What is your plan for the next time you recruit? What stage are you at in your life and career? What experiences are you hoping for in your next school, city, and country?
As international educators, we become accustomed to searching for new jobs and then transitioning to new schools and locations. However, if you were to explain to a non-international educator that recruiting means deciding to accept a job in a foreign country — at a school you have probably never visited — I bet you would get a strong reaction, likely along the lines of, “What in the world are you doing?!” (with multiple exclamation points).
To assist you in making this big, life-changing decision, we once again reached out to our trusted veteran panel of Amy Hunt, Rob Howe, and David Ross — this time to discuss how to make such an important life pivot.
Panelist Bios:
Amy Hunt is currently teaching Psychology and Science of Mind at Nueva School in the San Francisco Bay Area. After spending a year in outdoor education in 1987, Amy left the US at age 25 to teach IB English in Addis Ababa, where she met her husband, Lee Fertig. They moved together to Rio, where Amy also began teaching IB Theory of Knowledge, then back to the U.S., followed by stints in Barcelona, São Paulo, and Brussels before returning to the US in 2020. A curious risk-taker and boundary-stretcher, Amy is also a yoga therapist. She reads a lot, loves murder shows and pickleball, takes hikes and cold plunges, and tries to coax her three 20-something children to fly the nest.
David Ross is a retired international educator. He began teaching elementary school in Los Angeles, then moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with his family to teach at ISKL for six years. He then took a one-year sabbatical with his family to bike across Europe and ended up in Saigon, Vietnam. He taught for nine years at SSIS and coached middle and high school men’s volleyball. He enjoys SCUBA diving, free diving, playing in a band, pickleball, staying fit, and cooking. He has also been a proactive investor and proponent of financial literacy.
Rob Howe is a business professional and international educator. He began his career in the technology industry. After a 1.5-year sabbatical from work, he met his wife, an international teacher, and decided to become one. His first opportunity was in Jakarta, Indonesia, for two years at NJIS. He then returned to the USA, started a new career in sustainability consulting, and adopted two children from India. In 2014, he returned to overseas teaching. Posts included Beirut, Lebanon, Harare, Zimbabwe, and Saigon, Vietnam.
Our Guiding Question was “When putting your recruiting plan together, what are some key criteria to guide you when looking at potential schools, cities and countries?”
Here are a few of the topics covered in this episode:
Understanding yourself: Assessing your current stage in life and career, as well as clarifying your values
Researching prospective schools: What to look for and how to evaluate your options
Creating a recruiting plan: Listing the criteria you desire in your next school, city, and country
Defining your “no-go’s” as in the non-negotiables for your search
Unpacking of a great many criteria from our blog post, “Profiling Schools, Cities, and Countries”
Parting advice: Final thoughts and recommendations from our panelists
Resources mentioned in the episode:
Profiling Schools, Cities and Countries blog post at the Educators Going Global Info Hub
The show was recorded on June 19, 2025.
Categories: Recruiting | School Life | Finances | Parenting | Transitions | Travel
