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| Here's the lovely room from my hotel room. |
Friday was the first day of the fair. I was up at my normal time (5:30), ate breakfast at the hotel and was over at the convention center by 7. I picked up my stuff in my folder (where schools communicate with you) and I had 12 yellow slips and about 8 brochures about some of the schools.
I was really overwhelmed; I never expected that many schools to be interested in me. I spent an hour writing down their information (some of them just gave me initials of their schools so I had to flip through my binder with the information and find them). Here's the countries that wanted to schedule an interview with me:
* Bahrain (2)
*Turkey
*Egypt
*China(3)
*Indonesia
*UAE
*Kuwait
*Venezuela
* Philippines
*Taiwan
I decided to accept all the interviews except for the ones from Bahrain, UAE, and Taiwan (it was a language school). 8-9:30 was our orientation. All 700 of us met and the organizer went over all the rules. Then we had a Q and A from some administrators and teachers. It was informative. Lunch was from 9:30-11. I got Subway and walked back to the hotel to try and get a grasp of the schools I was going to interview at. My phone also arrived (Yup! Silly me left my cell at home. Luckily, Mom overnighted it and I got it before the interviews. I would've been lost without it.)
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| The round robin in the convention center. Calm before the storm! |
11-1:30 was the round robin. All the schools has tables, which we received the layout in our orientation packet in our mail folders. We were advised to go to all the schools we got yellow invitation slips to and then work our way to the school we were also interested in. I got times for all 9 of the schools who sent me invitations and then I handed resumes to about a dozen more of schools I was interested. Shout out to Adrienne, who made me the most amazing resume! I got so many compliments on it. All the recruiters were impressed and were actually showing it around. So mad props to her.
My first interview was with a school in Venezuela. I was super nervous, but it actually went very well. It was a bit strange since the majority of the interviews were done in their hotel rooms. The convention center was connected to the Ramada Inn, where the recruiters stayed. There were chairs set up outside the rooms and we waited for them to get us. A lil awkward at first, but it quickly became the norm.
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| Lonely chairs... |
After Venezuela, I went to RB School in China. This was one of the schools that has contacted me before the fair. I really wanted to work there. The interview went amazing and I was really confident that I'd get an offer. I had a small break and then went to interview with AAG in Kuwait. It was more of a conversation than a interview, which was nice. It was here where the recruiter told me that I was in high demand, which surprised me. She said because I had 4 years teaching, I knew what I was doing, yet was still trainable and I was almost done with my Masters. I was flattered. She offered me a job right on the spot, and I asked to wait until Saturday when my interviews were done.
From there, I interviewed with a school outside of Shanghai in the round robin room. It also went really well and I was very impressed with the school. I liked that it was part of a sister school network, but was actually small in size. Then, I went back to the hotel where I interviewed for the Philippines. Another amazing interview and fantastical school. It soon became my top choice along with the school outside of Shanghai. My last interview was with a school in Egypt. I hadn't considered it even though I have always wanted to live in Egypt, but the interview went great. Both the recruiters said that I was the best candidate they'd seen and they wanted to know if I could Skype tomorrow with the principal. I accepted.
UNI had a cocktail party to smooze with recruiters. I grabbed some food while I finished writing my thank you letters and went back to the hotel. I got a call from RB offering me a position as a 1st grade teacher. While initially I was excited, I didn't feel like this school was the right place for me. I decided to sleep on it.
Day 2 began with an interview at 8:45 with a school in Jakarta. It was the most awkward interview I ever had. I felt pretty confident after having 6 interviews in a row. I tried to be as excited as I was, but the guy was really giving me nothing. He yammered on and on about how high their test scores are and how hard the kids work. He really hit this home by saying there wasn't a lot of room for creativity. I mentioned that this was completely opposite of how I teach. I was about ready to end the interview when he continued to talk and ask me questions. What really startled me was the answer to my questions. At every interview, I asked the same two questions because they tell me a lot about the school: What's the best thing about your school? What is something you'd like to improve? All of the other schools discussed the students, the community, the teachers, etc. He mentioned the best thing was the school's test scores. He began to repeat the same information again. I don't know, but somehow I don't think I'd like to work for a schools where the best thing is it's test scores.
I decided after the interview to cancel my Skype with the school in Egypt. I felt bad, but again, I wasn't feeling a call towards it.
At 10, I went to the Philippines presentation. It further hit on my desire to go there. The recruiter said hi to me and gave me a bag of mangos! Soooo yummy! He even asked when we were meeting. I mentioned that I hadn't received anything in my mailbox and he immediately set up a 2nd interview. I was thrilled! I had checked my mailbox previously before the Indonesia interview and I received a message from the school outside of Shanghai. They wanted to meet with me before I made my final decision.
I went to check with the school. I mentioned that my top choices were his school and the one in the Philippines. He said to come back after the interview with the Philippines. It was now that I started to freak out. I had to tell RB if I accepted their offer by 11:30. They were my 3rd choice, with Philippines and outside Shanghai. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to refuse them if they were my only offer. I tried call Mom, who didn't answer, which made me freak out even more. My friend Andrea said I could call her, but I decided to try and call my stepmom. Instead my Dad picked up and I talked through everything with him. He agreed that I should be honest and tell them I had 2 other interviews that I wanted to consider and that if they really wanted me, they'd wait. Mom called and she said the same. I called the school. They mentioned that they were interviewing someone for the position as well right now. I said that I understood if they couldn't wait for me. I felt so much pressure trying to figure out this situation. I didn't want to not accept the only offer I really wanted. However, once I told them, a huge weight lifted of my shoulder. I knew it was the right decision. Here's what I looked at while I made this decision:
1:30 I had an interview with another school in China. It went well and the superintendent really liked me. She said that she was going to find a position for me. I knew that this would be my third choice if I didn't get my top two.
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| Not many coats anymore. It was overflowing. |
By 4pm, many people had left, I have to assume, with jobs. I had my 2nd interview with the Philippines. It again went amazing and I LOVED the Head of School. He had the best British accent, which totally didn't affect my decision at all. Here's the sad part: He told me he wanted to hire me, but his hands were tied. He had 3 positions open: one was elementary and the other two were admin positions. He said that in most teaching couple, one is usually in elementary. He had to find someone to fill one of the admin position for him to be able to hire me. He was going onto Boston for another job fair and he knew that he needed to have that elementary position open to get one of those filled. He has an interview with someone later than night and hoped that she was amazing so he could hire me.
So, feeling sad but understanding where he was coming from, I went to my final meeting with the school outside of Shanghai. We did a lil more talking and then they offered me a contract! I was surprised and super excited. I got so much information on the school and saw lots of pictures. I definitely KNOW I made the right decision. I'll be teaching primary at the Hangzhou International School. The area is beautiful and it's going to be a fun, big change.
As I called and texted all my friends, I felt excited and like crying all the same time. All through the day, I kept thinking of the quote Jack Dawson said in Titanic, "Somebody's life's about to change." It happened. My life changed in a split second.
Sunday was pretty uneventful. I wanted around Waterloo and then the convention center. I looked in the room and saw my Head of School. Strangely, I ran into him all day. We sat waiting for the airport shuttle together and flew into Chicago together. Really great guy.
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| Where I was every day |
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| Ramada where all the interviews were |
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| First table is my school and the Head of School. |
Now... I wait. Wait for my school to end and my new school to begin. Wait to get information from the school...wait...wait...wait.... and silently freak out that I'm moving to China in less than six months!
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