Job Fair News

What a long and incredibly stressful day... It was just like Danielle said it would be - you walk into an arena and are looking down on tables and tables of job possibilities... and they give you about an hour to sit there and stew about it.

At 9 o'clock - they opened the flood gates and the cattle drive began. I tried to hold my own, and talked to about 9 districts, and two charter school programs. I did two short interviews - as most of my top choices were not interviewing on the spot. I talked to people, handed out my resume, got some impressed looks over my CD (one guy asked if I sang or danced on the video - uhh...no - that would harm my chances of getting a job!), and pretty much am right back where I started. I've applied at three more districts than I originally did, but no real promise of anything permanent yet.

I heard and saw a lot of people very frustrated with how things were going at the fair, but I tried to remain positive - at least as positive as I could. I've got several friends telling me that it is a little too early for them to make any true hiring decisions, but I wonder if they are just sparing my feelings - as this is my second year to be down to the wire with no teaching job. I guess part of it could be that - and part of it could just be my fear because I've never dealt with processes like these.

In most job application processes that I've dealt with in my last 8 years of working - if you haven't heard back within about a month - kiss it goodbye... they hired someone else. So it's hard for me to sit back and just wait without knowing anything, and without anyone that I can call and pester for updates.

It's a very tough process, but I am glad that I went even if it wasn't quite like I expected. It was very surreal though - I mean an entire arena filled with people all looking for teaching positions - and it was really hard for me to comprehend that there were enough children, school districts, or classrooms in the city to apply all of us... and maybe there aren't, but I'm sure that more of them will get jobs than I could possibly understand.