Ready, set, MOVE!

Could this be our future

The past six months have been interesting ones. I have had the chance to look at what my future might hold. I was able to witness a MAC grad from last year, search for a job. His objective was to stay in Michigan, so, he looked on website after website and tried to use as many connections as he could. His resume was very marketable, he majored in Econ, minored in Math, and had great recommendations and work experiences, but the jobs that were available were few and far between. The search started two months before he finished the program and began to look grim when public schools started back up again. He tried to keep hope alive while September lagged on. But after months of looking he had no idea where else to look. Finally, he received an email from someone who graduated from the same cohort he did. The school she was at was looking for a full time math position. He hesitated for a little time because it was not the location he wanted (Colorado Springs), but thought that it would be better to get one year of teaching under his belt than none at all. He applied. Sending his information to his contact, as well as, filling out an application on the school’s website. A week went by until he heard something. He found out that they were still up in the air as to what they were doing with this position and would know more at the end of the week, but they wanted to make sure he was still interested. He showed his interest that Friday by calling them because they had not called him. The set up an appointment for a phone interview the following Tuesday. It went well, they asked questions about his teaching practices and different experiences he had as a student teacher. They let him know they would get a hold of him the next day and inform him of how they wanted to proceed. The phone call came the following day around two saying that they wanted a video interview. I have heard that this is becoming a regular practice for job interviews if the applicant is too far away to drive to the interview. It was interesting to hear of one that was actually taking place. This interview was with a total of three people, the HR rep, the Principle and the current retired math teacher that was teaching the class. It went amazingly well because at the end of the interview they asked him how quick he could get out there because he had the job.

Taking this experience into effect is intimidating and exciting to me. I plan to search for a job somewhere in Colorado Springs first now, and am afraid that I may have the same difficulties as him. So by narrowing my search too much I might be doing a disservice to myself. Will that stop me from looking of course not? Will that push me to be the best applicant yes but sometimes that is not enough, so I know that I have to keep my options open and understand that it will look better on my resume to at least have one year of teaching under my belt rather than sitting at home waiting for a job to come up in the area I want it. It also teaches me that even if I don’t have a job at the start of the year, it does not mean I wont have a job when the year ends!