Job Search

A Series of “First Dates”

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I am on the job market.

And it sucks.

I am excited about the prospects I have and I am excited about potentially making the shift from high school English to middle school English. There is also an Experiential Learning job I am interviewing for today that has me really excited.

But that excitement is so short lived.

It has been a while since I have had to look for a job and know that I MUST get one. My family has become accustomed to food, clothes, electricity, etc. It isn’t that dire really. My husband is the bread winner–but we need 2 incomes like most families in America.

The job search is slowing breaking my spirit. I know it shouldn’t. I know I am an amazing teacher and that I just need to find the right fit. But rejection sucks. The going back over “why” am I not moving on. It feels an awful lot like “why doesn’t he like me?”

I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t move on in the process of my very first interview. I was nervous and made the mistake of being succinct in place of selling myself. I didn’t use all of my time wisely.  So, I learned. I got better with each interview—I think.

I have had 9 first interviews. Of those 9, I secured 3 second interviews and was notified by a 4th that I was not moving on.

Of these second interviews:

  1. I was notified that for 1–big city public district that I was moved into the recommended for hire pool.  This means that a building principal can select me for a building level interview. Still more waiting and possible rejection.
  2. I was notified by another that I am not moving on in the process. I was one of 4 candidates brought in for the 2nd round.
  3. Second interview is set up for first week of April

I am still waiting to hear back from 4. I know that I will not hear back from at least 3 of them until the first week of April.

But this is hard. It is hard because you don’t know what it is that made them decide to pass you over. Was it that I didn’t use the right words? Did I not explain something as clearly as I could? Do I sound too ambitious, too pleasing, too pushy? Was it given to an internal candidate and you were just part of the process? Was it really just not a good fit? Was it that your outfit wasn’t exactly right? Were they looking for someone with less experience? Were they looking for someone less socially activist?

And we never know.  We never get the answers to these questions. We just have to go on to the next interview and hope that something different happens. We just have to stop second guessing and be ourselves and be authentic.

That for me is the hardest part–not the being authentic (full disclosure–that is partly why I am looking for a new job. I had to be me and know that where I was wasn’t a fit). It’s the accepting that maybe my authentic self isn’t appreciated or understood.  That no matter my experience, my education, my dedication to student, I am not what they are looking for.

How do I accept that?

 

 

Tuesday Already

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

How fast the time seems to go.  We  had an amazingly busy weekend.  I did engagement photos for a couple whose wedding I am shooting in October–a little nervous about that–but I know it will go well.  And it was such a beautiful day that we went to the zoo afterwards and had a great time. Then a wedding–kids spent the night at grandpa and grandma’s and then Easter, etc. 

Thank you everyone for all the job hunting tips and votes of confidence.  Things are looking up.  I applied for a graduate assistantship this year and while I didn’t get one of those I originally applied for–all the student who held those returned again this year–the associate Dean of the College of Education has recommended me for another assistantship working with charter schools.  I am interviewing for that assistantship next week on Thursday.  I am hopeful–even though it is basically no money, it is the best thing for me in the future.  I don’t know any details about the assistantship but assume it will be a full-time assistantship which requires a 20hr per week commitment and I have to be enrolled in at least 2 classes as a student.  The good thing about assistantships is that they generally will carry through until graduation.  I am still applying for high school positions and a few community college positions that are open, but I want the assistantship.  It will pay for Noah’s school and for Zoë’s day care.  I will also be able to teach a class or two at Flo as well to help make a little extra money.  I am exhausted from the job search process and am hoping it comes to an end soon. 

The semester is quickly coming to an end and I have so much work to do–papers to grade, papers to write, etc.  I should be doing homework right now. 

Here are a few pics of our Easter day.  No, Zoë didn’t have an Easter dress.  We aren’t religious people and don’t attend church, so I saw no need at all for her to get all fancied up in a dress for an afternoon at my grams house. 

Facing Reality When Reality Bites

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

I lost the job to someone who had more background teaching the courses that the position was for.  I know it should make me feel better that I was qualified and I interviewed well.  But it doesn’t.  The job market sucks right now–even for teachers.  Especially for teachers of English in a city that has 6 colleges that pump out new teachers each year.  I was optimistic for a period of time, until I realized that a lot of the openings listed were not actual openings but only perceived openings.  Many districts have begun hiring teachers on one-year contracts and so each year those positions come up again as open–even though there was a teacher who was in the position last  year and is probably re-interviewing for the position again.  It’s frustrating when you look at a situation and it looks promising–lots of openings etc, and then the openings tend to be simple formalities.  UGH!

I know I should feel okay that I at least have my part time job at the college teaching and that if I teach two classes each semester it will cover our portion of Noah’s school.  But I really want to get back to full-time teaching and the market is so tight and there are so many new teachers who need jobs as well as the teachers from the disticts that are cutting jobs due to lack of $$$. 

I will keep applying and keep pounding the pavement and looking for jobs in all the places I can and use all the connections I have.  I am at least happy that hubby got a small raise this year and that his employer–Wells Fargo–posted a profit for the first quarter of the year.  His job is certainly one less thing I need to worry about.

Too Educated

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 6 Comments

The economy sucks and many school districts need to hire teachers but also need to “hire cheap” which means those without 4 years experience and without a Master’s degree.  It seems that in this educational environment where the focus is on highly-qualified individuals that it means not too highly qualified.  I am very highly qualified.  I hold both a BA and MA in English and my certification.

Public schools here and across the country for the most part have set payscales based on education and years of experience.  Well, my MA makes me more expensive and pretty soon I will be an MA+15 which makes me even more expensive.  It sucks because there are some districts with lot of openings but many of them have “hire cheap” policies and that leaves me out cold.  It frickin’ sucks.  Because I feel confident saying that if you put me in a room with 10 other candidates, I am the best choice.  I am not bashful to say that I am a kick ass teacher.

I want to get back in the classroom more than anything.  But the fact that I have a subject area advanced degree and teach at the college level–I am pricing myself out of my choosen job market and it sucks.