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Applying for a new job can be an exhausting, daunting and time-consuming undertaking… The international school recruitment season is an emotional rollercoaster – taking a different turn every day as new vacancies are published in exotic locations. That great position you are looking for could come up at any time of the year, so there’s always a chance of something good! You will make multiple applications and hear back from only a few. Unlucky candidates, unfortunately, will hear back from none at all. We do try to encourage schools we work with to respond to all applicants, but some just don’t have the resources to cope with the volume of applications they receive. Others don’t have the best practices in human resources, and it can leave candidates feeling like applications have just “vanished” into the ether. It’s important to persevere, to stay focussed and to keep at it. If we’ve registered you, you are a good candidate. Something will come up…
There’s no getting around it. If you want to take the recruitment season seriously, and conscientiously look for a great new job, you are going to have to invest a lot of time and effort in the process. Your letter of application is your introduction. It will probably be the first thing a recruiter sees and reads about you and is therefore their “first impression” of you. First impressions are important!
Letters of application should be no longer than one side of A4 paper long at font size 11 or 12. Shorter is better. More is overkill and will possibly put a recruiter off before (s)he has started. Remember that a recruiter will be ploughing through tens (if not hundreds) of applications for each vacancy. Yours has to stand out, be easy to read and immediately demonstrate that you are an excellent candidate for the position.
Your letter of application should be tailormade for the school to which you are applying. Of course, each letter you send will contain much of the same information and you will “cut and paste” large sections of one letter into another. But each should contain something relevant to the school and position to which you are applying.
For this reason it must be well-worded, highlight why you are a great candidate for the job and be grammatically correct. Essentially it is a “sales pitch”. Your application letter must leave a recruiter wanting to know more about you, view your file and read your references.
Most schools will have more than one vacancy each year so it is important to state clearly at the top of the letter which position it is that you are applying for. Address the letter to the Head of School. Do not start your letter with “Dear Recruiter”. Starting with “Dear Recruiter” shows that your letter is probably one of many that you have copied and pasted onto multiple applications to save time. That’s not the first message you want to send to a recruiter about the type of employee you will be! Please be clear it was a vacancy that you found through Search Associates.
Paragraphs 1 (and 2 if necessary) should contain the essential information about who you are, your relevant skill set and things you are proficient at. It should introduce you as a practitioner and say a little about your pedagogy. Be sure that what you say here is a match for what the school is looking for. You should have already read a job description (if one is available) or looked carefully through the school website and use some of the key words or language that they use to describe themselves. This shows clearly that it might be a “match”. Schools will often have hundreds of good applicants. They are looking for the best “fit”, so using their language (obviously not too much) shows not only that you’ve done some research, but also that you could easily integrate into their team.
If you have no PYP experience and are applying for a PYP vacancy, then use the PYP language in your letter to show that your values align. Highlight your inquiry-based experience, collaborative approach, child-centred pedagogy and use words from the IB Learner Profile. If you are applying for an IB job, and have IB experience already, be clear to point this out in your letter of application.
In the following paragraph say something about how your values / experience / pedagogy align with the values / pedagogy / vision / Strategic Plan of the school to which you are applying. Here’s where you tailor your letter. Show clearly that you are the “fit” they might be looking for!
In the final paragraph or two, summarise your experience, don’t forget to mention things like after-school activities you are involved with and would like to contribute towards in your next school as this is a big part of international education.
Your last (or first) paragraph should invite a recruiter to view your file and references on our database. You should state clearly that you are available for and would be pleased to interview at the recruiter’s convenience and then sign off…
Remember, an application commits you to nothing at all. It is simply the start of what might be a long, two-way process (you’ll be interviewing the school as much as they’ll be interviewing you to decide whether it is the right “fit” for both of you). Be as open-minded as possible and send out as many applications as you can to any and all schools and jobs that might be of interest to you. Use the “Custom Selection” option in your Job Search menu to look for positions that you may be qualified to pursue, but have not placed in your “Seeking” requirements, or countries where great schools might be located but were not in your geographical preferences, as these jobs will not be “pushed out” to you.
If you are a first time-overseas applicant or even an older hand, please remember that just because you don’t have the specific curriculum experience of an American school, an IB school, a British school or any other for that matter, it does not mean you will not be an excellent candidate for the position. Good teachers are good teachers. Learning a new curriculum is often just a matter of picking up a few new acronyms, understanding the assessment criteria or processes, and picking up a bit of new pedagogy. Most recruiters will understand this, so really, the world is your oyster!
And don’t forget, we are here to help, advise and guide along the way. Don’t hesitate to reach out and we will do what we can to assist.
Happy Hunting!
