From Break to Breakthrough: Phase One of Your Job Search

June and July are your most powerful times to pause, assess, and envision what’s next. Whether you're considering a change or recommitting to your current role, thoughtful reflection now lays the foundation for everything to come. Take these months from a break to a breakthrough. At TIE, we’re here to support you—not just with job postings and a job seeking platform, but with the tools, strategies, and frameworks to help you take meaningful next steps toward the professional future you want to create.

Start with Reflection and Build with Evidence

As international educators, the end of the school year often arrives as a much-needed exhale—an opportunity to reset, recharge, and reflect. But for those considering a change in the year ahead, this break is also a critical time. It’s about more than rest. It’s about readiness. With recruitment timelines creeping earlier every year and the process becoming more complex, those quiet weeks between June and August have become the most strategic window to prepare. If you’re even considering a move, now is the time to lay the groundwork, and that starts with building your Evidence-Based Portfolio in order to be ready to seek your next position. 

Why Now?

Too many educators wait until job posts go live in October or November to begin their search but by then, schools have already started screening and even hiring. Job searching is no longer a mid-semester activity. It begins with you, right now, getting clear on:

• What brought you the most joy and fulfillment in your work this past year?
• In what ways did you grow professionally, and what areas do you want to develop next?
• What are your non-negotiables for a school culture or leadership team?
• If nothing changed in your current role, how would you feel one year from now?
• What do you want your job seeking experience to look like? Will you job search independently or use recruiting services?
• How can you best represent yourself in this process?

These aren’t questions you answer in a rush. They deserve space, thoughtfulness, and evidence. That’s why these months can be so pivotal for a successful search.

Start with TIE’s Evidence-Based Portfolio in the Recruiting Portal

Traditional recruitment tools—static resumes, generic applications, vague references—simply don’t capture the depth and complexity of your work. The Evidence-Based Portfolio offers something different. It is designed to reflect not just what you’ve done, but why it matters, and how it aligns with the needs and values of mission-driven schools.

What Makes the Evidence-Based Portfolio a Strategic Job-Seeking Move?

1. Align your professional skills to standards with evidence.

The Evidence-Based Portfolio is structured around Standards of Practice for International School Educators, meaning your experiences—whether in social emotional learning (SEL), inquiry-based learning, diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, or program innovation—are grounded in shared, professional expectations. You’re not just listing accomplishments and responsibilities; you’re contextualizing them. Artifacts, reflections, and evidence are used to tell a clear, coherent story of your growth and impact on student learning..

2. Replace the two-page resume with a dynamic tool that shows what you do in your professional practice.

Let’s face it, resumes reduce. They flatten our work into short blurbs, often missing the nuance that matters most. With the Evidence-Based Portfolio, you present a powerful description of your instructional practice. Even better, you get a personalized URL to showcase your resume and portfolio. You can include it on your resume, cover letter, and in recruiting portals outside of TIE. It's yours to keep and take with you anywhere

3. Elevate the quality of conversations as you jobseek.

Imagine having an interview where your portfolio isn’t a footnote, it’s the framework for the conversation. Instead of answering theoretical questions, you’re leading with real evidence of how you design learning, impact student learning, use data, and drive improvement. The Evidence-Based Portfolio changes the conversation and sets you apart from other candidates.

4. Support your reflection and direction.

Perhaps most powerfully, building an Evidence-Based Portfolio clarifies your own story. What themes emerge across your work? Where do you find the most fulfillment? What’s the next step in your professional journey? This isn’t just about impressing a hiring team, it’s about understanding your own growth and readiness. That clarity leads to smarter decisions down the road.

What You Can Do During Your Break? 

If the idea of a job search is even a possibility, this is your time to prepare, not by panic-polishing a resume, but by intentionally shaping your professional narrative. Here’s where to start:

• Reflect: Use quiet moments to consider what you’ve learned, led, and impacted this year. Write it down.
• Gather Artifacts: Pull together unit plans, program initiatives, coaching resources, student feedback, student evidence of learning—anything that shows your skills and impact.
• Start Your Portfolio: Visit www.tieonline.com to begin building your Evidence-Based Portfolio. Even one entry is a meaningful first step.
• Plan What to Collect When You Return to School: As you build your portfolio and plan for the first weeks back at school, consider what evidence you can gather to demonstrate your impact on student learning—such as rubric feedback, student work samples, and more.
• Attend a Webinar: Learn how to make the most of this tool by joining a session and seeing how others are using the portfolio in their searches.
  • July 5th - sign up here
  • August 12th - sign up here
• Set a Goal: Give yourself an edge before job posting and interviews begin by having an active resume and robust portfolio early in the first semester.

Prepare With Intention and Job Seek with TIE

Term breaks rare moments in our professional rhythm, where we can slow down just enough to ask ourselves, “What’s next?” Whether you're planning to stay where you are, considering a move, or simply open to possibilities, the most strategic thing you can do is reflect deeply and prepare purposefully.