Whirlwind Job Fair in Bethesda, Maryland

It is late June, the end of the school year: time for the Search Associates Bethesda Job Fair where the immediacy of offers and the need to make decisions for big changes, occurring in as little as one month, heightens the intensity of the small gathering.

Senior Associate Sally Gordon, fair organizer for twelve years, encourages candidates to take full advantage of the event: networking, attending school presentations, taking the opportunity to meet like-minded people, and implementing ways to move forward should they leave without an offer. Additionally, she reminds them,

“Be ready to accept an offer and do all that needs to be done to tie things up at home because you might be on a plane in four to six weeks and off to your new adventure.”

Sally describes the experience as a pressure cooker that simultaneously holds a kind of magic about it that one would never expect from a job fair.

Strangers in the upstairs hallways of the Bethesda Hyatt looking down at the atrium below would assume that the guests attending the Search recruiter/candidate reception were enjoying a reunion or company event. They would never guess that those folks had just met one another within the last twenty-four hours. Sally attributes this to

“… the special sort of individual who is drawn to international school teaching and their ability to connect to others!”

Another reason for the magic: the swift bonding and empathy that occurs when candidates share fears, frustrations, and conundrums with others during the fairs.

Ever present, of course, is the personal touch, for which Search Associates is famous. Joining Sally this year, to support and guide all attendees, were her Executive Assistant and husband Bob Harnell and Senior Associate Ralph Jahr.

While the job fair season for the 2014-2015 school year has ended, and the Bethesda whirlwind has passed, Search Associates, with the help of our cutting-edge database, continues to connect the finest international schools with the best candidates.