Bangkok Job Fair a Success

[Tieman]

This is the last day of the Bangkok job fair. A few observations.

The fair was at the Shangri-La Hotel which is beautiful but a bit expensive. I chose to stay at The Ascott which is a very nice executive apartment less than 5 minutes to hotel. I had a beautiful fully furnished 1 bedroom for less than 100 USD per night. The room was 1100 sq feet with a full kitchen. The pool was excellent and the gym was the best I have seen.

I had a lot of early activity on my ISS resume before the fair started. I also had 3 schools I wanted to interview with. I sent notes to all 3 schools.

The fair started on Monday. I arrived and registered and got my welcome packet. I had gone out the night before to buy a Canon IP110 Printer to print some last minute items but did not realize they would have printers for us (first time job fair).

I went to about 14 of the presentations and really enjoyed seeing what the schools said and had to offer. From my initial research, I still had 3 schools I was interested in but added a 4th school to the list after the presentations.

The next morning at sign up, I went and met with each of the 4 schools and got interviews with each. I was very happy with this. I did not book any more interviews as I knew I only would work with those 4.

The night before the sign up, one of the schools, my first choice school, offered to take me to dinner and I accepted. I had dinner with the headmaster and the elementary principal. I enjoyed the dinner a great deal and got to know them really well. It must have been a very productive dinner as at their interview the next day, they offered me the position. As this was my first choice school, I was elated. They gave me 24 hours. I was handed an offer letter which I read in the elevator on the way downstairs. The offer was nice and more importantly, I felt very comfortable with the school and the administration and thought this was a perfect match for me.

I signed the offer letter in the lobby and told the school I was very happy they wanted me as I wanted them as well. I cut off all negotiations with other schools (2 others wanted to make an offer but I was given a deadline and it was the school I wanted).

By Tuesday afternoon I had singed the offer letter and returned to the school. I then took off the rest of the week to enjoy Bangkok.

Overall first impressions for my first job fair. I think important to do research before hitting the fair. I saw many people who scheduled 12 or more interviews. I knew going in which schools I wanted and I had contacted them before the fair. I was surprised at how many viewed my online resume and wrote notes to me asking me for an interview. I saw a lot of activity on my ISS Dashboard. This was nice to see and it felt nice to know that many other schools were interested.

First job fair a success!