The main sites – In my eyes

What they do for you

If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ll have heard me refer to TES a lot when it comes to applying for your teaching job abroad (or in the UK). TES advertise teaching posts from class teachers to head teachers to private tutors and applying couldn’t be simpler. Basically, schools all over the world post their job advertisements on TES including things like:

• The job descriptions.
• A prospectus of their school.
• Applicant Information pack.
• Application Form.
• School Vision and Ethos.

This way you get a fairly good idea of what this school is all about. My favorite thing about this site and it’s something that is really important is that they put you in direct contact with the particular school you are applying to. To set up your account, you fill in a type of ‘online CV’ as such and once you’ve don’t that, it’s automatically done for the next job you go to apply for. You then upload your own CV and quite often add a personal statement/cover letter. From the moment you click ‘submit’ on your application, you are done dealing with TES. From there, you will deal only with this school (if they contact you), cutting out the middle man/someone on a commission to get you over to that school. In my opinion, it’s the safest site to apply through and if thinking of moving abroad. Big, big fan!

What they do for you

The Guardian Jobs is quite similar to TES in my opinion. They too put you in direct contact with the school, which is a big plus. However, they don’t provide as much information about the school that’s being advertised. They don’t include any prospectus, job description etc so you’ll have to do your own research on the school’s website. Not a huge problem, but it’s not as convenient as TES with this regard. The main difference with this site is they display the salary on the job advertisements. This is something that isn’t as common on TES and something that crosses lots of people’s minds when moving abroad. You’ll get those people who say “teaching isn’t about the money” blah, blah, blah and while I agree, I’m not all about the money myself and love my job but at the same time, I am in Qatar to earn money. Therefore, having this displayed can be really useful when deciding which school to dig deeper in to for information.

Other sites- that I know of but would be skeptical of

What they do for you

Teach Away/Teach Abroad is a completely different type of site for obtaining your teaching job abroad. With this site, you set up a profile on their website and a recruiter contacts you! This takes away the opportunity to apply for a school you’re interested in. The job advertisements are very vague and unspecific to any school. You basically sit and wait until a recruiter makes contact, not the school itself. This flags alarm bells to me straight away because you’re then dealing with someone who has probably never even been in the country where you want to go, or seen the school they’re trying to set you up with. Their information is often rose tinted and very biased. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but I do know of many teachers who have gone over to the Middle East through recruiters like this and ended up having to leave their jobs within the first few weeks. I’m sure some people will have good responses and reviews of this site, but for me, I put safety first. I would only want to deal with the school I want to teach in, not a middle man who’s job is to fill positions.

What they do for you

Global Recruitment Solutions is actually a site I applied through 3 years ago when I was looking to teach abroad. I didn’t actually secure my job through them, but I did register with them. They send you regular emails with job opportunities in you desired areas. For example:

They also attach a document for each position, stating what is needed to apply and some details of the posts mentioned (not a lot to be honest).

If you receive an email with a job opportunity that’s of interest of to you, you email back with your CV and a picture of yourself and they take it from there. If you’re going to go with a recruitment agency, they’re probably an okay one to go with. It’s just a strong personal opinion of mine that I wouldn’t go with an agency, but not everyone’s like me! I do know a girl that went to Dubai through this company, she arrived safely and her package was as described, she just HATED the school she was placed in, so ended up leaving. But that’s not necessarily the fault of the recruitment agency, so I’ll let you make your mind up about that yourself.

What they do for you

Teaching Abroad Direct is yet another agency I signed up with years ago. It’s quite similar to the ones I have listed above in the sense that you provide your details on their website and then they will email you job opportunities that match your preferences. For example:

Now from that email, you can spot the vagueness of the advertisement. There is no school name attached nor any details about the school at all really. The salary range is very vast and unspecific. “This is a British International School based in Central Doha”…what’s its name? What year group is it for? What qualifications do I need? There’s very little details at all and no scope for doing your own research as there’s no school name mentioned at all.I didn’t realize it at the time, but these types of recruitment sites are a big no no in my eyes. They look at you as a number. A number that will fill a position that they need to fill. They don’t care about you as a person or what type of school you want. They just send out details and hope someone will avail of it.

Okay, that’s enough reviews for one day! If there’s a site or agency that you would like me to give you details of (or look into it for you) please let me know in the comments below. Alternatively, if you have any sites you’d like to recommend, I’d love to hear about them.

If you liked this post then check out my other posts Applying, living and teaching in the Middle East: the good, the bad and the ugly. or ‘Standing out’ from the crowd when applying for a teaching post abroad.

Best of luck with your applications.