As some of you are aware, it's been a crazy season for employment. Back in January, my current job became... untenable. So, in my last-minute/great-expense sort of way, I set about finding a new job.
My cunning plan involved a trip to Bangkok for a career fair. I had been trolling the postings for history jobs, but they were notoriously absent. Most jobs, as expected, were English. (Well, most were math and science, but that's neither here nor there.) I booked flights and a hotel at the conference venue (read: expensive) and actually found resume paper in Beijing (the Chinese are still new to the whole "applying for a job" scene). I even received an email asking me to interview with one school in particular.
And then, a few days before I left, I saw a posting. An international school in Beijing was looking was in need of a history teacher. The school was about as perfect as perfect can be, at least on paper (and we all know how that goes, but still). I wouldn't have to leave my friends, learn a new language, or leave China before I'd done and seen everything I wanted to do and see (and eat). I could stay in Beijing, but live in a Westernized part of town (but without it being in the middle of nowhere or being completely overrun with drunken ex-pats). For once, I didn't procrastinate. I immediately sent an interest letter and my resume.
And then, nothing.
No "thank you for your interest". No "thanks, but no thanks". Just. Silence.
So, I went to Bangkok. I interviewed with schools. A few were in China, some were not. A few had potential for some history, but none were straight-up social studies. So, I was playing more of the same: what would be my best bet to let me transition into a history job a few years down the line?
After some interviewing and some soul-searching, I accepted a position in Korea. There were some nice things about the school: it was on an island. A quiet, unpolluted, outdoorsy island. It followed an American curriculum. It was a real school, with real departments, and real cross-curricular collaboration. It was a new school, too. It wasn't really an international school, in the sense that the students weren't international, and it was an English job.
I got a few emails from my new school. I had some questions about the visa process, and received absolutely nothing in response. I got a list of books, which I tried to track down here. I was partially successful.
And then I got an email. From the school in Beijing.
And, although I knew it would be a big deal to back out of my contract in Korea, but I just had to talk to them. How often does someone call you up about a perfect job? I figured it couldn't hurt to talk. So I talked.
I talked to the Western administrators. I talked to the department chair. (That was a more informal interview, just to make sure that I would fit in the department.) And then I got called in for a third interview, this time with the Chinese administrator as well>
And then I got an offer.
And the real soul-searching began. Was I going to back out on my contract with Korea to accept the job in Beijing. As part of the agreement I signed with my search firm, I agreed to pay a $1500 penalty if I brokea contract. It was an expensive proposition, that's for sure. And I'd piss off the search firm and the school in Korea. But was it worth it? Would I survive another English gig? I would certainly go a better job teaching history than English, and that would mean better learning for my students.
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