First Contact Plus - an Advanced Strategy for Landing the Perfect Teaching Job

If you have read any of the lenses I have written prior to this, or The Complete Guide to Securing a Job at an International School, you will know I'm a proponent of spreading yourself around in order to secure a teaching position in an international school. This is the approach that I have used successfully and I still believe it is an excellent strategy for kicking off your international teaching career. However, I thought I'd better write an article on strategies for educators who are looking for their second or third overseas teaching position. Those international educators with some overseas work experience under their wing may choose to use this longer-term strategy to secure their next teaching position.

Once you've been working in the international education sector for a while, you'll soon come to realise there are international schools and then there are 'international schools'. Some international schools are international in name only, some schools have student bodies that are populated heavily with the children of privileged, local families, so that you end up teaching in what is essentially an English Speaking School.

Teachers love to talk! In fact, one of the reasons I accepted the position I currently hold is because teachers I met at the international teaching job fair I attended recommended the school to me. I now keep a list of schools that have great reputations, and another list of schools that I know I definitely don't want to work in. I base my list on what I've heard from teachers that I work with or meet at professional development events.

Once you have identified which schools will suit your needs by talking to colleagues, peers and doing some research, you'll need a strategy for landing a great teaching position with them.

I have dubbed this strategy 'First Contact Plus' because the first contact you make with a school you want to work for may not result in employment being offered. The key to this strategy is persistence and making yourself known.

This strategy comes into its own when you do not have a fixed time-frame in which you need to see results. It might take years for this strategy to pay off. I know of one colleague who has been using this strategy to woo a particularly desirable school for several years, and only this year have there been any real rewards.

How does the strategy work? Well, it starts by you sending your application pack to the recruiter in question when the recruiting season starts. Do not wait for your desired school to post vacancies. You are not applying for a job, what you are trying to do is become known to the recruiter. You do not include a letter of application with your pack, you write a personalised letter of introduction.

Follow this up with a phone call a week later, asking the recruiter if they received your application pack and making enquiries about the school's recruitment process. Should be a vacancy that would suit your credentials and experience, press for an interview

If you should attend an international teacher recruitment fair that season, introduce yourself personally to the recruiter attending the fair to represent your favoured school. You must introduce yourself regardless of whether there is a position open that you could fill, or not. When you meet the recruiter, remind them about yourself and offer your regrets that there is not a suitable vacancy this season that you could fill. Clearly let the recruiter know that you find the idea of working at their school desirable and ask if you can stay in touch with the view to seeking employment in the future. When you get their permission to stay in touch you can email them without it being considered SPAM.

Spice up your cover letter with your own personalised professional-looking letterhead.

This step-by-step video tutorial will show you everything you need to know in under 10 minutes!

Your application pack is the best example of what you can do. It should be packed full of information about you, your teaching philosophy, your goals and examples of your students work.

For more detailed information on what to include, get my book The Complete Guide to Securing a Job at an International School.

To fully take advantage of the First Contact Plus Strategy, you need to include all the material I mention in my book, and all of your most recent accomplishments and professional development.

Once you have made contact with the recruiter you need to remain in the front of their mind. Be warned, this does not mean stalking the recruiter, but rather building a relationship with them so that you are at the top of the list when a suitable vacancy eventuates. Each season send your application pack to the recruiter, send them Christmas cards if appropriate, let them know of any professional development, positions of responsibility or other additions to your resume. Whenever you are attending a recruitment event, meet and greet the recruiter in person. If you are holidaying near the school when they are in session, then request to visit.

You can see why this is an advanced, long-term strategy for landing the perfect job teaching overseas. It takes some effort and you will need to have access to the job fairs etc. However, the results can be well-worth the effort you put into it. First Contact Plus is a strategy that puts a spin on a marketing strategy called 'relationship marketing' where companies attempt to build a sustainable competitive advantage by nurturing a relationship with suppliers and customers alike.

When you read teaching vacancy advertisements. Don't assume that you won't get the job just because they're asking for applicants with a Master's Degree and you don't have one.

'Nothing ventured, nothing gained' is the response I got when I asked about this in the interview. Regardless of whether you exactly match what the school is asking for, you should submit your application pack. International schools are looking for great teachers, and that doesn't always mean years spent getting academic qualifications!

You can check out this interview and 7 more in Overseas Teachers Talk - an Interview Series with International Teachers.

Currently there is a shortage of experienced teachers to fill key jobs in the United Kingdom. This could be your opportunity to springboard your teaching career into the international school sector.

If you are looking at getting yourself a teaching job abroad at an international school but have not yet been able to land a contract, you could sneak your way in through the back door.

In nearly every country in the world you can find an international school that offers the British National Curriculum. All of these schools are looking for teachers with recent experience teaching in the UK.

With recent experience teaching the British examination courses for GCSE (Grade 9) and A-Levels (Grade 12), you will have a resume that recruiters for British schools will be very interested in and they will be lining up to interview you. The same follows for elementary school teachers who are familiar with the key stages set out in the UK National Curriculum.

Search Associates, one of the largest recruitment organisations dealing with international schools even has a separate branch that specialises in placing teachers with UK experience in British International schools.

I recently interviewed an American teacher who launched her career in international schools after a year spent teaching the British National Curriculum at a grammar school just west of London. Since then she has gone on to teach in 3 international schools in 2 countries that offered the UK curriculum. She has now spent more time teaching the British curriculum than the American one she originally trained for!

Teaching in the UK has many benefits, it can be a clever way to ease yourself into living and working overseas. Even though it is a country that may seem quite similar to your own and they may speak the same language as you, you will experience culture shock, and hopefully enjoy learning its eccentricities.

Additionally, while you are in the UK acquiring the experience to launch yourself into international school teaching, you can take advantage of the UK's proximity to Europe and the plethora of low-cost airlines that have sprung up in recent years.

When you are ready to apply for your first international school teaching position you will be able to attend one or more of the job fairs run by Search Associates and ECIS and held in London each year. Many international schools interested in employing educators with UK experience attend these job fairs in London.

When I attended a job fair in London, after teaching in the UK for three years, I had 13 schools wanting to interview me. I could have got a teaching job in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Qatar, France, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong or Thailand. I chose Thailand and I've been here for 3 years now.

You can check out what vacancies there are in British schools right now by searching for jobs in your specialism on the TES Jobs website. This is the one stop shop for all vacancies in England. You can also find a definitive list of jobs in international schools in their database as well!

For visa requirements, check out the website for the British Embassy in your country. If you are a young teacher, make sure you look to see if the UK offers working holiday visas to people in your country, you can apply for one of those without having to get a job first. If you already have a visa you are going to be even more attractive to school principals!