How in the hell does my home town hire teachers with NO experience in their field over me with 3 years? I just learned yet again I was passed up for a job. In terms of teaching music I have worked in music as a performer, composer, and have taught at music camps. I play guitar, trumpet, and bass very well! I got distinction in University. Kids really like me as a teacher and I get good reviews from my current admin! I have excellent references. All I want is to work in my hometown!
People suck today. I want to punch my local officials.
Is there any way I can challenge their hiring process?
You sound like me, except that I’m in a community college teaching English. I am not aware of any way to really challenge this unless you can prove discrimination. Sure, they ought to hire someone with experience, but perhaps they want someone younger and more malleable. Perhaps they can also pay them less. Just my observations. It sucks.
What kind of education degree did you get? Like, the University of Regina has a special Arts Ed program where it’s geared towards the arts, so you’ll get two degrees, one in Education and one in your arts program of choice. I wonder if the students who do programs like that have a leg up? I actually have two friends in that program and I worry for them with so many budget cuts for the arts.
Plus I have a feeling getting a job in the big cities is harder than the smaller towns around here…
It occurs to me in retrospect that I don’t know you well enough to legitimately take your meaning as I did. My remark was quite unfair. My apologies, Rigamarole.
Do you have a Master’s degree? I was warned over and over that it might be hard for me to find work, since I have a Master’s, so I command a higher salary.
I was passed over several times during my search for a job as a music teacher before finally being hired half time (which is OK, since I still have my half-time university job). Found out later that one of the districts where I gave an excellent interview hired a teacher straight out of college, who happened to be the superintendent’s niece.
How did the person hired correspond to you? Same gender? Same marital status? Did he or she have children? Do you? What has been your history of staying in one place? The person hired’s history?
When I was in education, I also was turned down when applying for a job in my hometown. A couple of years later I talked to the superintendent who interviewed me and he said there were a number of factors that played against me. 1. I was single and the other person wasn’t and she had children which suggested it would be harder for her to pull up stakes if things got rough. Also it was a district that wanted more children coming into the district. 2. I was known, as was my family. There can be a history of toes stepped on you know nothing about. In this case the devil one does know is not necessarily preferrable to the the one that is not known. 3. Her lack of experience gave her a bit less jaded attitude than I had. At least that was the preception. She had that, “I will share my knowledge with the young innocents.” I was more, “I can survive them.” That sort of thing she had sells well in interviews in education. All that being said, she quit at the end of the year.
In my district, and several others I know pretty well, who gets hired seems completely random… There really doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the process. Sometimes the person has experience, other times not. Sometimes they hire long-term subs, other times not. We have so many candidates for each position that they seem to just pick a resume out of the pile and go with it…
The ‘problem’ with education, which I have brought up before, is that the consequence of hiring an ok teacher instead of a really good one is largely unnoticable…how do you know? Even hiring a below average teacher suffers from this. How do you know little Tommy could have grown up to be a doctor if he would have had this other teacher?
So, what happens is that people’s theories come into play and this differ wildly from place to place because there is no way to validate or invalidate these theories. What you end up with looks like they randomly pick a resume out of the pile.
However, the above being said, there are some commonalities:
Since pay is usually not so good and usually barely keeps up with inflation (if that) and career advancement is low the administration knows people will be likely to want to leave. So, they DO like to hire people that it would be hard for them to pull up stakes.
Also, they do not wish to hire more experienced folk because they would have to pay them more. Even if they didn’t have to pay more…I do believe some guilt comes in in offering a 20 year experienced teach $30,000 per year and so they don’t like to do it. They also don’t like to hire newly minted teachers because they haven’t been exposed to the fire yet. This leaves the ‘peak’ of your attractiveness as 3-6 years of experience as they can pay you starting wages but know that you have been exposed to the fire.
Administrators know teachers get jaded as they get older…they accumulate experience but not pay…and their attractiveness to new jobs gets lower. However, they do not want more of this.
SO…my advice to you (besides get the fuck out of teaching like I did) is:
During the interview you are married and have 3 kids. You are also the sole provider for this family. Yea…I know you might be single and haven’t had a date in 3 years…but if you get the job…show up saying your wife is divorcing you and the kids are staying with her.
ALWAYS show enthusiasm. NO NEGATIVENESS! “I can survive them” will get you cast into the garbage bin.
If you have more than 10 years experience teaching…prune it. Come up with a different history.
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I know the above is jaded but teaching is a weird field. Very few fields do you lose attractiveness as you become more experienced. Very few professions have so little advancement opportunities. Very few professions is it so hard to recognise differing talent levels. If you want to eek out the best you can…screw it and lie through your teeth.
And comments like “I’m sure your wife will have no problem finding a job nearby” or “We feel your children will be a welcome addition to our elementary school population” or “What size house will you be looking for so we can keep our eyes open?,” won’t elicit any responses from you that give any hints.