Have International School Experience In Bkk And Can't Find A Job?

[Wingman1]

I have teaching experience now here in Bangkok at a well known international school. However I am looking for a new position now as they are laying some people off it seems (I was given the heads up along with some other folks). It seem enrollment at the school has dropped among other things. I am a qualified, experienced teacher.

My problem is I have been sending resumes everywhere and am getting no responses. Ajarn.com, Craigslist everything. Nothing. Anyone have any insights into why this may be and can anyone point me in the right direction in terms of where to look for a new position? I want to make good money of course but the work permit and visa is very important to me to have handled as well. Thank you.

[alyx]

Hey

You are talking about sending resumés

I guess you are sending them to International schools as well?

Why don't you go directly to these schools and try to get to see the Dean?

[tonititan]

What kind of teacher are you? And what kind of teaching job are you looking for - ESL or a homeroom/subject teacher?

You say that you are qualified - does that mean that you have teacher certification from your home country? If you're looking for that type of teaching job at another well known international school, the problem could be that most have done all their hiring already, and many don't like to hire from within Thailand.

[Ijustwannateach]

If you'd worked for a REAL international school in Bangkok- and by that I'm talking ISB, NIST, Bangkok Pattana, etc.- you would already know that such places hire through an international placement service which handles the vetting of credentials. No way they touch a place like Ajarn even with a radiation suit on, and they wouldn't solicit through these kinds of expat websites- as Tonititan says, they don't really want local hires and will only take them (no matter what the credentials) in desperation and also at a benefit disadvantage to the hiree compared to other employees. Furthermore, these places have no problems filling student slots- more typically there are waiting lists to get in- and I doubt they are having layoffs.

So my guess that you've worked for some apparently ill-managed 'international' school or program in the style of S*** 'International' in Rangsit or W**** 'International' in Phra Khanong, etc. (or in one of the international programmes associated with one of the hideous private Christian education-like businesses). The quality of these types of places varies widely and generally is not at the top end; teachers tend to be either high-functioning non-native speakers or relatively poorly-qualified native speakers. Your complaints about the paperwork back up my suspicions, because these are also the worst places for getting the paperwork done (mainly because they don't fit all the ministry requirements). Some of them aren't even properly accredited by *any*one.

Furthermore, if you've *just now* been let go, I'd give your school as hard a time about severance as possible, because this is really the worst time now- if you haven't already got a school job- to be searching. Most schools seek to have the full roster by March or April, when they know teachers will be going off on holidays.

There's a chance there will be some desperation hiring shortly as teachers who are fed up with the nonsense fail to come back from holidays- so don't give up yet- but if there was some indication you'd be losing your job now, you should've been pounding the pavement back in March. I have no false hope to offer you.

[Scott]

As IJWT has stated, it's a bad time to be looking for work. However, there are some teachers who did sign contracts, but won't return because of the political problem. No idea the exact effect of this on hiring, but these would be for native speakers.

With teaching experience, you should be able to find something, but the wages may not be what you are accustomed to.

Best of luck.

[jackdawson]

didn't u get the memo ?

there are NO jobs ; teaching english in BKK is just so last year...

[dsprtliving]

You may want to consider going out to the ISAT website and manually going through their member list of school websites. It will take some time, but most schools will having links on their sites to let you know if they are currently seeking new staff or not. Unfortunately though, I must agree with IJWT and say you may have missed the boat already. Most of the big schools that pay good salaries have already completed their recruitment months ago, but you may just get lucky if you search hard enough. Our school head went over to the U.K. back in February to a hiring fair and all our new staff coming in are a result of it. Unfortunately, local hires are a second choice and/or a last resort for most schools. Good luck though, as you never know till you start looking!