1st day of the IRC

I got there at 10am. The tension was palpable. It was the beginning of a long ass day. Mbh went to work and joined me at 2pm. I got the lay of the land and talked to teachers that had been through the process or were going through it for the first time like me.


First impressions...hella white. I mean I was keeping my eyes out for colored people and I probably could have counted them on both hands and one foot. I looked around and I'm pretty sure I was the only Asian male there. I don't know if that works in my benefit or not. Considering the whiteness and white privilege, I'm going to go with not to my benefit. If people complain about the lack of racial diversity at the regular old American school level, then international schools take that to the next level. Anyways, it is what it is and I can only do my best and hope for the best.


So the presentation that I wanted to go to early in the morning got canceled. I wanted to see a presentation on Saigon South. Then the next one that I wanted to go to was at 3pm, but Mbh came in so we just focused on organizing what jobs we wanted.


The whole process is ridiculous and does not get the eco friendly stamp of approval. When you sign up for ISS, you upload your resume. Then when you get to the IRC you get a list of job openings available at the time of the IRC. The list that was being handed out in the morning was not up to date. It was the list from the previous day. The up to date list came out at 7pm after the candidate orientation. A lot of the ones that I had seen on the computer were gone by the time that we got to the IRC. Then the ones that were on the morning job list weren't always on the 7pm job list. It was a paper nightmare. And of course people go big with their resumes and trying to attract job offers. Anyways, you get a list of job openings and then there are file folders labeled with countries and recruiters' names. Then everyone drops another copy of their resume along with a "love note" into the folders of the countries and positions that they are interested in.  Recruiters periodically check their folders and then drop notes into a folder with your name to request interviews with you. And of course when you interview with the recruiters you should have another resume to give to the recruiters again. Fucking absurd. A forest must have died and we're complicit.


The orientation that ISS had was not very helpful and pretty poorly run. During the Q&A, there wasn't even consistency about repeating questions asked by audience members. Then when the new job list came out you had to check for the positions that you wanted and drop any new positions open. Why go home about 9pm exhausted as fuck.