As a Teacher, Should I Work With a Search Firm for My Next Position? | Niki Conraths | 6 Min Read

Full disclosure: Niki Conraths has been a contributor to Intrepid Ed News since its inception, and she is also the Arts Department Lead in the OESIS Faculty Placement program.

December 12, 2022

Questions to ask and why you need to prepare for a different type of interview(er)

Faculty placement in top independent schools has been handled by very few, long-established firms. These agencies only cover a fraction of the hiring needs of our 35,000 independent schools nationwide, which employ around 530,000 teachers and serve almost 5 million students. Why is there so little competition for such a sizable market like hiring? And how has that impacted teachers and schools?

Without question, this monopoly in hiring has successfully placed thousands of teachers into jobs since the late 1970s. On their terms. Revenue, their bread and butter, lies in the long-lasting relationships with established schools that float them a certain number of positions per year. It is no surprise then, that those agencies are more interested in protecting that relationship than supporting your change of heart. There are many more of us, the teachers, than schools willing to contract with an agency. The following is worth thinking about:

Agencies screen the…

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Nicola Conraths

Nicola Conraths has worked in independent schools for 15 years, serving as Director of Artistic Studies at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and as director of Comparative Arts and dance instructor at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Nicola merges her many interests into projects that connect unlikely topics, people, and places. Recently she has worked with New England Conservatory Prep School, Boston Ballet, YOLA/LA Phil, and SMOC/Headstart schools. Her newest venture, Das Surrealistische Büro, is a consulting capsule for tangential thinking. She lives in Detroit.