After all the interviews I've had this summer, I only have 1 prospect left. It's a large district that just got extra funding to hire counselors. I met exactly a week ago with Human Resources. They way they did interviews with me was like this: April met with the counseling director of the whole district- she basically "highly recommended" me to HR. August met with HR placer person who said she reviewed my application and that everything looked good but she's assigning by "fit". HR said this in the interview with me (I've said this in a previous post so sorry for repeating myself) "I will with certainly call you tomorrow". HR never did so I called and emailed 2 days later. She then said she was reviewing my application and trying to find the "right fit" for me. She then was trying to see if I would be willing to go back to teaching special ed instead. I told her my goal right now is to get a counseling job not sped. Many districts have tried to do that with me before since sped is such a dire need (I'm not willing to do it with this district because on average it takes sped teachers at least 3 years to move from their current position and that's according to the director!). I think she may be trying to space it out for me to "give in" and decide to do special ed instead. I don't want to seem like a pest to her, but I need to know since this would require me to move all my belongings. Kids start September 8, and I believe counselors would have to be back a week prior. I'm going to call her tomorrow (I'll probably end up leaving a message since she doesn't seem to pick up her phone) but need to really choose my words wisely to not want her to try to avoid me. "Hi Jane. I met with you last Tuesday and I just wanted to check the status of placement for me for a counseling position . I want to put a deposit down on an apartment but don't know if I should do that this early or not. Could you please share with me any updates?" Is that okay?
I left a message today at around 2. All I said was "Hi. I'm trying to see the status of my application for counseling and to see if you found the right fit for me. If you could call me back when you get this, that would be great. Thanks." She called me up at around 6 essentially stalling. She said something like "Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I was still trying to see if I should consider you or not (nice huh?). We are right now doing temporary contracts good for a year since we don't know if the budgets will allow us to keep counselors next year. Is that something you would consider (Ummm while it's not exactly job security, yes!)" I said "Thanks for calling me back. It's just been hard because the school year is about to start and I wasn't even sure if I should look for an apartment at this time or not." She said "Oh I understand. I will call you back at this time tomorrow to let you know if I can find something for you." --------------------- This was basically on par with the interview I had with her last week. She doesn't have the best way with words. When I told her I really wanted a school she referred me to but didn't get she said "Oh yes there for good candidates for that school" (sounding like I'm not a good candidate!!). I doubt she will call me tomorrow since when she makes those promises (so to speak) to me, she doesn't follow through. Anyway, fingers crossed.
She sounds flaky but she DID call you back. Gotta count for something right? Hopefully she calls you again tomorrow.
Thanks. I figure I won't hear from her tomorrow. I just I hope I hear from her before I pay for LiveScans for subbing jobs around town.
It's a little after 3PM Pacific time. She called me yesterday around 6PM and said she would probably call around that time. No call and I doubt she will call me tonight because she's a flake. If I don't hear from her by Friday, I'll give her a call on Monday. Email is just not the best way to reach her because she is very vague. I mean the phone isn't much better but it puts her on the spot which gives me more answers. If it's a no, I just wish she would tell me because I feel like she is stalling trying to get other people ahead of me.
I am sorry your going through this. Your brave for calling her again on Monday. I am one of those people where I don't want to bother people (I guess its a good and bad thing because I may not be pro-active enough) She may end up saying that same thing to you when you guys talk again... Have you ever considered working at a College setting, as a counselor or academic advisor?
I know if I didn't contact her regularly she would forget about me because I'm very, very low priority. This is the only full time job I've interviewed for where there is somewhat of a chance since we are just assigned schools and do not have to go to each individual school to interview. I actually would love to be a college counselor at a college setting. My fault though was not interning in grad school at a college doing that. My plan if I do not get full time employment for this school year is to sub and hopefully volunteer at a college's career center or something. The only people in my cohort that got college counselor jobs were the ones who actually interned at a college.
It's almost 7 and just like I thought, she didn't call me when she said she would. I'll give her a call on Monday.
Thanks everyone. I got emailed all the paperwork and now I'm just waiting to get a call about my processing time. My start date is supposed to be September 1 but I seriously doubt everything will be done by then! Now to look at apartments and figure on staying at a motel for 2 weeks with my parents watching my dog during the week (I live around 2.5 hours away each way).
