We have had excellent success with Administrative placements this year so I suspect that we will be getting many more in the coming school year. Just this past week we have had our 4th Administrative placement out of 9 requested placements this year, with 2 finalists and one position still unresolved. That means our placement rate for Admin in Latin America currently stands at 50%, and our finalists rate stands at 75% for resolved Admin positions in Latin America this year! This might seem like small numbers but when you consider that we are one company covering just one region of the world, I would say that those numbers are pretty decent.

Usually Admin placements happen early on in the year (August through December) for the following year 2020-21, in this case. So it is good for you to get started now with registering so that we have all of your paperwork in place and at some point we can arrange a preliminary interview with you to get a feel of what type of school and countries that would be a good fit for you. We try to visit all of our campuses that we represent as it helps us to understand the school climate and who would and wouldn't be a good fit for schools. As a former full time teacher and administrator, I feel that I have a pretty good sense about schools and people and not only that, it is the way that business should be done. It gives me more confidence in our placement of teachers and administrators. 

Having said all that, you may also want to consider that in Latin America we have a unique situation whereas some of our schools (mostly in South America) start at a different time of the year which is called "A calendar" and they usually start around late January, but mostly in February and sometimes as late as early March and they go through November or December. This is also a unique opportunity to get an administrative position as many times there is less competition for those jobs due to the rest of the world being mostly "B calendar" except for places like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand which do not have a lot of international schools. So in order to catch these jobs you would either need to leave your other post 1 semester early or lay out a semester (please read my short blog post regarding this https://www.webbersed.com/posts/archive/8/keep-calm-and-get-hired ). Although many of these A calendar schools also do a good bit of their hiring in or around July and August, as they, too, have teachers and administrators come and go at that time so that they can get back on the B calendar schedule, also creating more opportunities. 

One other advantage to working in Latin America is that we get new job postings, including admin positions ALL THE TIME in Latin America. In fact, I just got a request this morning for an Upper School Principal/IBDP Coordinator (July 4th) to be placed for August or September and am currently looking for a MS Principal and a Curriculum Coordinator, all for August. It is one of the things that I love about Latin America. It has a bit of the wild west about it in the sense that anything can happen and does happen here. Latin America is full of adventure and romance! However, the other side to that coin is that because Latin America does not generally pay as well as the rest of the world, with the exception of a few schools, mostly in South America, we get many more young teachers and administrators here. This also creates opportunities for those who are looking to break into administration or further their experience. In general, educators do not come to Latin America for the money. They come here for the lifestyle or to get started in international education so you see a lot of people coming here at the beginning or the end of their career. This creates lots of opportunity for those in the middle of their carreers to get into administration or teaching a curriculum that they might not otherwise get in a more competitive market. 

But please don't get the wrong idea about Latin America. Maybe Latin America used to be the ugly step-sister of the regions in the world to work in regards to finding great schools and great jobs but if you look back at its history, MANY of the great Heads of School have spent a good deal of time in Latin America and even without having the same salaries as the Middle East or Asia, it still attracts some of the best shakers and movers in international education. In fact, I am recruiting for a school in Mexico right now that has a new high school Principal coming in next year and a Head of School the following year that I would give anything to work for. The school is not in the sexiest part of Mexico but if you truly want to advance your career with consummate professionals, this is the school for you. 

The last thing that I would like to leave off with are two tips that I think will be very helpful for those looking to break into administration brand new. First of all, it is much easier to get hired as an administrator at a school that you are already working at than it is to get hired as a new administrator at a new school. The old school already knows you and trusts you and they know what they are getting into. New schools are really not in a position to take that risk with someone that they do not know as administrative positions are obviously critical to the running of the school. The second thing that I would advise is that if you are coming to Latin America for administration, there is a huge dividing line between candidates who can speak Spanish on a professional level and those who cannot. I am not saying you cannot get a job without professional level Spanish. It does happen. However, you are much more at an advantage if you come with that skill or are at least working towards it. In fact, I think it is much more common for me to meet school Administrators who don't speak English than it is for me to meet those who do not speak Spanish. 

I hope that this helps some of you out there and don't forget to sign up on our website at www.webbersed.com early so that you can get in early to increase your chances. 

Webber’s Ed -  Teacher Talent is very proud to be the recipient of 2019 Mexican Business Excellence Awards by Latin America News as the Best International Schools Recruitment Agency in Mexico.

• We strive to put the “human” back into Human Resources with our personalized services.
• We live and work in Latin America, which is our only focus.
• We have made giving back to the communities in which we live a cornerstone of our business.       
• We work from the perspective of what kind of educators would we want for our own children?

Thank you for this significant recognition.

www.webbersed.com