Job Hunt Frustration, Venting & Support Thread!

,

 

I like the idea. I'm holding out for results of 2 of my 3 interviews this week

 

I have been on 4 interviews so far. 2 no's (didn't really mind as the positions didn't feel great anyways), 2 waiting to hear (one of which I REALLY want). I have one tomorrow and one long term sub position one on monday. I also have one potential interview. I say potential because the status was changed to interview but I have not heard from the school at all so who knows. Its frustrating. I do not think I will hear back from the two I already went on till next week so just playing the waiting game. Sigh

 

For New York, I *highly* recommend NYS Teaching Jobs. There is a small fee - I think it was $5 a month - but so worth it. A couple of people at the site scour all the state job banks (OLAS, WNYRIC), online job banks (SchoolSpring etc.) as well as district websites, newspapers, Penny Savers and post all of the teaching jobs they find along with links to the posting. I saw stuff there I never would have found myself. Even though I didn't ultimately get my job through them, I thought it was well worth the money.

ETA: leaborb, I tried to send you a PM, but it wouldn't go through. I think you might be too new to the boards. I teach at a district in Central NY that generally does a lot of hiring. If you'd be at all interested in some info, please feel free to email me at topshelfcookies at gmail.

 

I just want to say best wishes to all the job seekers out there.

From an admin's perspective: Please do not despair if you don't land a position by August. Once the school year begins, many districts often find that they need more teachers and end scrambling to hire people. My district has 20 sites and I believe we hired 7-8 people in September due to our projected numbers being off.

 

Woof-not my best interview today. But here is what is frustrating. It was for an ABA tutoring position so essentially special education support. They asked me so many specific questions about dealing with certain behavior that I have never dealt with before. I was prepared for the scenarios but some of it was like have you ever had to use restaignts on a child. No, you read my resume, I have never worked with kids with sever special needs before....it was just awkward. I tried to put a positive spin and say I would be willing to learn and take additional classes but they just seemed so miserable to be there. Oh well. On to the next one.

 

,

 

Yeah it was for a really good public school district thats hard to get into-so I was like well that might be a foot in the door. But it was a frustrating interview.

 

I hate how slow some districts are! How can they expect to get the best candidates if they require multiple interviews with weeks in between! So frustrating--I wish it was a teacher's market and not the other way around

 

,

 

The job I really want is at a private Catholic school. I am waiting to hear about a second interview. It is required that a member of the parents board also interview each candidate. Can we say a little too much parental involvement?

 

,

 

Yes!! I think this school has an internal candidate in mind and i HATE that they have to go through the formalities of opening the interview process up to external candidates, like myself. If i didnt have a chance to begin with, dont waste my time and anxiety on it

 

,

 

I totally get what you mean! And I think that if everyone was upfront and 100% honest at the interviews then schools would be more likely to pick people that will last and not quit after a few years. I kind of agree that making friends with coworkers on purpose is pretty useless and can cause issues (i.e. gossiping, taking sides, etc), although if you naturally love your coworkers then that's great. I almost feel like interviewers would prefer to get the "positive" template answer of "i want to get along with everyone" rather than hear the honest truth of your priorities. Agreed though, we shouldnt be hostile to our coworkers, but we should definitely prioritize the kids. Almost makes me wonder what the point of an interview is if they already have a favorite, and if they don't want any sort of answer that isnt 100% sugar coated. Good luck with your search though! At least youll end up with a school that's a super great fit I'm starting my 2nd year of teaching this year and am still waiting to hear back. I mentioned earlier that i have interview #2 with the superintendent next week, but so do 2 other candidates. I hate the competition :/

 

,

 

HAHA i literally laughed out loud when watching that video. So dang true; especially the part about already knowing hes going to hire the boss's nephew
And I've never found someone else that also disagrees with tenure! I think it makes teachers comfortable with being awful, and it is basically there to protect bad teachers.

