Senior Associates Nick Kendell and Harry Deelman welcomed 23 international schools and 58 registered candidates to the Search Bangkok-Spring Fair this March 16-18. Participants discussed 182 vacancies as schools finalized their recruiting needs for this year.
Bangkok-Spring is particularly appropriate for teachers who find Bangkok accessible and for whom the March timing is convenient. The fair often features around 30 schools, from an ever-widening list of locations, the majority usually from the eastern half of Asia. The fair welcomes Search-registered participants of all nationalities and all standard specialist fields in schools.
The event was held for the first time at NIST InternationaL School in downtown Bangkok. No large job fair could take place in a school, at least not in the excellent but size-limited facilities that NIST has set up to accommodate outside events. Bangkok-Spring and Search’s Leadership Fair each November are the perfect size for NIST. The school is also very close to several hotels– another great asset. Participants enjoyed an inside view of the campus immensely. Candidate Wu Xun emailed Nick and Paula:
“I would like to take this opportunity to whole-heartedly thank you for what you have done for me. It was a lovely job fair. It is the first job fair I [have attended,] and I had a wonderful time there. I made a lot of friends; I got an ideal job from the fair and lots of good things keep coming up. You made my day. Suggesting me to join the fair is the best decision I made . . . [in] 2018. I would highly recommend this fair to people I know very well . . . I am very excited I will be joining International School of Myanmar for the next two academic years.”
The intimate gathering made for some relaxed and congenial conversation, which was enhanced by the presence of professional masseuses whose relaxing head and shoulder massages helped relieve the stress of the candidates, recruiters, and the Search team! Harry said,
“It was notable how very high a proportion of the participants loved the fair and the great amount of contact time, with much less stress than is sometimes felt at the big fairs.”
Also notable was the presence of several NIST service groups devoted to positive change: FairNIST coffee, pRICEless, and Plastic Free. For example FairNIST Coffee is a student-led social enterprise launched in 2013 that has offered premium quality coffee in the spirit of fair trade. The group works with coffee farmers from a village called Maeramit, which lies in one of the less developed regions of Thailand, Omgoi, but is one of the finest areas for growing high quality coffee. FairNIST has been working to help the farmers improve the quality of their coffee by helping them gain better infrastructure in their community, thus allowing them to sell their coffee for a higher price. All FairNIST proceeds are put towards aiding farmers by providing training from one of their partners, Thai High Coffee, whose farmers provide expertise in how to process coffee.
Nick and Harry were grateful for the hard work of the full team: Paula Kendell, Zach Bethune, Nick Keam, Sophie Keam, and Lisa Keam in addition to School Advisors Margaret Deelman, Keith Ord, Mick Green, and Chris Green. They also very much appreciated the sponsorship of SCI/Lockton Employee Benefits, Expat Property Planners and Trinity Holdings International.
For more about Search Associates’ 12 unique job fairs held all over the globe, click here.
