General information discovered during our search...

Peter has to analytically evaluate everything he does and he decided that he needed to conduct a year of research before he would feel comfortable moving forward with a move abroad.  Since we had applied to Search Associates we now gained access to the database of positions and the international school profiles.  We were open to all of the continents and almost every option.  We had a lot of homework to do.  Here is a list of general trends we found during our search.

1)  You can not compare salaries between schools in different regions.  There are far to many economic variables to just simply compare salaries.  Things such as currency exchange rate, cost of living, if the school provides housing or does not, significantly impact the value of the salary.  Instead, Search Associates provides the amount of money that can be saved annually as a point of comparison.
2)  Not all international schools are expat schools.  There are many schools that hold US accreditation but serve predominately foreign national students. You have to research the student demographics to determine the school composition and make a decision about what type of experience you want.
3)  The ownership structure of international schools vary.  There are international schools which are not for profit and others that are privately held for profit.  The employment experience can differ greatly between the schools so it is important to know the ownership structure.
4)  The more geographically flexible you are the more likely you are to get a position.  We discovered that many educators desire western nations and as result placement in those nations is very competitive.  To enter the system you may want to be more flexible and then seek your "dream" placement during the second search.
5)  Turnover is not an indicator of instability at a school.  Many international educators live in a region for a short period of time and then move to another nation.  Turnover is not uncommon.  Lack of turnover may indicate an ideal situation, but large turnover does not illuminate a bad situation.

Other factors also played a part in our decision, however those will be provided in another post.