My name is M.Elizabeth Sharma and I am about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime!  I am so excited to announce that I’ve been accepted for an elementary art teacher position in Cambodia at an International School! I will be writing about my experience as I transition from Chandler, Arizona to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This blog will talk about how I got the job, my journey to prepare to move, my time in Cambodia, and I will sprinkle in my own art and art education shenanigans too.

     So, where and when to start? That’s the question I asked myself when my kids were up and out of the house and I found myself single. So I began to research, which sounds easy right? Just hop on Google and go! But, as I discovered, a lot of international school review sites cost money and I wasn’t sure what was the best bang for my buck. Luckily, a good friend of mine has an Aunt who works overseas and she gave me three great websites to start at. She also told me to start early, since the recruitment season actually starts almost a year in advance. For example, I started gathering my paperwork in September and filled out my applications in early October, and was interviewing at the end of October and early November. 

     The three biggest recruitment sites for International Schools are SearchAssociates.com, TIEonline.com, and iss-schrole.com. I applied with all three websites and let me tell you, it was a long and arduous process. Before you even make accounts for these sites, let me save you some time. You need to prepare your paperwork and be organized. This will help you so much! I will list what you need below and then review the three websites in my next blog. 

     Here is what you need to have ready and organized: Your updated resume, a high quality head and shoulders picture, a scanned copy of your passport, at least three letters of reference scanned or in pdf format, a pdf copy of your teaching license, and at least four previous supervisors who are willing and able to fill out confidential requests for you when required. I also went the extra mile being an artist and I created my own website. You could also create a short introductory video, which was recommended for TIEonline.com. 

     I also went out of my way to make sure my resume was fresh and following current guidelines. Unless you are just out of college, it may have been a few years since you have been job hunting. In my case, it had been six years! I discovered that both Etsy and Canva have high quality templates for resumes and some are even free to alter and download. I used one from Canva and I had many compliments on it. 

     I am looking forward to sharing my adventures (and art) abroad and please, share this blog with your friends and family. 

Cheers! 

Elizabeth