Oh, if we were to have all the insider information before signing a contract with an international school that has just offered you a job.  In theory, knowing the insider information about working at a specific school could be a game-changer and definitely help you make a more informed decision.

There are so many international schools in the world. Each international school is in a different situation. Even if you try to keep the most up-to-date by reading every review about the school you can get your eyes on, it is difficult to know exactly what it is like to work there.

But, the more you know, the better. Or is it that the less you know, the better? We guess that most teachers recruiting to work at international schools want to know as much information (good or bad) as possible; with a preference for firsthand information.

How then can you get this insider information?  One of the best ways is to have some communication with a veteran international school teacher. If you are already a veteran international school teacher yourself, it shouldn’t be so hard to find somebody who knows somebody who has worked at a certain international school.  The longer you stay in the international school community, the number of connections that you dramatically increases.

Once you find a good connection, he/she is more than willing to share with you what they know and answer your burning questions.  The connection shares about what life is like living in the city, all the ins and outs of what it is like working at the school, how the money situation is along with all the other benefits (or lack of benefits), etc.  

It would appear that there is an endless list of insider information topics.  This connection will most likely also tell you answers to questions that you never even had thought to ask.  The more information the connection shares with you, the more at ease (or nervous) you become. It definitely feels good to finally get some answers from real people who have recently worked there.

But for the newbies, who don’t know many (if any) international school teachers yet, it would appear they have a much more difficult task of getting this insider information. Maybe they can try to get some insider information at the recruitment fair that they might have attended.  There are always other candidates that are walking around the hotel common areas.  These newbies might even try to start chatting with some of the administration from the other schools.  You would be surprised how much the administration enjoys talking about these insider information topics as well.

If there is one certain thing, people in the international school community love talking about the schools they currently work at or have worked at in the past. Insider information is what we want to know and what we are all craving to know.

Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to figuring out some of this insider information about working at certain international schools, so you can stay the most informed as possible. It is called: “What insider information would you give to a teacher considering working at this school?“

Our veteran international school teachers have submitted a total of 657 comments on this comment topic (June 2024).  Here are a few that have been submitted:

“There are lots of lazy locals and sadly, the school can’t fire them due to Bolivian laws. School is technically run by parents as a cooperative school. School always hires an American head of school but they don’t care if they have experience. Susan Zapata and Jessica Gilway were both American women who had no previous experience as head of school and very little experience outside Bolivia…” – Santa Cruz Cooperative School (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia) – 42 Total Comments

“Jeju is gorgeous and quiet. BHA is busy and teachers are often there from 7:30-5:15. Most grades have 9-11 member teacher teams so you need to be ready to plan with a large team…” – Branksome Hall Asia (Jeju-do, South Korea) – 152 Total Comments

“Be prepared to wear some kind of bug repellant every day…” – The American School of Kinshasa (Kinshasa, Congo (DRC)) – 188 Total Comments

“It’s a nice working environment that expects you to work hard but still have a work-life balance. The benefits are not that competitive with other schools in Bangkok but you finish at 3.30…” – Regents School Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand) – 19 Total Comments

“I’d encourage them to take a long view of the school’s development. There are bound to be kinks when a school is growing, but management and long-time staff really do seem to be active at troubleshooting when faced with an issue. The community is warm and open…” – Cambridge School of Bucharest (Bucharest, Romania) – 108 Total Comments

“Local staff are most friendly and welcome and have an open-minded attitude to share your expertise and knowledge as locals want to learn. Learning from each other and sharing ideas is what makes this community so diverse and unique…” – Windhoek International School (Windhoek, Namibia) – 42 Total Comments

“You need to be flexible with changing schedules and shifting goalposts…” – Dhahran Ahliyya Schools (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) – 120 Total Comments

“Please consider if you would suit living here. If you love nature and an outdoorsy lifestyle and don’t need cafes, museums, big nightclubs and music festivals then you’ll be just fine. It’s a very social place…” – Cedar International School (Tortola, Virgin Islands, British) – 43 Total Comments

“Academic not at the highest. Poor leadership and many workplace environment issues…” – International School of Almhult (Almhult, Sweden) – 220 Total Comments

“If you have children, especially from grade 5 upwards, I would think deeply about whether my children can keep up academically in this school. Students have hours of homework each day, and there are a lot of academic expectations…” – BASIS International School Guangzhou (Guangzhou, China) – 34 Total Comments

“Depending on your subject area, there is a good chance you will be allocated classes not in your specialty or training area in order to “fill your timetable.” Examples of this have included people being placed in EAL, Mandarin, or in-class support despite having no experience teaching those classes…” – EtonHouse International School (Singapore) (Singapore) – 102 Total Comments