How to Find the International K-12 Teaching Job You Desire

By Charlotte Baird

As someone who has recently made the enormous leap all the way from UK teaching to international teaching in the tiny sultanate of Brunei I find it interesting to retrospectively read the endless questions cluttering expat and education forums across the Internet, such as, “Where do I start when it comes to finding a job in an international school?” I think the most important place to start is by asking oneself the fundamental question, “Why do I want to teach internationally in the first place?”

In my case, I was eager to spend this period of my life on a continent where I had started to fall head over heels in wanderlust. I had a shortlist of countries firmly etched in my own mind. South East Asia it had to be. Having taught EFL in China — both north and south — 18 months previously, I had enjoyed the opportunity to travel around Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and some of China itself. I knew that I could live comfortably in any one of those countries, and that was one of the most important factors when considering a minimum 2-year contract — which is the most minor commitment that most international schools will usually accept — while uprooting my life to venture to the other side of the world. The last thing I wanted was to feel trapped in my chosen country during my stay.

Take Nothing for Granted as a Teacher

One lesson learned from previous TEFL experiences is how surprisingly easy it is to take things for granted while in your home country. Going to withdraw money and finding out that the banks are shut when you expect them to be open, or being forced to watch helplessly as a Chinese hairdresser grins inanely at you and starts thinning your already thin hair while looking totally bemused by the crazy foreigner jabbering away in a totally unfamiliar tongue, can seem like a disaster of epic proportions when you are so far away from home. Another lesson taken from my TEFL experience was to try to maximize my earnings capacity. After researching the possibilities for such a future career and talking to several expats in Beijing earning at least three times my salary teaching in American, British, or International curriculum schools, I returned to university. I completed a year-long post-graduate qualification for teaching in a primary school to students grades one through six.

Having edited my final draft of preferred countries to work in for my first job teaching an international curriculum, it seems somewhat ironic that my first foray into the expat scene has taken me to a country that I had never set foot in and until relatively recently, could not have pinpointed with total accuracy on a map. I like to think I was slightly better informed than some of my close friends and family, most of whom were convinced that Brunei lay somewhere off the coast of Dubai and reached for an atlas, wearing a somewhat skeptical expression, when I told them that in fact, it is on the island of Borneo, some three and a half thousand miles further east of Dubai.

Be Flexible

This leads neatly to my second piece of advice: be flexible. I began searching for international teaching positions, convinced that finding a job at a British curriculum school in Vietnam was the only possibility I would be entirely happy with. However, when I started actively researching the available positions, I realized that this limited my options. Add to that that my husband and I were looking for two jobs in the same school, one teaching elementary and one teaching high school design technology, and finding two positions that we could even apply for matching our exacting requirements proved nearly impossible. Even though I initially did not wish to commit two years of my life to a country I had never visited, Brunei seemed like a calculated and minimal risk. After hours of searching the web — the patience and time to do so proved to be an invaluable tool when researching my move abroad — I was hard-pressed to find a negative word about Brunei, apart from the fact that it is a dry country and therefore nightlife is of the “do it yourself” variety.

The Importance of Money to You

If money is a primary motivator and location is firmly on the back burner, look towards the regions less popular with the budget traveler. The Middle East has a reputation on the expat circuit for paying higher salaries in general than Asia — comparable to the UK — and a quick search on the Internet will give you an idea of what to expect. Every region has schools with high salaries, but I would be amazed if any continent did not also have its fair share of disreputable or unreliable institutions. A big salary is useless if you are not paid on time, or at all, or if promised benefits fail to materialize. Although, thankfully, I do not have any personal experience with such dishonest schools, a search on the web will turn up more than a few horror stories under the general heading of, “Don’t touch these schools with a barge pole.”

Once you have found a school with a salary suiting your requirements, take a close look at the cost of living for an expat in that country. Many countries have — often unofficially — 2-tier pricing systems in place, and an expat in Asia can rarely live on anything near the same income as a local, however frugal they may be. The salary offered by a school is usually reflective to some degree of the cost of living in that country, as most people looking to make a big move abroad will not leave their current situation if there is any risk of being worse off financially. Look at how much it will cost you to live comfortably, and then add a financial safety net of 25% to allow for discrepancies in individual lifestyle choices. An idea of the cost of living in any country can be found in most guidebooks and their websites, or when you are lucky enough to start progressing through the interview process, you may ask the school directly. My school provided an itemized shopping list for all new staff before they were asked to accept the job offer regarding the cost of mosquito coils and cans of baked beans.

Adapt Your Expectations

Finally, be prepared to adapt your expectations. Most International schools will hire and interview candidates from all countries, even if they have not taught their curriculum before, so look at the demographic of the staff and students to get an idea of the nationalities a given school prefers to hire before you apply. The key to a successful interview in an area with which you are unfamiliar is to do your research and see how your skills and qualifications match those for which they are asking. The International Baccalaureate, which covers ages 3-19, is not affiliated with any particular country, so individuals of most nationalities are able or likely to be hired by IB schools — depending upon the schools’ individual requirements. You may even have the chance to expand your resume and gain valuable professional development, enhancing any future job applications. Remember, your first international job may be so fabulous that you may stay there for the next 20 years or be a stepping stone to other opportunities. I have come across both types of expats on the circuit so far. The possibilities are almost endless as long as you are prepared to take a calculated risk, research thoroughly, and plunge into the process with an open mind.