"It's Not About the CV, It's About the Person": A Head of School's Honest Take on International Teacher Recruitment
Twenty-plus years in international education. Head of School in Seoul. Leadership roles across British curriculum and IB schools. In this candid conversation with Totally Teach, Tom Ferguson sits on the other side of the interview desk. He’s the one reading the CVs, running the interviews, and making the final call. He's just as honest about the process as the teachers we usually speak to.
Meet Tom
Tom Ferguson is a Scottish-born international educator who has spent the last twenty plus years working across Asia and beyond. He has led in British curriculum schools and IB schools alike, most recently as Head of School at Dwight School in Seoul, South Korea. Before that, he led an IB school in the southwest of China.
Over two decades, Tom has sat on the hiring side of hundreds, if not thousands, of applications- screening CVs, running interview panels, and making the calls that decide whether a teacher gets an offer letter or a rejection email.
We sat down with him to talk about what actually happens once a CV lands on a school's desk and how much actually gets read, what really decides who gets hired, where recruitment is headed, and where AI fits into all of it.
We believe conversations like this one matter- talking directly to the people living the international recruitment process, from teachers to schools. This helps us understand what works, and what doesn't, and how something we're working on can help.
The Ten Percent
We asked Tom for his take - out of 100 applications for one position, how many does he estimate get genuinely read in depth?
"In depth, probably 10%. Because a lot of the time I'm looking for keywords or key facts on a CV."
He's not being lazy about it - he's being efficient about what he's scanning for.
"I want to see the teacher training qualification or the initial teacher licensing. Some type of experience working in schools always helps. And I want to see that you're actually qualified to teach the subject that you're applying for."
Only once those boxes are ticked does a CV earn a proper read."Once you've got those, then we can go back and look at cultural fit and whether we think that person might be a good addition to the team."
His advice to teachers is simple: don't make him hunt for the important stuff.
"You've got to really clearly signpost the key facts, so that anybody who's time-precious can find that information very quickly, and not discard your CV to the rejected pile."
On Cover Letters
We asked Tom the question every job-hunting teacher wants answered: does anyone actually read my cover letter?
"Everybody wants one. Everybody insists. And again, to be honest, a lot of the time you just skim-read those as well. If your CV's not getting past the first stage, then your cover letter probably isn't going ever to be read, if that's the brutal truth."
But when it does get read, it can genuinely change the outcome between two similarly qualified candidates.
"The cover letter shouldn't just be a list of everything that's in the CV. It should tell me a bit more. It should tell me about the impact you've had. It should tell me a story about a child you've helped."
His advice: don't restate your CV, bring your personality into it.
"Share what it is that gets you excited about your job, and hopefully that'll come through as well.
Back up and complement the CV, rather than simply replicate it."
Taking a Chance: The Story That Stuck With Us
When you’re trying to match a candidate to a vacancy, we know that the best match might not always be the most obvious initial choice. We spoke to Tom about a time he took a chance on a candidate who didn't tick every box on paper. His answer became one of the most human moments in the entire conversation.
"We had a fantastic maths teacher. Incredibly talented guy, references stood up, but didn't really sell himself too well in the interview process. But we could see he knew what he was talking about; he was passionate about what he does, and his references said the same."
The hire wasn't without its challenges.
"I'm going to be honest, the parent community were a little bit reluctant and hesitant, but we supported him. We made sure that he understood the cultural expectations of teaching in the country I was in. Invited parents in to come and meet him and watch him teach. They were on board pretty much straight away after that."
For Tom, it's proof that CVs and interviews don't always tell the full story.
"People can freeze, people can not do well in conversations. They may be nervous. They may not get the cultural nuance between our conversation, and they may not look as if they would be a great teacher, but sometimes you just have to take that leap, and it pays off."
What Actually Decides It
So, what do you do when two candidates look equally qualified on paper? Tom’s answer: paper doesn't decide it, people do.
"You might find out that on paper, the qualifications look good, but then you might find out from speaking to the person that they don't fit."
He borrowed a sports analogy to make the point.
"Even when teams look equal on paper, it doesn't matter, because you don't play on paper."
For Tom, the deciding factor is often deceptively simple.
"Are you going to be the person that I want to say hello to at 8 o'clock on a Monday morning?
That's the kind of differentiator. Would I be happy with you as my colleague?"
His advice for interviews comes down to one word: passion.
"You've got to be passionate. I've had conversations with people where it's been very much monotone. Be enthusiastic, talk about teaching as if you love it.”
Should AI Be Part of Recruitment?
Like every recruiter navigating the industry right now, Tom has watched AI steadily reshape how CVs get read - and he's clear-eyed about both the risk and the opportunity.
"Nowadays, a lot of CVs are put through an AI agent to read them, and if they aren't hitting the keywords that the AI has been instructed to look for...a lot of AI rejects that straight away."
He doesn't think the answer is to reject AI outright - just to be deliberate about how it's used.
"If we use AI to properly filter and properly present candidates, that'll be a wonderful thing. If we use AI badly, and it ends up developing its own biases, shall we say, and discounting a lot of candidates, then probably not a good thing either. We've got to keep the personal element."
So, Where Is Recruitment Headed?
Looking to the future, Tom hopes the human side of hiring survives whatever comes next.
"I hope that we still have conversations with people in real time, and that everything doesn't become automated. Education's a people business, and if you can't talk to people, or if you don't have the opportunity to learn about people, that would inhibit your hiring success."
But he's also clear-eyed that AI adoption in hiring is only going to grow - and that the outcome depends entirely on how it's built.
"That is one thing that could go either way. It could be wonderful if we use AI to properly filter and properly present candidates. If we use AI badly... then probably not a good thing either."
Tom's insights reveal just how much goes into a school's side of recruitment. Managing hundreds of applications isn't easy, and it relies on teachers accurately signposting and capturing their relevant skills in their CV and supporting documents - and that's just the first step.
What really makes a good match for a school doesn't stop at qualifications - it's the culture, the person, the teacher who will say hello in the corridor at 8 am on a Monday.
It also shows that schools are willing to take a chance on a teacher, and that if you've been invited to an interview, they want you to do well.
In short, it's not about filtering people out, but connecting them with the right match for their school.
This is exactly why we've been prioritising conversations like this one; with school leaders, and with the teachers on the other side of the hiring table. It's those perspectives, gathered from people actually living this process, that have shaped what we're building next.
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This article only captures part of the conversation. In the full interview, Tom talks openly about how recruitment has changed over the past decade, ghosting, hidden hiring factors, CV red flags, and what he believes international teacher recruitment will look like in the years ahead.
Watch the full interview on the Totally Teach YouTube channel @Totally-Teach
And if you're an international teacher, keep an eye on Totally Teach.
We're building a new way to match international teachers and schools. Join the Early Access List to be among the first to find out what's coming:
https://149305307.hs-sites-eu1.com/totally-teach-ttm-early-access-lp
Many thanks to Tom for his valuable participation in this interview.