Have I skilled myself out of the market?

[ProfPru]

I am a teacher, a HoD in an international school. I've been thinking about leadership in my current school (there will soon be an opening), but have been getting the vibe that the barrier is that the subject area that I teach is seemingly hard to recruit for here, rather than my skills or experience.

Is that enough of a reason not to apply?

Should I just wait until I see an opening elsewhere? I think, if that is the attitude, I'm likely to have to do that if I want to progress.

Do you have any advice?

Do you mean that you understand you won't be considered for the headship in your school because you will be impossible to replace as head of department?

Not so much as HoD, but as a subject teacher. An not impossible, but tricky.

It's not headship, assistant.

Basically, we have struggled to recruit in this field to the extent that we've had to make do with non specialists.

Then you need to find a new way to recruit a subject specialist to replace you!