek stability in their internationally recruited staff members. Candidates who are separated from their spouses, have teenagers whom they would leave at home, etc., are perceived by some recruiters to present higher risk than those who are comfortably single or those who have been happily married for some time.

Most overseas school academic programs are superior to U.S. public schools' academic programs, and candidates with children requiring any kind of special education should be aware that most of these schools do not offer provisions for children who have serious academic, behavioral or emotional problems.

While almost all schools will hire single teachers without dependents, many prefer to hire teaching couples. Overseas schools have exceptional expenses, such as airfares, shipping, relocation and, in most cases, housing provision s; the more dependents, the more expensive the teacher becomes. A general rule is "the more dependents, the less likely a job offer". There are, of course, exceptions to that -- but not many.

While all schools have sick leave policies to allow for the occasional absence, 99% attendance from their staffs is the expected norm. (Substitute teachers are often difficult or impossible to find.) In addition, schools in under-developed countries may not have adequate health care available. YOU SHOULD NOT PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER IF YOU HAVE A CONDITION WHICH MAY REQUIRE EMERGENCY OR SPECIALIZED TREATMENT.

10. --- A background in international school teaching will make a good candidate even more desirable.

11. --- Generally speaking, the teaching specialties in demand in the U.S. are the same as in demand overseas. Early childhood and elementary teachers are always needed. Biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics teachers are usually in great demand at job fairs. Librarians, music teachers, counselors, PE and computer teachers will probably find themselves quite competitive. On the other hand, vocational specialties are in low demand as are teachers of handicapped children. More recently, however, there has been a demand for those trained as LD and reading specialists.

12. --- All schools want and expect their teachers to work with students after school and look for candidates who have demonstrated such involvement through coaching sports, directing plays, leading musical groups, editing yearbooks, or ganizing camping trips, working with youth groups, etc. It is fair to say that versatility may be the single greatest attraction in an overseas candidate. Workaholics are most welcome!

13. --- Surprisingly, these are generally NOT important considerations for recruiters hiring candidates, although fluency in the host country language is always helpful and, in the case of some bilingual schools, necessary.

14. --- Candidates who are only willing to go to "Europe only", for example, greatly diminish their chances of placement. Candidates willing to go almost anywhere greatly improve their chances of placement. Unless there are truly compelling reasons for a self-imposed geographic restriction, it is unlikely that Search Associates will accept a candidate with a "one-country", or even a "one-region" restriction.

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It would be best to review the entire application before filling it out, to make sure you have at hand all the information you will need in order to complete it. ( For example,you will need contact information for your references ) Please promptly inform us by separate e-mail when you have completed the on line application --IN ADDITION TO THE AUTOMATIC E-MAIL RESPONSE-- and we will respond once we receive both this form AND your separate e-mail message. SEND NO E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS, PLEASE!!!!