Bangkok is big. New York big. Bigger.
You could live here for years and not see all of it. My goal is to try and see a bit more of the city each time I come. This time here for two recruiting fairs.

Finally visited the Bangkok Hard Rock Cafe…I always need a pin. I did a little trading with the waitresses and in addition to my Bangkok guitar pin, I snagged ones from Venice, Stockholm, and Moscow. SCORE !!!!

From the HRC we wandered over to Soi 11. Parked up and down this street were volkswagon vans all converted into bars…some quite elaborate. Sometime after the sun sets, the vans begin to arrive on the street. They park next to the curb and set up. Everything is jammed into these van….Chairs, tables, table cloths, music boxes, lights…crammed to the gills they are. Once the chairs and tables are set up on the sidewalk, transformer-like the vans become bars….the tops lift up, the walls flip down to make counters, the bottles of alcohol are proudly displayed, music cranked up, lights turned on…they are ready for business. You pull up a chair, order a drink . . . no need to worry about a dress code or cover charge. Fun atmosphere to just sit, sip, chat, and people watch.
Nice thing about these bars…if it starts to get rowdy, they just pack up and move somewhere else.

Whenever we hire someone at the recruiting fairs, we always try to take them to dinner. We hired a lovely couple, middle school PE and Humanities, and went to The Blue Elephant Restaurant and Cooking School. This restaurant is in a century old building and you feel like you have traveled back in time . . .back to the colonial period. The restaurant specializes in authentic Thai cuisine. In order to sample as much as possible we ordered the Royal Thai Symphony Menu and the Royal Thai Banquet Menu . . . this gave us samplings of most of the main courses….Phad Thai with crab, Crab Curry with Betel Leaves, Pomelo Salad, Tom Yan Koong (A spicy and sour soup with tiger prawns and eryngii mushrooms), Tamarind Duck, Panaeng Nua (a rich red curry), on and on and on until our stomachs were about to burst. And then came desert. I was working my way through the samplers and saved the cheesecake for last. For those of you who know me as Cheesecake Bob, you know I had to make a comparison to my own creations. So, there it was, the very best for last, the cheesecake, perfectly cooked, an off-white, creamy texture sitting on top of that wonderful graham cracker crust. All were watching as my trembling hands guided this wonder of desserts toward my now salivating mouth. I bit down and began chewing. I expected mango flavor, perhaps lychee or vanilla. You can imagine the look on my face when I discovered it was Durian Cheesecake. I had to swallow, all were looking, or should I say laughing. Note to all: placing Durian into other food forms does not change the taste.

When the recruiting was done for the day and our plan for the next day solidified, dinner and touring complete, we went for massages to tend to our weary muscles. There is a plethora of massage places to choose from. Walk along any street and they will be there. Many are reputable. Cost usually about $20.00 USD for an hour and a half massage (Thai, oil, aromatic) At one place my masseuse asked where my wife was. I told her at home in Kuala Lumpur. She then asked if I also had a Thai wife in Bangkok. Thought that was kinda funny. At another place, one we had been told was very reputable, part-way through the massage I was asked if I wanted a certain part of my anatomy massaged, I think you can guess the part I’m talking about. I politely declined. I’m glad she asked and didn’t just assume . . .wonder what “Reputable” meant to our recommender??? Hmmm. I am not including any pictures of the massages . . . camera left in the locker.

Recruiting
The majority of our hiring is done at the large recruiting fairs held around the globe. Our school attends the SEARCH fairs in Melbourne, Australia, in Bangkok, Thailand, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco. We also attend the ISS Fairs in Bangkok and in Boston (San Francisco in odd years) We have been talking about attending the London Fairs and a large one in Iowa. . . we’ll make that decision later this year. While we are doing an increased amount of Skype interviewing, there is nothing like a face to face meeting.

These fairs are pressure cookers . . . for the candidates and recruiters both. The candidates are all without jobs. In the International World contracts are signed by December. If you are leaving then no contract is offered. So the candidates coming to the fair are counting on getting offers, hopefully to favorable locations. I think them very brave. The recruiters are all vying for the same top candidates, in essence competing against each other all during the day. Then at night over a beer we compare wins and losses.

After the registration day comes the large sign-up day. The ballroom of the hotel is set up by country with the schools from that country set up behind tables. Large signs noting the name of the school and the listing of openings are placed on the walls behind the tables. At the designated hour the doors are opened and in they come. At Bangkok it was over 500 teachers all rushing to the school of their choice trying to snag an interview appointment. Ahead of time, the recruiters sent invitations to their top choices requesting them to come to the table to sign up for an interview time. This process takes 1 to 2 hours. The rest of the day and the next two are filled with interviews, second interviews, and hopefully offers. Some candidates get multiple offers. They are usually given 24 hours to decide.

It is truly a dance. . . the recruiters and candidates moving across the dance floor. . . sometimes you don’t know who’s leading. In the end, you win some, you lose some. You lick your wounds and move onto the next fair. We hired one in Melbourne and 6 in Bangkok. Hoping to complete the rest in Boston. We take the hired candidates to dinner, get to know them better, answer questions, and toast to our success.

Stressful, tiring, sometimes frustrating, rewarding!!!!

Next year in Bangkok I hope to get to some of the markets, perhaps try a scorpion and grasshopper, tour the Grand Palace, and perhaps have some shirts or a suit made.

Til then I’ll leave you with a description of Bangkok . . . from the Musical CHESS, Murray Head and the song, One Night in Bangkok

One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a God in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel slidin’ up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the Devil walking next to me