Recruiters are the first step in the interview process. Offering a positive, welcoming and respectful presentation of ourselves makes it easier to evaluate both skills and personality. It’s the personality, which is the key indicator and selling feature to secure an international teaching position. Of course, qualifications are important, however if you don’t have the right personality (warm, flexible, respectful and open) to make a transition, it would be a poor investment choice for any employer. Make the impression last – and make it a good one.
Each of us should strive for higher standards and more specifically, a high level of service from the recruiters who we wish to work with as we explore new options in our career. It is about loyalty. Loyalty goes both ways in the working relationships between recruiter and applicant -- candidate or member if the firm takes the role that we are working together on the same team. When we go abroad on these adventures we surely want a recruiter to work for us. There should be some assessment on the safety of the environment, and most of all, they are able to evaluate our ability to thrive in our career development. As explorers of new teaching adventures, we should have expectations a recruiter is going to advocate for us be it – our rights as individuals, salary, benefits, housing, family needs and transition support.
Avoid applying for jobs for the sake of applying for jobs. Interview the recruiter and determine if they will be able to support you in your next career adventure. If the reward for service is to sell you in the international education community, than be sure your career goals and needs are communicated, and the recruiter is working for you.
Candidates should never pay their travel expenses to attend an interview, nor should they wait over three hundred minutes pass their scheduled interview time in a crowded room. It’s disrespectful. Personally, if I am unwilling to accept such poor treatment in the interview process I would not recommend any of Tulip Canada’s members to accept such disrespect. However, the advocacy struggle is, the empowerment of choice. We all have to decide our level of tolerance on the disrespect scale.
There should be an expectation to protect our educators who wish to teach internationally. We may be working with clients who do not adhere to the labour standards and human rights in our homelands, however it does not excuse us from the responsibility to serve our candidates well nor help our clients adapt best practices to support the most valued resource – employees in satisfaction, retention and program delivery.
Recruiters should be able to guide their clients both in selling themselves well and delivering a recruitment strategy, which is timely and fair, both in its accessibility, and evaluation. They are being interview by their candidates and if they are not being interviewed be assured they are being evaluated when the teacher lands, and begins their transition in their new work environment. Again, make the impression last – and make it a good one.
Tulip Canada is honoured to represent educators from across the global, and for us, it is the embrace of their strengths both in their qualifications and experience but also, their personality. They have the ability to manage life -- its challenges with humour and grace. They are committed educators, teachers and administrators. We are working together on their career adventure with encouragement and admiration.