🚢 Every teacher begins to delight once May rolls around as it typically indicates that the school year is wrapping up (at least for most northern hemisphere teachers), and summer vacation is so close you can almost taste the umbrella drinks and feel the salt air on your face. However, if you have yet to land your dream job abroad for the next school year, May also becomes synonymous with an emergency situation, hence the “mayday” alert. But just like most emergency situations, there are systems in place that help “rescue” educators and relocate them to where they want to be.

🦁 This late in the recruitment season will now see many schools switching from being hunted, to becoming the hunters. For the past few weeks, I have begun to receive direct emails from many international schools that have come across my profile which is still active on various platforms. Though some of these emails are from schools experiencing difficulties (such as civil strife in their countries or in-house politics) that have prevented them from filling vacancies for months now, some emails are from top schools posting recent, last-minute vacancies. These direct emails can often inspire greater hope in a candidate because you already know that you have many of the qualities that these schools are seeking since they found you. Therefore, be bold in your response and put your best foot forward if any of these schools are a match for what you too are seeking.

🖱️ Another advantage to job hunting late in the season is that International recruitment agencies tend to ramp up their efforts to place candidates as well. My emails have doubled, it seems, in regard to notifications about vacancies that are still left on these job boards. These are quite helpful to receive because now candidates only have to click on the links that already list pertinent information about the schools and their vacancies without candidates actually having to log in and put in their own search criteria, thus streamlining the process a bit. It is almost as if they all understand that candidates are exhausted by now after months of job hunting, that they have over-simplified the process.

🐒 In addition to emails, my LinkedIn now shows international recruitment agencies and international schools alike posting “showcase” advertisements to draw the attention of candidates that perhaps never considered working abroad or working at those particular countries or schools. These kinds of advertisements help encourage educators to consider their options and capitalize on the fact that at this time of year, many of them are feeling burnt out and ready for a change. Who wouldn’t want to consider a job in paradise filled with warm and fuzzy animals, lush vegetation, and stunning landscapes as an alternate reality?

⛵ So, before you start thinking that the “working abroad” ship has sailed, be patient and let the opportunities come to you. Sometimes the most incredible experiences come out of desperate situations. Also, isn’t it nice to feel needed and wanted rather than undervalued and unappreciated? Helping a school fill a need might be the ego boost you were needing.