Call From a Recruiter

On the evening of June 26th, I recieved a phone call from a Canadian-based recruiting agent.
They called me up about a music education teaching position. They told me and I recalled that
I left my CV (Resume) with them since the applytoeducation.co m job fair I attended back in
April 7th, 2017 in Toronto. This teaching position is for a local Canadian international school
located in China, which uses the British Columbia curiculum, but they have hired Ontario
licensed teachers. They called and asked me if I am currently working and I said yes. They
know that I am in Canada which is why it is obvious for them to know that I am currently
employed in Canada. So because of that I was not shortlisted for any interviews.

The question is did I make a mistake? I mean I should have told them that I will be
available as of June 21, 2019 right? I am teaching music for a First Nations school
board here in Canada, I am in the middle of the last week of the school year and I
will still be here teaching music for the 2018-2019 school year. However I do plan on
moving somewhere else to teach in 2019. But the question is should it be China?
I worked as an EFL teacher for 10 years in 3 different Asian countries. 7 of these
years were in South Korea. Last year I was offered an EFL teaching position in
Shenzhen, China until all of a sudden I got a call from my school board offering
me a job here in Canada, so I took the job here in Canada.

As a teacher licensed under the Ontario College of Teachers, Now that I have a teaching
position here in Canada, this gives me an opportunity to get my foot further into
the door to stay in Canada and teach for other regular school boards. I plan to leave this
First Nations reserve school board in 2019 but if I have to stay here then I will. I really
do not want to return back oversease to teach, but going overseas again is an option
I will have to consider if everything else fails for me here in Canada.

Only you can answer that question.

Best of luck, whatever you do.

I think you should create a "Thinking aloud" thread.  That could compete with the rambling thread, I'd think. 

Let it all out buddy 

They have these things called blogs.

Personally, I think you should seriously consider it. If nothing else, you can at least do the interview, see what the potential job is like, and see what kind of package they offer. But honestly, you seem miserable every time you talk about your current job; like, you can't wait to run off for vacation in Thailand and get away from that horrible job. Maybe getting out of there wouldn't be so bad.

 There's no shortage of International schools in China. I got a job with just a BA. Even if this one falls through you will have a chance . Most of the International school jobs are in Wuxi and Shanghai. Your best bet is to use your teaching experience on the reservation to get your foot in the door to a career as a teacher in Canada.

I would stay put in Canada. The air,    think about the air, man.

I had to ask questions because you know, wise men take counsel.
As much as I would love to teach in China for a Canadian international
school, I am better off staying in Canada and getting my foot further in
the door to teach for other school boards around. They want Canadian
expereince here.

Chinese recruiters are a work, you think Korean recruiters are bad, they got nothing on Chinese ones. I wouldn't worry about this one.

If at some point you want to go teach in China in a Canadian program there will be plenty of jobs. Just be careful as teaching in China is more of a crapshoot than Korea unless you work at a "true" international school that only allow foreign passport holders to attend

I really
do not want to return back oversease to teach, but going overseas again is an option
I will have to consider if everything else fails for me here in Canada.

Stop setting yourself up for failure. If working in Canada is what you actually want to do, keep pushing towards it, even if you have to stack shelves while sending out CVs.
You have enough overseas experience under your belt. Going away again will only harm your prospects.

Chinese recruiters are a work, you think Korean recruiters are bad, they got nothing on Chinese ones. I wouldn't worry about this one.

If at some point you want to go teach in China in a Canadian program there will be plenty of jobs. Just be careful as teaching in China is more of a crapshoot than Korea unless you work at a "true" international school that only allow foreign passport holders to attend

This recruiter is Canadian based.

Chinese recruiters are a work, you think Korean recruiters are bad, they got nothing on Chinese ones. I wouldn't worry about this one.

If at some point you want to go teach in China in a Canadian program there will be plenty of jobs. Just be careful as teaching in China is more of a crapshoot than Korea unless you work at a "true" international school that only allow foreign passport holders to attend

This recruiter is Canadian based.

If they work for Chinese companies they still can not be trusted. I say the same thing about recruiters based in North America for Korean schools.

I really
do not want to return back oversease to teach, but going overseas again is an option
I will have to consider if everything else fails for me here in Canada.

Stop setting yourself up for failure. If working in Canada is what you actually want to do, keep pushing towards it, even if you have to stack shelves while sending out CVs.
You have enough overseas experience under your belt. Going away again will only harm your prospects.

This.

Pay your dues In Canada for a few years and you will be set.

I really
do not want to return back oversease to teach, but going overseas again is an option
I will have to consider if everything else fails for me here in Canada.

Stop setting yourself up for failure. If working in Canada is what you actually want to do, keep pushing towards it, even if you have to stack shelves while sending out CVs.
You have enough overseas experience under your belt. Going away again will only harm your prospects.

I am not setting myself up for failure. I am just bracing for the God-forbidding moment in case the bottom of the bucket drops out. It happened to me before when I was in Korea when they did not renew my contract because of
budget cuts. The same could happen with my contract working for the First Nations school board where I am employed. But I am not going to think negative, I will think positive but at the same time face reality. I am seeing
enough reality that is prompting me to not want to stay teaching on the reservation for too long. So to think positive, I will look forward to a new opportunity elsewhere in Canada rather than go back overseas. Even if I have keep teaching for the First Nations school board until 2020 I will look forward.

What, do you want us to convince you to go to China or something? Are you happy in Canada or not?

It's notoriously hard to get a teaching job in Canada, Canadians are always getting recruited in places like the UK. There are several schools in Canada that claim to basically be Canadian schools, and there's some in Korea that got busted for improperly hiring E-2 people when they were supposed to be licensed teachers on E-7 visas. Sounds to me like the Canadian school boards decided to make some extra $$$$ by pimping their curriculums out to Asian schools.

I used to know a Canadian teacher from BC who worked at one of these schools for several years because despite good qualifications she knew she could never easily get a teaching job in BC. She spent several years in China and I guess she liked it.

Anyway if you don't want to teach in Asia I would say don't do it, you'd probably just hate it and have a bad attitude about everything. Teaching in Asia for the money isn't worth it, you have to combine that with wanting some adventure, which was fine for me for 5 years in Korea but eventually I was done with having an adventure.

I currently live in China. I like it a lot. And there is nothing worse than teaching a pack of unruly disrespectful children. Been there, and done that. If it were me, I'd try China. But what do I know?

Wasn't it just Canada Day? Show some patriotism!

Seriously, with all the drumpf noise emanating from the US, Canada is getting its due, at least in the US, as being a pretty swell place to live.

China, on the other hand...

Wasn't it just Canada Day? Show some patriotism!

Seriously, with all the drumpf noise emanating from the US, Canada is getting its due, at least in the US, as being a pretty swell place to live.

China, on the other hand...

Well, you got a point. I am blessed to be living here in Canada. In fact I was in the capital city Ottawa
for Canada Day last week. So yes I am proud to be here in my own country to live, work, and play.

I do believe that this same recruiter who called me earlier this past Spring is the same recruiter that sent me an
email ad for a new music teaching position for a school (Perhaps an international school) in Dongguan, China.
I could be tempted to apply for this teaching position knowing the fact that I may be able to produce a better
outcome from students who are more compliant. But again living and working in China still has its drawbacks.

I do have my goal of leaving the reserve school where I teach, but I don't want to make the wrong move and
wind up unemployed next September. So if nobody offers me anything by a certain time, I will have to
stay where I am.