How did you find your position?
It can be difficult to find a librarian position. First, because they are fewer and farther between than teaching positions. It is likely that a school has only one librarian. Some have a primary librarian, middle school librarian, and a high school librarian, but these positions are still rarer than teachers. Also, there are administrators who don’t think it is worthwhile to advertise for a librarian because they have received few or inadequate candidates previously. There are also many administrators who do not know the importance of an educated and experienced librarian as a professional.
Many teachers find positions by attending job fairs. If there is a job fair near you, it could be worthwhile to attend, but if you would have to travel in order to attend, it might not be worth the expense as there is no guarantee of librarian positions.
There are recruiting services and I found success with that path. Choose one or two recruiting sites, although there are many. It is likely that they will want you to enter a significant amount of information about your qualifications and request references from multiple referees. It can be time consuming and taxing on your referees, if you try to use too many recruiters.
Some recruiting services are free for applicants and they charge the schools for successful placement. Some charge the applicant a fee. Some recruiters will actively recommend you to employers, others will expect you to do the contacting and be proactive yourself.
Places to look for positions:
- Teacher Horizons
- Teach Away
- ISS Schrole
- TES – mainly UK
- Search Associates
Interviewing is usually done via video call/conferencing. The number of video interviews you might have will depend on the school. Some decide after one, others may have you interviewed by multiple people before deciding.
How do I investigate the school? How do I find out if I am getting into a bad situation?
- Check reviews at International Schools Review -it costs an annual fee, but it is worth it.
- Some of the reviews are irrational and clearly from someone with an ax to grind, pay less attention to these.
- Some of the reviews are written by the school leadership themselves to try to counterbalance bad reviews or present themselves as great, these will often be written like marketing copy and they will rank themselves as a 10 on everything. Disregard.
- If there are 1-2 recent reviews that are clearly written and not overly emotional, take these seriously. If they mark the ranking rubric with a variety of numbers resulting in a 5, 6, 7, 8 average, take these seriously.
- When you leave a school, do everyone else a favor and submit a rational and honest review. It doesn’t cost anything to submit a review, only to read them.
- Explore the school’s website thoroughly. Remember it is marketing copy, so you can only learn how they want to present themselves. Take note if the website is complete, up to date, and accurate. I’ve seen plenty of lorem ipsum text.
- Check the news publications and expatriate websites for the city/country – look for mentions of the school.
- Try to contact other school librarians working in the city you are considering. They may know about the potential school or the reason the position is open.
International School Librarian 