 

,

 

Yep. I totally agree. Teachers should have to continue to work to keep their spots and not be replaced by younger, better people. At the same time, I was considering, what's stopping a school from constantly getting rid of their older people (who have more years of experience and thus get paid more) and replacing them with younger, cheaper people? Probably that tenure.
And yeah; being an asian female in my area is pretty advantageous as the school im interviewing with is legit 90% white people haha.

 

,

 

.

 

Hmm. unfortunately most if not all of the seasoned teachers at my current school are stuck in their ways and havent changed their worksheets or lessons in many years. I kind of miss teaching in LA where everyone was young and excited to find new ways to teach things.

 

,

 

I'm not trying to be judgmental or critical... but if I heard someone say this (and I am that person that doesn't generally become super close friends with coworkers) I would assume they wouldn't work well cooperatively with colleagues and wouldn't hire them. Working as a team seems to be a really big thing in teaching right now, and teachers who can't work together aren't going to last long. It can also come across as a bit arrogant, so while I'm all for being yourself in an interview, I would be careful about how you say things as it's possible to say the right thing the wrong way and be totally ruled out as a result. Just my two cents.

 

,

 

So I don't know who else uses school spring, but I applied for a job and after a few days it was changed from submitted to received (meaning they have viewed it) and then the next day to interview. Great! But after more than a week I had not received an email, phone call or school spring prompt to set up an interview. So through school spring I sent the principal an email very politely asking if there was anything or anyone I needed to contact on my end to arrange an interview. Nothing. Still listed as interview, no word. Its been like 3 weeks now since I first applied. Do I love it alone? Do I send another email next week? I really like the school and its 3rd grade!

 

,

 

I could. I was more wondering if it would be overkill or pushy to contact them again. Or if I should just wait it out

 

,

 

,

 

Here comes the list:

1. Praise in a rejection letter...if I was a good candidate I'd be signing a contract.
2. No feedback on interviews weeks later, and not returning calls.
3. Interviewers who are late to the interview.
4. Being rejected for a full time job and being asked to sub in the same day.
5. Trying to bait a person into badmouthing another school.
6. Finishing as a second choice...well, this one is my fault

 

I think the school wants to hear that you know something about their specific school. There is a lot of information to be found on the Internet, so look for a program or something interesting that they do and incorporate that into your answer. I did a lot of interviewing last year and I always made sure I had something specific to point to, whether it was mentioning that they were 1:1 and teaching in that environment is a strength of mine, or whether it was that they'd just built a flexible learning space and how that connected to the way I run my classroom, etc.

Every school has something that makes it different than another. The school wants to know what that is.

 

,

 

I've been seeing more and more of that. Lately, every school is asking for a sample lesson plan as well. I like the idea.

 

I think demo lessons are a really good idea as well. I also think standard teacher interviews do not really help sites figure out if someone is going to be successful in the classroom. I mean, you can see if someone is quick on their feet, which is a crucial skill, in middle school at least. But most of the rest of the interview topics do not really help you figure out if someone is going to be effective in the classroom.

My site tries to hire before the end of the school year, so we can arrange demos in front of students. Demos in front of a panel are not really as informative.

 

,

 

I do think that school sometimes forget that we are assessing them just as much as they are assessing us. I interviewed at a school once where the principal pitted this girl against me during my demo lesson and had her make a bunch of rude comments interrupting me ("why are you so annoying"?) I literally saw the principal giggling and leaning over to the girl and whispering in her ear. So unprofessional.

Also, agreed that sometimes they need to prepare more for the interview. On the last interview I had, they asked me to tell them where I went to school and were taking notes vigorously as I told them basic info that was listed on my resume, application, and cover letter..

 

,

 

I think the schools realize we are assessing them but don't care. There are more teachers than jobs, so the ball is in their court. If we don't like what we see, someone else will.

That is the single most frustrating factor in the process.

 

,