(What if I said you could get a ticket to virtually ANY OF THE 195 COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD by becoming a CPO … – … And it  is relatively easy … ??? Well that is what this website endeavors to help you to do.)

***  Clueless in Asia???

By CPO, From the Far Side of the Planet! 🙂

Yes that was me when I first arrived on the international scene so many moons ago… I found a job via this new fangled thing called the Internet in the 90’s and have never looked back…. but did wonder how to go forward.

I Remember it Well!!!!?! 🙂

I remember it well …. getting off the plane in a run-down airport, masses of bicycles swarming the streets, meandering dark ally-ed village like ancient streets and housing, maze like labyrinths of convoluted byways with wafting smells and odours from refuse, cooking or outhouses, coal burning heaters and cookers with smokey haze rising … scenting and coating everything with coal dust … strange foods that surprised with delight and street food with food poisoning … it was a different world for me …

The Dark Side????! 🙂

It is … and was a bit of a three ring circus when I arrived … from reputable private and international schools including colleges and universities to the dark side …. 🙂 . It was rather hit and miss back then and there were/are a lot of sinister or fly-by-night wild cowboy set up establishments.

I remember my first school was a smokey coal dust blackened affair with an assorted mish mash of teachers from around the world – America, France, Canada, Britain, Australia and the like. The accommodations were spartan with scorpions skittering across the living room floor from under the sofa … and cockroaches peeking out from behind the rice-cooker before also scurrying out of sight into the crevices and darkness …

The other teachers as said were a mixed batch of backpacker world travellers …. the drinker with beer bottle cases piled high to the ceiling spilling all over his entrance-way balcony, the playboys with revolving door girl-friends, the respectable ex-vet, a lawyer on sabbatical, a businessman wheeling and dealing on the side and some outreach minded type … light of the world folks … like me. 🙂

Finding Your Way …

A lot of that can be circumnavigated now by various means through the all knowing Net via ratings on Google or local city expat magazines that rate schools too etc etc etc. Schools can vary like the above mentioned to more upscale  5 star Cruise Ship / Hotel like schools whose tuitions rival Harvard!

But where or where to find such places? It is easy to avoid the dangerous places seeing their in the news or on your embassy warning list, but how to meet these excellent schools and find a job?

The Bad News!?

First the bad news is you will often need two years of experience if not more in the above mentioned dark world trenches in an overseas setting … then if you are lucky these mainstream international schools will interview you and then maybe, just maybe they will give you a job.

The Good News!

The good news is after you have paid your dues in the gulags of the overseas teaching world, things get easier … they know you are not a backpack fly-by-nighter police run-away wishy-washy wannabe international teacher – YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE!!!? :), checkable references, police check verifications, all your shots and NO fleas!!! 🙂 I am just kidding about the fleas?! …. Flea collar please? … Fingers-crossed!

So getting back to the topic of JOB AFFAIRS???? 🙂 Where can you go to find these 5 star international school establishments …. or for the adventuress even ones located in locations with terrorists, mayhem and national revolutionists roaming the streets with semi-automatics  …. You may not believe it but they are lining up to meet you?!!!

Every year!!! …. several times a year!!! … there are TEACHER Job Fairs all around the world as seen for different listings like the one/s below. Here you can size each other up with on-the-spot interviews eye-ball to eye-ballllll!? with your future 5 star CRUISE SHIP / Hotel International school employer! ? 🙂

 

 

ORRRRRRR … you can get a compiled listing of most Teacher Job Fairs … from the WORLD FAMOUS TIE Online 🙂 ….

 

 

Search Associates and TIE Online are an international teacher’s two best friends … they are like the TripAdvisor and Viator online travel agents of the international school teacher CPO world! 🙂

YOU WILL NEED TO SIGN UP!!!

 

You will need to sign up for them. You will NEED TO PAY MONEY!!! … to travel to the job fairs – but they are usually worth it! …. if you have what it takes to swim in the big leagues and with the other SHARKS, BARRACUDAS and STINGRAYS?! 🙂

The good thing about joining these two organizations is you can also post your resumes to them with possible follow online or by phone interviews … but alas we will leave that to another day’s stories

God Bless,

By CPO, From the Far Side of the Planet