I come from a small town in BC, Canada. When I went to High School I had the same science teacher that my parents had. People don’t retire until they must and that means there are not to many open positions in the area of my home town. Even in British Columbia in general there are not to many teaching positions. The market is oversaturated with constant graduates competing for the same limited number of jobs. I knew that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to work and not as a substitute or in some remote location I couldn’t even name.

So even before I finished my classes and had my degree I was looking at positions around the world. I wanted to use this as a chance to further travel the world. I knew that I wanted to go to Japan. I had travelled there multiple times before and I wanted to live there and really get a chance to experience Japanese culture and food and life. I also thought it would be a good jump off point for visiting the rest of Asia.

At the time I used a website called www.seriousteachers.com. I was lucky and got an interview with a school located in Edogawa, Tokyo. But I was lucky. The serious teacher website looks unprofessional and it is. It is mostly spam to users and applicants. I looked for jobs on the site and then I went to the schools website and contacted them through their site and not through Serious Teachers. It saved me a lot of spam. There are also many scams and disreputable schools on that sight.

A SCHOOL WILL NEVER ASK YOU TO PAY THEM FOR  FEES FOR VISA OR PAPERWORK IN THEIR COUNTRY. A school may have you pay for the fees that you incur while getting your documentation and visas ready in your own country. Some schools will reimburse you for this and some will not.

IF YOU HAVE AN INTERVIEW WITH SOMEONE IN THEIR HOME, IN THEIR BED, IN THEIR PJ’S, it is probably a school conducted in the same unprofessional manner as the interview.

Once you have narrowed down the list of schools you would like to apply for be sure to check out the website www.internationalschoolreview.com .  This website has reviews of many schools and gives you an idea of what to expect. The reviews are from people who have previously worked at the school. Be sure to read each one with a grain of salt, it could be admin trying bolster up the school, it could be disgruntled ex-employee, or it could be a fair review.

Remember that an interview if not just them looking to see if you are a right fit, you are also seeing if they are a good fit. Ask lots of questions. Get the contact info of a current teacher at the school so they can answer questions you may not feel comfortable asking the school.

If the school is new know that there will be lots of hard work and lots of ups and downs. It could be very rewarding to help build a school or it could be a complete nightmare.