The meat market

Let me say up front that the large majority of the people from both sides (interviewees & interviewers) were super, there were some interviewers who had a little overbearing sense of their power or position and there were some interviewees who seemed to lack a personality or experience. We met a lady (headmistress) the first evening (Sunday) that we were visiting with about the process and being rookies, etc when she introduced us to a gentleman (another headmaster) that she thought might need someone with our backgrounds. We expressed an interest, even though it was a country that we hadn’t at first considered. When you are looking, keep an open mind. Another hint is to make every effort to attend the education meetings before and during the IRC, we learned things we needed to know about the process and we met a couple of people who had been here before and they were happy to share their knowledge and experiences.

After we returned to our room, we got a message from another school (that had seen our resumes) that wanted to interview us on Sunday night, and since the signup for interviews on Monday didn’t start till late, we met for breakfast. A very nice gentleman offered good job matches but not a country we really wanted to work in, depending on our other choices. We tried to be as honest as possible about what we were looking for and when we could make a decision. The process is setup to make fairly quick decisions so we knew he wouldn’t and couldn’t wait till the end of the IRC for us, the schools have to leave (if possible) with their positions filled. It did feel good to know that at least one school wanted us, but this process is not like any other job search we had undertaken, if you snooze, you may lose, kind of like the “Price is Right”, do you take the job offer you have or try for something better and lose the one you had (take door number 3).

At the start of signups for Administrative interviews, we got in lines at the schools that we thought would want us and that we wanted to look at. Beware; this is a meat market, beauty contest, cattle call type experience (kind of like airport security without the metal detectors). You are going in mostly blind, to talk to a person you don’t know, about a job experience that may or may not be what is advertised. Some of these interviewers had very limited requirements, such as they only wanted a person with very recent experience or overseas experience and that was more important than whether the person could do a good job, etc. They really didn’t have time to look at other candidates because they had narrow requirements. Some others (the majority) were very nice, friendly and offered advice or help if you were not a good fit for their school.