1. Ajarn: This is an excellent site that has up-to-date teaching positions listed along with salaries and benefits. You'll also find information on living in Bangkok, how to rent a house/apartment and all sorts of other neat things. Ajarn is probably the best of the ESL sites that I have come across over the years.

2. Bangkok Mouth: This creative and informative site is run by an English teacher who has information about living in Bangkok as well as teaching information. Note: Like Stickman's site, there is a lot of material about some of the seedy parts of life in Bangkok, but not quite as explicit as Stickman. Super information about living in Bangkok. I don’t think that this site has been updated in quite some time.

3. Stickman: Stickman is becoming something of a legend in the Bangkok expat community. He is an English teacher who runs a popular web site with information about Bangkok and teaching. Stickman has a weekly column with information about current events in Bangkok. Warning: this web site has a lot of material about the "naughty nightlife" in Bangkok so if you are offended by stuff like this, you should probably use another site for information. 

4. Dave's ESL Cafe: This site calls itself the "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" Lots of information here for the aspiring ESL/EFL teacher including a job center and places to obtain a TEFL certificate. There are also forums for students and teachers. If you plan to try the English teacher route, you should definitely check out the forums

Finding a position in an international school is generally much more difficult than getting a job teaching English. The overseas teaching field is highly competitive and credentials are a must. Most accredited schools attend one of the main hiring fairs that are held several times a year around the world. You can expect to need to have at least two years of experience and a current teaching credential. Many schools have IB programs and want IB experience. Some schools only hire Americans, others only British or Australian, but generally you will find a mix of nationalities in international schools especially in the large ones like Jakarta International School, Singapore American School, or the International School of Bangkok.

International Schools Services, Search Associates, the European Council of International Schools, and Northern Iowa run the main teaching fairs. I only have experience with ISS, which was my employer for nine years. Fairs are usually quite crowded; teaching couples generally have an edge on single teachers as they can split up and cover twice the ground. Single parents are at an extreme disadvantage when looking for jobs overseas. Even singles without children are not hired by some schools. A lot of this has to do with housing considerations. You can find specific information on each of the organizations mentioned above on their web sites along with forms that you can fill out online or download. Writing directly to the schools is a good idea as it can help you pre-arrange an interview at one of the conferences. You can find more information about individual schools at my cyberbali.com web site.

Once you have some experience teaching in an international school, you enter in to a rather small world, and you have a good chance (if you're good at your job and have had good experiences with your principal and/or superintendent/director) of getting a job without attending a fair. I've obtained my last two positions this way: once by having a former principal hire me directly, and the second time by having him recommend me directly for another position. This route saves you the considerable expense of attending a fair, not to mention the hassle and stress that goes along with these cattle markets. 

How much do overseas' jobs pay?

Salaries vary widely in overseas' schools. Generally teaching English pays considerably less than working in an international school. English positions in Bangkok generally run from around 20,000 baht per month to around a high of 55,000. At the current exchange rate of about 40 baht per U.S. dollar that means you would be making from between $500 to $1375 per month - not a whole lot of money. As I mentioned before, jobs in Taiwan, Korea and Japan pay more, but have a generally poor reputation for the quality of work experience. It should be noted, however, that I am basing this on reports from the internet, which may be biased towards those teachers who have had a bad experience and want to complain about it in cyberspace.

International school positions pay more, but there is a wide range in salaries depending on experience and location. A rule of thumb is that the more favorable the location, the lower the salary. I know teachers who have given up $50,000 a year positions in remote or difficult locations to take jobs that pays $35,000 in London. Schools in South America and Africa usually don't pay as well as schools in the Middle East. The small ISS or company schools in remote locations usually pay quite well and have some nice travel benefits, but you can forget about going to the theater or dining out in a nice restaurant. School ads in the ISS and TIE newspapers often have salary ranges listed. In some countries, you have to pay local taxes on your salary; the school often covers this. Americans teaching overseas don't have to pay taxes on the salary that they earn outside of the country if they make less than $72,000 a year. A nice overseas salary would be something in the mid 40s range, tax-free of course. A major selling point of international schools is how much of your salary can be saved – if you can save 50% of your salary and still have a nice lifestyle with a lot of travel, then you’ve found yourself a deal. I know teaching couples that save $50,000 a year and still manage to have some incredible vacations.

Housing is a big issue for overseas' teaching. Housing is usually provided or at least compensated for. I have lived in small bachelor type apartments, American ranch style houses, and a really dingy flat in Pakistan and then in a much nicer three bedroom one while working at the same school. One of the most common complaints from international teachers is about their housing. (It should be noted that you might have some unwelcome houseguests like supersized roaches, ferocious rats, lizards the size of cats, and a variety of snakes and insects poisonous or not.) Some schools offer free cars, some will provide interest free loans if you want to purchase a car, while others have no transportation allowance included. At my school in Pakistan, we were provided a car for $50 a month which went for service, insurance and fuel costs. Health insurance is usually provided for and some schools offer retirement.

Are there positions in developed countries or only in remote or "dangerous" locations?

There are international schools just about everywhere in the world. All of the major capitals of the world have international schools and most of them are quite large. Jakarta International School, for instance, has several thousand students and hundreds of teachers. Remote schools tend to be small and serve a special population such as the children of employees of mining or oil companies. As I mentioned above, some of the remote schools pay quite well in order to attract teachers. Schools in Pakistan pay well because of the problems of attracting teachers to a country that is considered by many to be dangerous, although this is far from true. When you look for a school, you need to consider the cultural benefits as well as the financial ones. 

Most international schools have web sites although finding them can take some time. Some web sites have listings of international schools, but most of them are incomplete or outdated. International Schools Services publishes a book, which contains information about many of the international schools. Cyberbali.com contains reviews based on the web sites of many of the international schools in the Asia region. 

What is it like teaching overseas?

That varies from place to place. Large high-powered schools in major capitals with a student body whose parents include CEO's and diplomats tend to be fairly stressful from what I have heard, but working in small schools can be just as stressful because of close parent contact and high expectations and demands. I've worked in a middle-sized school and three small schools, and I've enjoyed both experiences. My own preferences led me not to want to work in the larger schools, but I know teachers who have spent decades working in large schools and love it. There are certainly many more opportunities for entertainment, nightlife and shopping when you live in a large city.

Generally, you can expect to have many of the same problems that you would have in a school in the States with homework, parents and administrators. You can also expect not to have to worry about gang violence, crazed people wandering in off the street, and all the other traumas of urban existence in the U.S. Some schools will have a large population of non-English speaking students. Drug problems may exist in larger schools, but are generally absent in the smaller schools.

Living overseas is not for everyone; it requires flexibility, particularly if you live in the developing world like I have. Problems with lack of water and electricity, poor sanitation, crowded public facilities, an absence of those special foods that you remember with fondness from your pre-expatriate days (like milk), slow or no internet connections, no telephone (one of the features of my village life in Sumbawa), difficulties buying gasoline are all part of the last 16 years. I’ve seen many teachers come overseas, stay for a few years and then head back “home.” For them, the tradeoffs just weren’t worth it. But, I haven’t regretted a moment of the past sixteen years, and when I say “home”, I mean this little village in Sumbawa.

The following are the previous articles Bruce wrote for the magazine:

• The Practicalities Of Moving To Bali ~ Thoughts On Living In Bali 
• So You Want To Retire In Paradise ~ Thoughts On Bali, Singapore And New Guinea
• Reflections On An Expatriate Life ~ Escaping To Asia